protocols blog #1

PROTOCOLS BLOG
By Marc Levin
Sept 29, 2005

Hello Blogosphere:

CONTROVERSY! That's where we start. When I began the film “Protocols of Zion” I knew I was heading into explosive terrain. The film is provocative. I want all kinds of people to see it and discuss it. So I wasn't totally surprised when Lloyd Grove did a piece this Tuesday (Sept. 27th) in his Lowdown column in the NY Daily News headlined, “Zion' Guest List May be Inviting Trouble.” Grove broke the story that we had invited Malik Zulu Shabazz, Chairman of the New Black Panther Party and Co-Convener of the upcoming Million More March, to the HBO premiere screening and that Shabazz had accepted the invitation and was coming.

As soon as the story hit the papers the shit hit the fan. ThinkFilm and HBO were concerned about the possibility that the screening would degenerate into a shouting match or violent incident. Some in the Jewish community were upset that we invited Shabazz.

When we started organizing this event, I was asked to invite people who were in the film. There is a scene we shot in Trenton State Prison with a group of inmates. Some of them were members of the Nation of Islam. Obviously they were not able to come, although we are trying to arrange a screening in this maximum security prison. They work with a community activist, Emmanuel Avraham, who runs The Life Skills program, which helps ex-cons and gang members re-enter society. They asked him if they could invite some members of the Nationalist Movement to the screening. He relayed the request and I said OK.

I didn't really give it much thought until he called me a few days later and gave me some of the names he was in touch with. He told me Malik Shabazz was interested in seeing the film.

The ADL and others have identified Shabazz as a rabid anti-semite who has said, “If 3,000 people perished in the World Trade Center attacks and the Jewish population is 10%, you show me records of 300 Jewish people dying in the World Trade Center… We're daring anyone to dispute its truth. They got their people out.” (July 3, 2003)

That's the rumor I heard only days after 9-11 and it was really the inciting incident for the film. I was ready to take up Shabazz's dare and set the record straight: HUNDREDS OF JEWS DIED ON 9-11!

At the same time I certainly felt some solidarity with the purported goals of the Million More March, especially after the Katrina disaster. I have spent a good part of the last two decades making films about the war at home, the drug war, the gang wars, the prison wars, the race war…. So I was curious to see for myself what Mr. Shabazz had to say and how he would react to my film, “Protocols of Zion.”

I was under no illusion that he was going to have a conversion experience. He wasn't invited to be on the panel. He and his associates were simply invited to see the film and then join in the question and answer session after the panel discussion. My simple hope was that because the Million More March was 3 weeks away, this might be an opportune moment to modify the tone of some of the exchanges between the more militant African American community and the Jews.

There was certainly some tension in the air at the HBO cocktail reception before the screening. Shabazz and his entourage of about 10 people, entered a little before seven. We were introduced, exchanged some polite remarks and then he and his associates entered the theatre. The screening was packed and when I made my opening comments my eyes marveled at the true diversity of the crowd.

Afterwards David D'Arcy of NPR moderated a panel discussion with Rabbi Abraham Cooper, (Simon Wiesenthal Center) David Van Biema, (Time Magazine Editor of Religious Affairs), and Mehdi Elieffi, (Arab American community leader) And then there was a spirited but civil and thoughtful Q&A. Mr. Shabazz raised questions about who the real semites were and the treatment of the Palestinians. Mr. Muhammad asked about HBO's involvement in the production and my attempts to interview Minister Farrakahn. He also felt that the film did not necessarily disprove the Protocols. The exchanges were intense, heartfelt and respectful.

As the evening ended and most of the crowd exited to the dessert reception, Shabazz held court in the theatre with some of the press. A young Asian American woman from the AP asked Shabazz, "Do you still believe no Jews died on 9-11?" He looked at her while two of his security men stepped forward and informed her the interview was over. "Wait a second," she said, "I want to know if you still believe no Jews died on 9-11 after seeing the
movie?" "That's a trick question," one of his attaches objected. She was not going to be put off, "C'mon that's the whole point of the movie, that's how it starts and ends. This is no trick question. You are on the record as saying the Jews were warned and got out. Do you now believe Jews died on 9-11?" Shabazz leaned forward and said, "Honestly, right now I don't know."

Not a retraction but a move in the right direction - as they were leaving Shabazz said to me, "Thank you for inviting us. I know we have some serious differences. But I learned some things tonight and I hope we can find a
forum to continue the dialogue." I said, "I hope the Million More March succeeds in putting the spotlight back on the war at home. And I also hope we can find a way to continue the dialogue."

Then one of the other men he came with, Eric Ture Muhammad, approached and shook my hand and said, "I came up all the way from Alabama with mixed emotions.
But the moment I saw that picture of Che Guevera in your father's home my heart opened. The father son story in the film spoke to me and reminded me of my relationship with my father, Stokley Carmichael." (One of the original Black Panthers of the sixties who popularized the slogan, “Black Power.”)

In the end there was no ugly scene and there were no conversions - just a few moments of human interaction and a small step forward in a dialogue that is long overdue.

Meanwhile at tonight's screening at the Center For Jewish History (15 West 16th St at 7:30pm) I will be hearing more from the JDO (Jewish Defense Organization) - they are upset with me for letting the New Black Panthers and the Nation Of Islam come to the HBO screening. Their phone message, "You're a pathetic self-hating Jew licking the boots of the Black Nazis! Shame on you!"

It comes from all directions and now with this blog we enter the wild world of the web. Hopefully, I can give you some sense of what the journey is like over the next few months. The film opens on Oct. 21 in New York and LA and then rolls out across the US and Canada.

Comments

[DP]

What a wild night... Looking forward to the premiere.

[Ladymerv]

Sounds like a interesting film, and a step in opening up communications from all sides. Good luck to you Mark and keep up the great work! I look forward to seeing this movie.

[David K. Buckley, MD]

Marc,

Glad to see you haven't stepped out of the limelite!

Looking forward to the films release.

Congradulations!

Doc'

Wildlife and Combat Photography

[Tina Farris]

Good job! Tarik and I will be the Black folks in the crowd for your LA premiere.

Blessings.

Tina

[ct]

that's wild stuff, man.

[moshe liber]

חג שמח, שנה טובה
c.u in n.y.c
moshe

[Bob Zahn]

Marc Levin is one of the rare filmmakers who takes an active part in practicing "inclusion" in their work, building bridges between seemingly disparate and alienated sides of the same picture in his attempt to bring unity -- not division -- to a story. Protocols of Zion isn't his first work of this sort ... and hopefully there are many more to come.

[Damir]

This is a very much needed movie. After the 9/11 attacks the doors of hate have been pushed wide open all over the world and people are spreading the most hateful stories they can come up with. It is encouraging to see that people are fighting this rather than just sitting and hoping it'll go away.

[Anise]

this is a fresh idea and very interesting to watch this movie, I like your style and courage to bring all different people to deal with one issue right on the spot.

Anise

[Laura]

It figures that this film won't be showing in Virginia.

[Sharon]

Marc,

I'm living over here in Basel Switzerland, where people don't assume you're Jewish unless they know your last name. Then you get the whispers behind your back. Anyway, I have had people on more than one occasion look me straight in the eye and tell me that no Jews died in the Trade Towers. How can I get ahold of your movie to show over here?

[Lorraine Sherman]

Just saw this movie in Paris where a friend recently said that if I didn't see it she'd not speak to me again. It is a "must" - for every Jew and for every non-Jew. All the e-mails I send anyplace in the world in the coming days and weeks will recommend the film.
Thank you for making it; it undoubtedly took great courage on your part, on your father's and on the part of many who participated
Lorraine

[Jack]

As horrible it is to see the institutionalized denial of the Holocaust, the act of denying the other to mourn his loss and legitimately experience his suffering...

I am sorry, but I don't understand why Jewish leaders and the Israeli government for the most part are aiding Turkey in its own instutionalized denial of the Armenian Genocide.

I don't understand why Israel not only stands by and watches the encirclement of Armenians by Turkey and its allies, but that Israel also aids the perpretrator of the Genocide to commit further genocide, and not only on Armenians but on others such as the Kurds.

I would love to feel unreserved compassion and would certainly like to see the hate gone.

Unfortunately, hypocrisy does not do away with hate. Current Jewish behavior is the equivalent of putting out the fire with methane.

Perhaps there is a feeling of hate among Jews toward us Armenians, who have ironically never persecuted Jews in our history as a nation. Would you have liked for Armenians to have persecuted you, enslaved you, threatened you, as Turks actually have done in the past, in order to have earned your respect?

Armenians were also the ones to grant safe haven to another Jewish sect, the Christians when they too were being persecuted.

I suppose, when looking back at history, we learn that charlatans, murderers, and hypocrites always have the loudest "protesting" voices but are also less cause for deliverance.

We have also learned that some victims seem to have taken on the traits of their former assailants.

Mr. Levin, if you are reading this, if indeed Jews are taught only to love, then please explain why the Yeshiva students in Jerusalem have this curious habit of spitting on Armenian archbishops.

[John Reisner]

This has just been shown in Australia, although I missed some of the beginning.

Whilst it may be a fruitful area of commercial enterprise and self-glorification, this film is largely an exercise in either gross opportunistic cynicism or hopelessly stupid naivety.

The film is based on an entirely false premise that Nazis, Arabs, conspiracists etc. share the same philosophical space with the rest of us. They clearly do not. To attempt to deny something that has no credence in the first place is to elevate the proposition to a point of completely undeserved legitimacy.

Levin makes the false presumption (whether knowingly or otherwise) that these people are just sincerely confused or mistaken and that if the truth or facts demonstrate the error of their ways they will recant. Nothing could be more idiotic or futile. If someone wants to believe the earth is flat what's the point of arguing with them unless you are prepared to concede that the earth is indeed flat if they happen to argue better than you?

That is why Holocaust denial will never be debated by a serious historian; that is why this crap cannot be debated with its advocates because it is prima facie false. Unlike the rest of us their belief systems are non-falsifiable no matter how much proof or reason is expounded. They occupy a different parallel universe when it comes to Jews; and stupid or opportunistic Jews like Levin think that these beliefs spring from some sincere error of reasoning or fact. They are entirely wilfull in their beliefs. Thats what they WANT to believe DESPITE reality. What's the point of talking with people like that?

When it is demonstrated that hundreds of Jews died on 9/11, the response is "we have to do more research on this" - meaning they have to come up with another, more sophisticated proposition to support our hatreds/agenda.

Levin's typical diaspora sheepishness is shown. Although willing to verbally spar with Nazis over the radio he showed no inclination to do the same with the arab mob or with the one arab who thinks Israelis are open season for him. The mob was justifying arab terrorism against Jews, Levin should have asked that if they considered every Jew a target why do they complain if every arab is also a target? Arabs consider justice as their personal property. Americans should feel threatened by the presence of such people in their midst. Maybe that was the point, I don't know.

The film is philosphically and morally flawed and Levin, like most hollywood types, lacks both the intellectual and philosophical perspicacity to even make that call.

Fun to watch the crazies and arabs bury themselves but cringe at the incredibly stupid Jewish victimhood responsas.

On balance it indicates Levin's problems with being Jewish along with, no doubt, alot of other US Jews - "the why don't you love me?" complex. A "Jew-boy's" response to something a self-assured Jew would not even bother with. Jews have real enemies, accept it, you ain't going to "win them over" (and who would want to?)- so get over it.

[sj factor]

well i am from australia as well, and i think john reisners comments both harsh and unfair. As a jew living in a rural Autralian town that is entrenched in ultra left wing values and a haven for conspiracy thoerists,i find myself faced with anti-semitism disguised as anti-zionism on a daily basis. I remeber walking into my rural university campus one day only to find the central plaza area plastered with swastikas, and anti zoinist, jewish slogans. In university classes i am faced with constant jewish conspiracy theories from supposedly tolerent, educated young citizens of Autralia. What Levin's movie achieves is to at least dispel some of these ingrained myths and shed light onto baseless conspiracy thoeires and expose anti-semetic attitudes.At the root of all racisn and bigotry is an underlying ignorance. The only way ignorance can be thwarted is by informing. Levin's movie achieves that if nothing else. If it has informed one person previously ignorent and therefore supceptable to racist propaganda then it has acheived a great deal! It is a nesessity in my mind to always have a strong voice and not be silenced by fear and complacancy. So thankyou Marc Levin, for being the one with the courage to inform us all.