Physical Address
Indirizzo: Via Mario Greco 60, Buttigliera Alta, 10090, Torino, Italy
“this is how The Battle of Algiers inspires us! »
Ed Rampell at The New Republic:
Ed Rampell is an American film historian and critic based in Los Angeles, author of Progressive Hollywood: A People’s Film History of the United States in which he interviewed numerous figures from the world of cinema, such as producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Robert Greenwald, or even actors including Jack Nicholson,
Isn’t the reference to the struggle of the Algerian people for their liberation loaded with meaning? Are we not in the presence of a revolutionary process of which students are the vanguard in the United States?
It’s hard to say. In ”The Wretched of the Earth”, Frantz Fanon spoke of spontaneity: its strength and its weakness. Will the student revolt trigger the creation of a national organization? Or will it remain a single cause, the excitement of which will die out when (if?) the war in Gaza ends and/or when the students graduate and leave the campus? If an organization is created, will it become intersectional and reach out to other sectors of the masses, the working class, and embrace other causes around the common interests of all the oppressed?
Listen comrade, I have predicted the Revolution every year since 1969 – and I am still waiting. LOL! We cannot predict the future.
You are interested in the works of Frantz Fanon. What does Frantz Fanon mean to you?
I have lived in the Pacific Islands for over 23 years and, with the possible exception of the Caribbean, Oceania is the last geographic region on the planet dominated by colonialism.
I am not talking about imperialism, but old-fashioned colonialism, like Algeria before its independence.
Fanon is best remembered for ”The Wretched of the Earth”, which is, without a doubt, the Bible of Third World liberation.
However, his 1952 book, ‘Black Skin, White Masks’, is also brilliant in the way it describes and analyzes the effects of colonialism and racism on human psychology, on the soul.
For example, in the workplace in Hawaii, native Hawaiians speak “standard English”, but among themselves and with other inhabitants, they speak pidgin English (editor’s note: language made up of a mixture of terms belonging to different languages) – although most of them can no longer speak or understand the Hawaiian language as such.
Under colonialism, indigenous islanders assume a persona that masks their authentic inner selves, in order to conform to the expectations set by the dominant colonial “other,” in an effort to survive, to move forward and escape from it. to go out. It’s heartbreaking to be
witness, and Fanon put his finger on it. I am currently reading Adam Shatz’s excellent book, 2024 The ”Rebel’s Clinic”, ”The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon”. Highly recommended.
Why, in your opinion, does the United States unconditionally support Israel in the genocide it is inflicting on the Palestinians?
The question is complex. On the one hand, the United States and Israel have one thing in common: they are two white-dominated colonial states.
In this light, the Palestinians are to the ultra-militarist pro-Zionists what the “Indians” were to the pale faces of the “Wild West.”
Still according to Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/world/pressure-rises-biden-democrats-reject-aipac-funds-2024-03-12/): “Biden, former vice-president and senator, has since long one of the top beneficiaries of the pro-Israel lobby, having received more than $5.2 million in support over the past 34 years, the highest amount of any congressional grantee, according to OpenSecrets.
On the other hand, Jews have been a persecuted minority for centuries, particularly during the Holocaust.
There is a feeling that all people deserve a homeland, especially those who suffered from genocide.
However, the Palestinians had absolutely nothing to do with the Nazis’ “final solution of the Jewish question” – it was the white-skinned Aryan Europeans who did it.
A people can deserve a homeland, but not at the expense of others who can trace their ancestral roots to the same territory.
You have written some very interesting articles and a book on Hollywood Progressive Hollywood in which you conducted interviews with great directors and well-known actors. How do you explain the decline of the left movement in Hollywood?
I don’t agree with your hypothesis. Rustin is a fabulous biopic about how a black socialist helped organize the famous March on Washington in 1963. ”Civil War,” which you mentioned and which was a box office success, doesn’t is not a left-wing film per se but, as you point out, it raises important questions about the political situation in the United States. Oppenheimer was flawed, but he strongly opposed the anti-communist Red Scare of the 1950s, and the film won academic awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
”I Am Gitmo”, the recently released Cinéma Libre film, is a shocking revelation about the torture of Muslims by the United States at Guantanamo Bay. Socialist Ken Loach’s latest film, ”The Old Oak,” about Syrian refugees in Britain, was recently released in the United States.
Many progressive documentaries are also being released, such as “Israelism,” a hard-hitting critique of the “Israel good or bad” view among American Jews.
”Beyond Bars,” by Robert Greenwald, traces the story of the left-wing San Francisco prosecutor, who was raised by former members of the militant Weather Underground movement.
”A Double Life” features a New Left fugitive who was wrongly accused of participating in the fatal San Quentin prison shooting involving Black Panther George Jackson. Stamped from the Beginning: ”The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America,” based on the 2016 book by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, is an exceptional film available on Netflix.
Radioactive: ”The Women of Three Mile Island” deals with women’s resistance to the 1979 nuclear disaster in Pennsylvania, which resulted in radiation poisoning. A number of documentaries on the January 6 attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power and on the American far right are in the works. The Danish film Christoffer Guldbrandsen, ”A Storm Foretold-Roger Stone and Die”, was released in the United States, while ”Against All Enemies”, by Sebastian Junger and Charlie Sadoff, exposes the role of veterans of American fighting in far-right militias. Finally, the great Oliver Stone is preparing a documentary on the left-wing Brazilian president, Lula.
As much as we see a major protest movement among students in American universities who support the Palestinian cause, we are witnessing a great silence in the world of cinema, particularly in Hollywood, with a few rare exceptions. How do you explain it?
In line with the above, I disagree with your hypothesis. There have always been conscientious filmmakers in Hollywood and there always will be.
You are very interested in Algeria and its history, and in addition to being a historian, you are a very good film critic. Wouldn’t all this encourage you to work on Algerian cinema one day? Your expertise would in any case be welcome in Algeria.
Thanks for the compliment. If Algeria would like to give me the opportunity to visit your country and study your film industry, I will be delighted. I could write a lot about Algerian cinema for my American publications – maybe even do another book on the history of cinema. I’d like to see what Algeria, the country that gave us the classics ”The Battle of Algiers” and Costa-Gavras’ ”Z,” has done with films – and what you have done with 62 years of independence! Invite me and I will come.
(Continuation and end)
Interview conducted by
Mohsen Abdelmoumen