Stand firm against the "contextualization'' of the Armenian Genocide by PBS
Mar 09, 2006
Bloomberg
[...]
{Rachel} Corrie, an idealistic 23-year-old from the state of Washington, died in March 2003 when an Israeli Defense Forces bulldozer crushed her as she protested the razing of Palestinian homes in Gaza. Outrage followed, as Corrie's pretty blond visage stared out from the front pages of newspapers around the world.
[...]
[...] New York Theatre Workshop -- probably best known as the group that developed "Rent'' as well as Tony Kushner's "Homebody/Kabul'' -- was to have presented "Rachel Corrie.'' But artistic director James Nicola announced last week that the production was being "delayed'' while the group considered the best way to "contextualize'' the play. Translation: People are complaining that presenting this work gives a bullhorn to Israel's enemies, and that makes us very nervous. [...].
[...]
{In} "Rachel Corrie,'' Nicola appears to have had an epiphany. Realizing that the work was likely to be viewed as pro-Palestinian, he determined that the play demanded "contextualizing'' with such politically correct accoutrements as panel discussions, forums with the cast, perhaps a pairing with a pro-Israeli play.
Nicola might consider conferring with the folks over at the Public Broadcasting Service, who practically invented the putrid concept of "contextualizing'' in the early 1990s when they scheduled a documentary about the Palestinian uprising and then were accused of pandering to forces bent on destroying Israel. "Contextualizing'' on a major scale followed.
[...]
PBS is nothing if not consistent: More recently, the publicly funded network felt it necessary to "contextualize'' a documentary about the murder by Ottoman Turks of some 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1920. Widely accepted as systematic, the killings fit the definition of genocide. Nevertheless, PBS ordered up, yes, a panel discussion on the subject that included two academics who dispute the charge of genocide.
PBS lets local stations decide what to run, and at least one, Channel 13 in New York, has decided to pull the panel and let the film speak for itself. Other stations have canceled the film and the panel altogether.
These demands for balance and neutrality are ancient, not to say tiresome, complaints about art -- even nonfiction art -- that deals with history. The only proper response is to stand firm against "contextualization.''
Whether we are smart enough to know the difference between life and art -- between the facts of the Civil War and "Gone With the Wind''; between the Anne Frank of her diary and the Anne Frank of the diary that Otto Frank published after the war; between J.F.K. and "JFK'' -- art has no responsibility to literal truth.
[...]
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Bloomberg
U.K. Play Seen as Pro-Palestinian Faces Rough Atlantic Crossing (The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Bloomberg.)
By Jeremy Gerard[...]
{Rachel} Corrie, an idealistic 23-year-old from the state of Washington, died in March 2003 when an Israeli Defense Forces bulldozer crushed her as she protested the razing of Palestinian homes in Gaza. Outrage followed, as Corrie's pretty blond visage stared out from the front pages of newspapers around the world.
[...]
[...] New York Theatre Workshop -- probably best known as the group that developed "Rent'' as well as Tony Kushner's "Homebody/Kabul'' -- was to have presented "Rachel Corrie.'' But artistic director James Nicola announced last week that the production was being "delayed'' while the group considered the best way to "contextualize'' the play. Translation: People are complaining that presenting this work gives a bullhorn to Israel's enemies, and that makes us very nervous. [...].
[...]
{In} "Rachel Corrie,'' Nicola appears to have had an epiphany. Realizing that the work was likely to be viewed as pro-Palestinian, he determined that the play demanded "contextualizing'' with such politically correct accoutrements as panel discussions, forums with the cast, perhaps a pairing with a pro-Israeli play.
Nicola might consider conferring with the folks over at the Public Broadcasting Service, who practically invented the putrid concept of "contextualizing'' in the early 1990s when they scheduled a documentary about the Palestinian uprising and then were accused of pandering to forces bent on destroying Israel. "Contextualizing'' on a major scale followed.
[...]
PBS is nothing if not consistent: More recently, the publicly funded network felt it necessary to "contextualize'' a documentary about the murder by Ottoman Turks of some 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1920. Widely accepted as systematic, the killings fit the definition of genocide. Nevertheless, PBS ordered up, yes, a panel discussion on the subject that included two academics who dispute the charge of genocide.
PBS lets local stations decide what to run, and at least one, Channel 13 in New York, has decided to pull the panel and let the film speak for itself. Other stations have canceled the film and the panel altogether.
These demands for balance and neutrality are ancient, not to say tiresome, complaints about art -- even nonfiction art -- that deals with history. The only proper response is to stand firm against "contextualization.''
Whether we are smart enough to know the difference between life and art -- between the facts of the Civil War and "Gone With the Wind''; between the Anne Frank of her diary and the Anne Frank of the diary that Otto Frank published after the war; between J.F.K. and "JFK'' -- art has no responsibility to literal truth.
[...]
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 4:47 PM
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