Patti get's political at Sundance: "It's an election year"

[L French <lrfrench>]

It seems like Patti favors John Edwards in the Democratic primaries, but given his slow fade to third, she will probably end up supporting Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton, who as Patti notes, voted to send troops to Iraq.  
 
Meanwhile,  "Dream of  Life" seems to be getting a very tepid response at Sundance. I can't imagine it will get any kind of national distribution, since Patti usually has trouble filling her live shows outside of her stronghold bases on the east and west coasts. Seems it  will  likely just show at film festivals, and  possibly on PBS. Strangely, the press conference Patti and Steven Sebring did at Sundance, that can be viewed at Salon couldn't have helped sell the film. Patti seemed to be at a loss of how to describe the film. And calling it a home movie isn't exactly what will excite what few possible distributors may be interested in it! 

Steven Sebring certainly didn't help, as he seemed to repeat, "you know,"  about 20 times in less than five minutes. Unfortunately, most people "don't know." But as Robert Mapplethorpe discovered, Patti's work just doesn't seem to translate well to film. Something about the camera seems to shut off her expressiveness, and improvisational style. In fact, of all the footage I've seen over the years of Patti, very little of comes close to capturing her essence.      
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But From a blogger's report on Sundance: 


ROCK AND POLITICS AT THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL  

By Jeffrey Ressner 

January 23, 2008 


 Motion Picture Association of America chief Dan Glickman reports that he caught nearly a half-dozen movies in a little more than two days, including the U2 concert film in 3-D, the Jack Black comedy Be Kind Rewind and Henry Poole Is Here, the latter produced by Glickman pal Tom Rosenberg of Lakeshore Entertainment.

 Former Vice President Al Gore was seen walking into the U2 film sans entourage, then sitting with the band at the screening after being photographed by fans in the lobby amid screams of We love you! 
Hard to tell who was the bigger rock star that night  Bono or Gore.

 Breaking here from bold-faced political names, lets pause and rock a bit. Music legend Patti Smith, arriving at Sundance for the world premiere of a biographical documentary titled Patti Smith: Dream of Life, gave a small club show Monday night during which she told faithful fans, Its an election year  and I have no advice. (She did, in fact, implore the crowd to register to vote and use your voice.) 

Earlier in the day, we had a brief discussion with the punk-poet goddess behind memorable anthems such as People Have the Power and Because the Night. Wearing a T-shirt with a scrawled peace sign design, she seemed extremely serious about the upcoming election and exercising her right to vote.

Im being very vigilant in studying our candidates, she said, referring to herself as a Democrat by blood but still fiercely independent. I feel that one of the things thats important in our process is to have multiple candidates  thats one of the things Ralph Nader was working so hard to preserve.

Of the three main Democratic candidates, she said, Edwards is very forthright, and I like him. Im still learning about Obama. Ive always had great respect for Hillary but was so heartbroken that she buckled during the vote [to invade Iraq], as did [most of] the Democrats. I was watching the vote on TV and praying that she would stand up and go against the grain and do what was morally right, and thats haunted me. 

Smith says shes still very undecided about Obama. Yes, she said, hes a beautiful speaker, but Im still waiting to hear an emotional connection to him. I havent felt it, and I dont know why. ... But its still early, and Im still studying him. It took me a while to warm up to John Edwards, she said, adding that the third-ranked Democrat lays out plans to me, and he says what he thinks.

As for the GOP crowd, she hurled special vitriol at Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of her hometown. I detest him, she said flatly. Hes used 9/11 [to win votes], which should not be used. He didnt do anything that any other person in his position [wouldnt have done]. I dont see that he has communication skills or an understanding of global politics or other cultures. To me, hes not presidential. 

Smith had a difficult time digesting big-money politics in general, however. Its very hard for me to stay a good citizen because of all this money wasted. Its hard for me to watch the Democrats waste $50 million on [political] advertising when, being the so-called peoples party, that money could help education and fund a lot of arts programs in schools  the hypocrisy is palpable. 

Dream of Life includes footage of Smith at various political rallies, making Bush-bashing speeches and protesting the war in Iraq. The subject of war continues to grieve her. We forgot what happened in Vietnam and let it happen again, she said. I loved Hillary, and I felt personally hurt by her action. We look to people like her as the guardians of our ideals. 

She insisted that the anti-Bush and anti-Iraq material be included in the film bio, even if it might seem dated in the next year or so. Id like to be remembered as a person who acted and spoke out against it, she concluded. [Invading Iraq] was one of the most deplorable things in the past decade. Its so fresh in my mind that there are still these young soldiers and innocent Iraqis dying. Its not going to go away with an election; its going to take decades to recover from the damage. 

       
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