Posted on 09/14/2006 8:25:48 PM PDT by kristinn
SNIP
Oscar-winning doc filmmaker Barbara Kopple ("Harlan County USA," "American Dream") teamed up with collaborator Cecilia Peck to co-direct a behind the scenes look at the best-selling female group of all time, "The Dixie Chicks." The film, "Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing" was initially envisioned as a much more modest project, according to the band's Natalie Maines who spoke at a press conference this week at the Toronto International Film Festival. "We originally thought of having a filmmaker [to capture footage] for ourselves or as a supplement to some concert DVD release," said Maines. But Maines' now famous off-handed comment during a March, 2003 concert in London not only caused a tidal change for the Dixie Chicks' relationship with many of their fans, it also motivated Kopple to and Peck to expand the scale of the project.
"After the comment, we were really excited to do something more with the Dixie Chicks because they were willing to put everything on the line to stand up for what they believed in," said Kopple in Toronto. Lubbock, TX-raised Maines' remark, which caused an avalanche of criticism by right-wingers in the U.S. on the heels of the Iraq invasion was: "We're embarrassed that the President is from Texas." Perhaps not since John Lennon uttered the infamous remark that the Beatles were more famous then Jesus over three decades earlier had the reaction been so swift and vile. Right-wing groups responded with radio boycotts and CD burnings, and even a death threat against Maines.
"If we had been someone like Merle Haggard, it might have been spun like some kind of [cool] rebellion," said fellow bandmate Emily Robison about the early days of the controversy. "But people just don't like mouthy women in country music."
While the fallout from Maines' London comment is a focus of the film, "Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing" also takes viewers into personal arenas of the band, including balancing careers with motherhood, and there's also segments on Maines and fellow Chick Martie Maguire's in-vitro pregnancies in addition to their journey in the studio creating their latest album "Taking the Long Way," which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts this summer.
But it was the controversy and its repercussions that received the biggest attention at Wednesday's press conference. "We were their wet dream," said Maines about the right wing as well as political website The Free Republic in particular for organizing a substantial portion of the backlash. "We've been playing to about half the audiences we used to, but they're great and it feels like they have a purpose for being there... for free speech," added Maguire about their latest tour. "I have sat among the audience and it's been electric," said Kopple. "People have been singing, and holding up signs saying, 'Thank You!'"
Now a few years on, the band is still surprised that a one-off remark could cause such an uproar, and repeatedly referenced that surprise during the conversation in Toronto. "I would've never thought that me saying that would've brought on the reaction it did - with people banning us from the radio and me getting death threats." Yet, when asked by a member of the press about their feelings about Bush, they are steadfast. "A major disappointment... A major disgrace [when seeing] footage of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. [Bush] has been a disaster, and seeing Spike Lee's documentary ("When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts") was awful."
At the world premiere of their film the night before in Toronto, co-director Cecilia Peck paid tribute to Canada on stage ahead of the screening, which the three band members recalled during the hour-long conversation with press the following day. Said Peck, "It's great to have the world premiere in a country where something like that which happened to the Dixie Chicks could never happen." "I think Americans should think about that," added one of the Chicks. [Brian Brooks]
I repeat, Natalie is what you get when you drag a record contract through a trailer park.
They're delusional if they think they're protecting "free speech." The only thing they're protecting is the right to be an idiot, and they're real good at that.
Wet dream? More like natural birth control due to killing the urge.
I hope the Ditsy Chumps are capable of having Vivid Dreams of being Flat-Ass Broke because we're not giving any of them our hard earned Money anymore.
I'm STILL trying to stop laughing at these Idiots.
Shut up and..... SHUT UP!!
Yep it can never happen in Canada
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/allan_muir/01/04/booing.the.us/index.html
how colorful.
Now, wait a minute, Nat... Was it one death threat or more than one?
Was it even one?
C'mon, just between us... you made that whole "death threat" thing up, right?
I wish that we FReepers, as one united body, would adopt the stance of IGNORING the Dixie Chicks.
Just ignore them.
Totally.
They would hate that more than anything.
:-D
Done.
Stupid women never have turned me on.
Yes, we do! We just don't like mouthy women who are too stupid to understand their fans have free speech rights too. They also have the right to spend their money where they see fit.
Someone needs to clue in the Dixie Chicks to what free speech really means. It doesn't mean the Dixie Chicks get to trash their fans and still expect their fans to buy their crap. Since when is anyone obligated to listen to anything the Dixie Chicks have to say? They have the right to say it but NO ONE is obligated to listen!
The Ditzy Chicks humped the shark a long time ago. (They were too full of s**t to get off the ground enough to actually jump the shark.)
Nice
Being from Alabama, I'd say they're newly hatched chickens.
Of course, as a son of the south, those outside the boundaries of Dixie expected me to to say something quite charming.
Some Holiday-Inn band that used to be big.
To: wardaddy
Do you think FR will get honorable mention in their documentary, "Shut Up and Sing?"
89 posted on 08/05/2006 10:16:15 PM EDT by NautiNurse
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>> Maines and fellow Chick Martie Maguire's in-vitro pregnancies <<
Couldn't hire a man to touch them, so they had to kill at least 7 embryos each. (That's if they're successful during the first try!)
"Don't flatter yourself, chubby. :-)"
Boy, ain't that the truth. I bet she has to turn those broad hips sideways to walk through a lot of doorways.
The sad thing is that anyone even cares what such a threesome of self-absorbed children think about anything that's important.
Catchy title--Too bad they stole it-
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