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New documentary takes unflinching look at abortion in US
BreitBart ^ | 10/11/2007

Posted on 10/11/2007 9:00:00 AM PDT by XR7

Few issues generate as much heat in the United States as the debate over abortion -- the subject of a powerful and graphic new documentary by controversial British filmmaker Tony Kaye.

"Lake of Fire," currently on limited release in the United States, unwinds over more than two and a half hours of interviews with some of the leading figures from the pro-life and pro-choice camps.

But it is the graphic and disturbing depiction of termination procedures, filmed like the rest of the movie in black and white, that marks the film out.

"From the moment I started making the film I thought I have to show an abortion, which at the time had never been done before," Kaye, best known for his 1998 neo-Nazi feature "American History X," told AFP in an interview.

"There was no question about whether or not that was the right thing to do because if I'm documenting two sides of the argument, that is one side of the argument and you have to show it," he said.

Kaye, who cut his teeth directing commercials and music videos, separately admits to being "addicted to controversy when I began."

One scene depicts a doctor sifting through a surgical tray after performing a late-term abortion, where the grisly residue of an arm, a foot and part of a face can be clearly made out.

"It's about as shocking as any motion picture can ever get. It's illegal to film someone being killed," said Kaye.

They may be the kind of images used by anti-abortion activists, but Kaye also doesn't shy from showing pictures of a kneeling and bent-over naked woman who died after performing a botched abortion on herself with a wire coat hanger.

Kaye worked for more than 15 years on "Lake of Fire" -- anti-abortion activist John Burt's description of the hell awaiting abortionists -- and said his goal when he set out was simply to show both sides of the argument.

"The concept was to make a film about the debate over the issue of abortion but to make it a non-propagandist way and to create a kind of war of words."

He said he wanted "to create this kind of a weave where we really explore the issue without taking any sides."

"It's very easy for me to do that because... I don't really have a point of view. I'm not a politician or a commentator," he said.

The film features leading thinkers including linguist and leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky, who dismisses the notion of certainty in the debate.

"You're not going to get the answers from holy texts. You're not going to the answers from biologists," he says. "These are matters of human concern."

"There are conflicting values and taken in isolation each of these values is quite legitimate," he adds. "Choice is legitimate, preserving life is legitimate."

If the film arrives at any conclusion it is neatly summed up by Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz when he says: "Everybody is right when it comes to the issue of abortion."

"In the end human beings have to decide. In the end each of us has to decide using whatever resources we have available to us: religion, our mind, our sense of what is right and wrong in society," he adds.

A key figure in the film is Norma McCorvey, better known as Jane Roe, the lead plaintiff in the landmark Roe vs Wade case that legalized abortion in the United States in 1973 and continues to shape the political landscape.

McCorvey was the poster child of the pro-choice camp until she turned pro-life and explains in the film how anti-abortion campaigners told her that "I was the one that was responsible for all the dead babies."

Even after spending years working on the project, Kaye, however, admits to not knowing where he stands in the debate.

"My position on the subject is that I don't really know what's right. I didn't know much in the beginning... and at the end I was just as confused."


TOPICS: Front Page News
KEYWORDS: abortion; babykillers; babykilling; documentary; lakeoffire; moviereview; roevwade
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To: XR7

“It’s about as shocking as any motion picture can ever get. It’s illegal to film someone being killed,” said Kaye.
***My heart cries for these innocent little ones.


21 posted on 10/11/2007 12:43:49 PM PDT by Kevmo (We should withdraw from Iraq — via Tehran. And Duncan Hunter is just the man to get that job done.)
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To: Coleus; firebrand; rmlew; Yehuda

ping


22 posted on 10/11/2007 12:44:50 PM PDT by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: Froufrou
“It’s all legal, of course.”

What must be the mentality of persons who believe a moral wrong can become a legal right? What else can they be led to believe?

23 posted on 10/11/2007 12:47:37 PM PDT by MosesKnows
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To: MosesKnows

“What else can they be led to believe?”

You know, whatever the SCOTUS makes into law. I swear, there was a reason we had division of government, but I guess everyone has accepted that they are the ‘Supreme’ law of the land.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg wants the age of consent to be lowered to 12. Won’t that be dandy for child molesters and pedophiles?


24 posted on 10/11/2007 1:02:12 PM PDT by Froufrou
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To: Coleus; nickcarraway; narses; Mr. Silverback; Canticle_of_Deborah; TenthAmendmentChampion; ...

Pro-Life PING

Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.

25 posted on 10/11/2007 3:05:25 PM PDT by cpforlife.org (A Catholic Respect Life Curriculum is available at KnightsForLife.org)
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To: MHGinTN

PING


26 posted on 10/11/2007 3:08:07 PM PDT by cpforlife.org (A Catholic Respect Life Curriculum is available at KnightsForLife.org)
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To: XR7
Even after spending years working on the project, Kaye, however, admits to not knowing where he stands in the debate.

So why bother to make the film?

Perhaps as a nice date movie?

27 posted on 10/11/2007 3:12:56 PM PDT by donna ("We can create Kingdom on earth" - Barack Hussein Obama)
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To: XR7
Even despite the confused film maker, I see this as a great thing.

By sitting firmly on the fence, he may well have an audience on both sides. It sounds like the film pretty well just lays it out there. And think about it, how many pro-aborts have ever had a good look at abortion?

So much of this industry never sees the light of day. Ironically, they desperately hide behind a veil of secrecy because revealing the truth would set people against abortion.

Any lifting of that veil is a good thing. Expose the truth and let the truth take on a life of its own. Hearts will be changed. Who cares what his personal views are as long as he brings this grisly practice out into the light.

28 posted on 10/11/2007 3:21:23 PM PDT by getitright
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To: XR7

At the end of the Book of Judges (OT) it says that there was not king in Israel so every man did what was right in his own eyes. Today, liberalism/democrap party says there is no God of right and wrong, so everyone should be authorized by the almighty government to do what is right in their own eyes paid for by government extorted taxes.


29 posted on 10/11/2007 3:22:43 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support. Defend life support for others in the womb.)
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To: All
FWIW:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0841119/

User Comments (Comment on this title)
15 out of 20 people found the following comment useful:-
Remarkable, 11 September 2006

Author: Nick Van der Graaf from Toronto, Canada

Caveat: I have been a pro-choice activist for many years in my home country of Canada, and attended the “March for Women’s Lives” in Washington D.C. in 2004. Obviously I have a pretty solid opinion on this issue, but below I have tried to just talk about the film itself.

I saw this a couple of days ago at the Toronto Film Festival. I think it is an unflinching look at the how the battle over abortion rights has played out in the United States over the last 15 years or so. It was intended to be unbiased, an even-handed look at both sides of the issue. By and large, I think Kaye succeeded at this, but I would very much like to attend a screening of this film before an audience of committed pro-lifers to see what they think of it. I couldn’t help but think that nearly all the pro-lifers interviewed came across as deeply disturbed, with a couple of exceptions.

The film clocks in at over two and a half hours and could easily loose 30 minutes without taking away from the impact of the film. Similarly it ends dreadfully - overblown music and an utterly inconsequential shot - the director having missed the perfect spot to end it 5 minutes beforehand.

Shot entirely in black and white, there are several moments of stunning beauty, contrasting with the frequently dull and suburban backgrounds in which such a passionate battle is being waged by both sides.

Overall I would definitely recommend this film, but only after it is re-edited from its present version.

A last note: Tony Kaye was present at the screening and gave an utterly bizarre performance during the Q&A at the end of the movie. He stood at the mike, rubbing his face vigorously, making little sense and often at a loss for words. We were planning to ask questions but he was so out of it that we decided not to waste our time!

30 posted on 10/11/2007 3:40:48 PM PDT by cpforlife.org (A Catholic Respect Life Curriculum is available at KnightsForLife.org)
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To: XR7

In every man’s life, there is a point between dawn and sunset that he must stare intently at the sun.


31 posted on 10/11/2007 3:50:23 PM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Old Professer

How profound.


32 posted on 10/11/2007 3:53:49 PM PDT by Broker (Mabuhay!)
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To: cpforlife.org; All
"GRAPHIC NEW ABORTION VIDEO TAKES 'SHOCKING' LOOK FROM ALL SIDES"

VIDEO: http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=6656


33 posted on 10/11/2007 4:35:16 PM PDT by XR7
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To: XR7
"My position on the subject is that I don't really know what's right. I didn't know much in the beginning... and at the end I was just as confused."

Proof positive that even a gibbering idiot can make a film.

34 posted on 10/11/2007 5:07:38 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: fleagle
“America’s holocaust has been carried out by about 30% of ALL WOMEN, with the encouragement of about 30% of ALL MEN.”

If you ever decide to educate yourself on the subject you will be shocked at how many times abortions have been done over the vehement objections of the fathers.

35 posted on 10/11/2007 5:11:31 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: NativeSon

I was basing my guess on the fact that about 33% of all pregnancies in the U.S. since 1973 have ended in abortion. I think about 25% of women who have had one abortion have had two.


36 posted on 10/11/2007 6:22:32 PM PDT by Arthur McGowan
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To: Arthur McGowan
"I think about 25% of women who have had one abortion have had two."

Or more for free.

You have to remember this whole scheme started almost 100 years ago with the intent to control the populations of underclass people. Sound familiar? I remember some high class woman started this thinking early last century. As an extension, how many hundreds of millions of people died in last century fighting wars? There is a Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, ++, etc. connection to a certain philosophy including this sort of thinking. You know where it comes from right here and currently.

37 posted on 10/11/2007 7:38:40 PM PDT by BobS (I><P>)
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To: XR7

“From the moment I started making the film I thought I have to show an abortion, which at the time had never been done before,”

Liar. It’s been done before. Silent Scream. A video which shows the face of a baby as it is being aborted.
http://www.silentscream.org/video1.htm


38 posted on 10/11/2007 8:14:19 PM PDT by Reddy (VOTE CONSERVATIVE in '08!)
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To: Arthur McGowan

The last time I looked at the statistics, 50% of the women who had abortions had TWO OR MORE. Sometimes 3, 4 or 5.

That means most abortions are being used for BIRTH CONTROL, not for an unexpected pregnancy for some poor single woman.

Sickening.


39 posted on 10/11/2007 8:16:57 PM PDT by Reddy (VOTE CONSERVATIVE in '08!)
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To: XR7

Do an Internet search on “aleister crowley” and “do what thou wilt” sometime. It will raise the hair on the back of your neck.


40 posted on 10/11/2007 9:11:45 PM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion (Global warming is to Revelations as the theory of evolution is to Genesis.)
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