disruptive.org.uk :: "The Power of Nightmares" at Cannes

"The Power of Nightmares" at Cannes

Thursday 12th May 2005

"The Power of Nightmares" is to be shown at the Cannes film festival. From the Guardian article:

For these reasons, one might well think that The Power of Nightmares would provide a usefully chastening corrective to the prevailing orthodoxy if it were shown on US television. But it seems extremely unlikely that it will be. While a two-and-a-half-hour film version is to be given a prime-time Cannes screening, and while the original three-hour series will be shown tonight on al-Jazeera along with a live interview with the director, US telly has run scared from showing it. "Something extraordinary has happened to American TV since September 11," says Curtis. "A head of the leading networks who had better remain nameless said to me that there was no way they could show it. He said, 'Who are you to say this?' and then he added, 'We would get slaughtered if we put this out.'" Surely a relatively enlightened broadcaster like HBO would show it? "When I was in New York I took a DVD to the head of documentaries at HBO. I still haven't heard from him." He has little hope that he will.

See:
http://film.guardian.co.uk/cannes2005/story/0,15927,1481970,00.html.

There are transcripts here:
http://disruptive.org.uk/20050129.power-nightmares/index.html.