Uncovered

December 4, 2003 5:46 PM

Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War is a new documentary which will be shown at house parties around the US on Sunday, Dec. 7. If you want to see it, this webpage will locate parties in or near your zipcode. According to a review by the Independent, the film includes two dozen interviews with US intelligence professionals, diplomats and former Pentagon officials lambasting the Bush administration for its distortion of the case for war against Iraq and damaging the ability to gather intelligence in the future. [Via WarFilter.]
posted by homunculus (54 comments total)

That sounds intriguing, but with things of this nature I wonder how many people are going to attend these parties who aren't already against Bush and the war to begin with?
posted by BigPicnic at 6:01 PM on December 4, 2003

...on the other hand, I didn't quite realize the scope of this thing until I discoverd exactly how many already full meetings were in my area code (a lot).
posted by BigPicnic at 6:03 PM on December 4, 2003

Wow. Thanks for posting this. I wish I'd known sooner.
posted by acridrabbit at 6:32 PM on December 4, 2003

What a weird way of disseminating a movie. Are they trying to avoid scrutiny or limit the screenings to supporters. It seems like literally preaching to the choir.

Then again, I remember Prayer Breakfasts for Bush back in 2000, so maybe this is the liberal version of that.
posted by mathowie at 6:39 PM on December 4, 2003

I'm having a hard time imagining how a film featuring two dozen interviews with government officials is in any way conducive to partying.

"Woooo! Bush sucks!"

"Yeah, woooo!"

Party on, homunculus.
posted by MrBaliHai at 7:12 PM on December 4, 2003

1. [via warfilter] is funny.

2. I don't understand the word 'liberal'.

3. It depends on what drugs you're taking.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:16 PM on December 4, 2003

I'm totally shocked to find more than a dozen parties within fifty miles of my house, and most of them are already full.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:17 PM on December 4, 2003

Within 10 miles of 90210 (one of the few American zips I know by heart, and use without fail to register at Yank-centric websites), there are 30 of these. All full.

This is interesting.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:25 PM on December 4, 2003

It's just a ruse to sell Tupperware.
posted by groundhog at 7:28 PM on December 4, 2003

Same here, there are more than a dozen within 5 miles of my house... most of them full...

I guess at most the parties I go to, making fun of Bush is pretty normal.
posted by mildred-pitt at 7:32 PM on December 4, 2003

Party on, homunculus.

*swings naked from the chandelier*
posted by homunculus at 7:40 PM on December 4, 2003

Oh, finally! The whole truth! Great!
posted by rxrfrx at 7:48 PM on December 4, 2003

Is Soros paying for seat fillers?
posted by machaus at 7:56 PM on December 4, 2003

every single party in nyc is full on the 7th, but there's a church showing it the sunday after. : <
(is there a torrent for it yet? or kazaa?)
posted by amberglow at 8:02 PM on December 4, 2003

Yeah, and the whole "Sunday evening" thing sucks, too, since I work Sunday afternoons and evenings.

Someone burn me a copy.

:)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:18 PM on December 4, 2003

Same here. There's 112 parties -- all full -- within 50 feet of my house! And I live in Canada!
posted by 327.ca at 8:30 PM on December 4, 2003

Over 8 in beaverton, oregon. Fucking beaverton oregon!
posted by Keyser Soze at 8:44 PM on December 4, 2003

I'll bring the pabst.
posted by Keyser Soze at 8:45 PM on December 4, 2003

I'm not surprised, Keyser--I always think of Oregon as being kinda crunchy, especially compared to some other nw states.
posted by amberglow at 8:49 PM on December 4, 2003

Someone burn me a copy.

mr_crash_davis, someone already did and they're selling them for US$14.95 through the first link.
posted by jaronson at 9:12 PM on December 4, 2003

There must be 100 of these within 300 miles of my house. Most have 20-100 people signed up. The internet is brilliant.
posted by romanb at 9:14 PM on December 4, 2003

its on bittorrent
posted by reverendX at 9:23 PM on December 4, 2003

Are they trying to avoid scrutiny or limit the screenings to supporters.

MoveOn has been selling DVD's of the film for weeks. The idea is that you buy it and share it with friends who may not have seen the whole story. The parties are a way to motivate non-buyers to see it anyway.
posted by neuroshred at 9:44 PM on December 4, 2003

Can anyone suggest where to get the bittorrent?
posted by PigAlien at 9:58 PM on December 4, 2003

So has anyone seen it?
posted by mathowie at 9:58 PM on December 4, 2003

Within 10 miles of 90210...there are 30 of these. All full.

This is interesting.

No, this is expected. 90210 is Beverly Hills. Swimming pools, movie stars. Gore Country. Congressman: Henry Waxman, ADA rating in 2002 80%, in 2001 90%, American Conservative Union rating 5% and 0% respectively. Pretty left-wing district.

Over 8 in beaverton, oregon. Fucking beaverton oregon!

Beaverton, OR. Representative: David Wu. ADA rating in 2002 95%, in 2001 100%, ACU rating 16% and 8% respectively.

It should surprise no one that in very left-wing districts there are lots of parties full of people who want to view a left-wing film.

What is more interesting, and kind of shocking, is that this activity slipped under the MeFi radar until this late. It's hard to believe that with all the leftists here, none was hooked into the network that set these parties up.

(Or if you were, why didn't you post it? It's not 'NewsFilter', it's an unusual agitprop technique involving the net, which is interesting in and of itself, regardless of one's politics.)
posted by Slithy_Tove at 10:24 PM on December 4, 2003

90210 is Beverly Hills. Swimming pools, movie stars. Gore Country. Congressman: Henry Waxman

funny, he's in it.
posted by azimuth at 10:32 PM on December 4, 2003

"It's hard to believe that with all the leftists here, none was hooked into the network that set these parties up."

Ah yes, all the "leftists" and their networks that conspire to turn Metafilter into a commie propaganda machine.
It is funny that nobody mentioned it at the cell meeting the other night, but everybody was raving over my tofu lasagna, so sometimes we forget about politics.
posted by 2sheets at 10:40 PM on December 4, 2003

Pretty sweet idea - There are over a hundred people signed up for parties within 5 miles of my home in rainy Eugene, OR.

Even if it is 'preaching to the choir,' it's a good way to get people even more informed ont he issue, and - more importantly - get people more connected within the communities. These are house parties, not movie theatre showings, where everyone wanders alone into a dark auditorium and focuses just on the content. The two big parties in Eugene are being thrown by the Friendly Neighborhood Association and the Justice Not War Coalition, two really important groups within the city. I'm excited, but unfortunately I can't make it, since I'll be hiking through a proposed clearcut that day.

Ah, Oregon.
posted by kaibutsu at 10:41 PM on December 4, 2003

Hmmm... only 3 parties in Champaign-Urbana with 27 participants. Disappointing for a place full of college students. Ann Arbor does much better with 2 parties and 145 participants.
posted by gyc at 10:54 PM on December 4, 2003

12 within 50 miles of Augusta, Maine, with close to 250 participants......

I'll admit to having heard about this (via Slate.com, I believe), but I'm also very surprised to see that its so well attended and widespread.

I wonder when this film will make its 'public' debut - on PBS, perhaps? (or Fox??) {/wishfulthinking}
posted by anastasiav at 11:23 PM on December 4, 2003

Wow, had no idea so many other Oregonians were on MetaFilter. I see a meetup sometime in the future? I was shocked when I found a party in Klamath Falls, Oregon, that 10 people are already attending. Unlike some of the other places mentioned, K-Falls is a Republican bastion. Which makes my job fun as a political reporter I guess, (fewer whiny Dems :P) but irritating because there's NO real controversies except the sort between likeminded Republicans.

In other LocalFilter news, my local gas station is selling 32 oz. lemon-lime Gatorade for 99 cents.
posted by Happydaz at 11:47 PM on December 4, 2003

Wow, had no idea so many other Oregonians were on MetaFilter. I see a meetup sometime in the future?

I've been meaning to organize one in Portland for a friday evening (I found a bar call the tugboat that was nerdy and had good beer) for weeks now, but with the holiday season I just might put it off until January.
posted by mathowie at 12:17 AM on December 5, 2003

Beverly Hills. Swimming pools, movie stars. (...)
Pretty left-wing district.


hmmm. let's see: the movie industry thrives by producing for all the world to see films with:

-- mindless ultraviolence
-- macho ideology
-- gun worship
-- almost no roles for over 35 (or over size 4) women
-- almost no good parts for minority actors
-- happy endings

"His story lacked certain elements we need to market a film successfully -- suspense, laughter, violence, hope, heart, nudity, sex, happy endings. Mainly happy endings".

what a progressive bunch, indeed


but I'm willing to concede that if you compare the 90210 zip code people with, say, the good God-fearing citizens of a Mississippi's white neighborhood, well, the 90210 people are marginally more liberal when it comes to social issues, yes


posted by matteo at 12:30 AM on December 5, 2003

anyone with access to usenet can also find the movie on alt.binaries.movies.divx, fyi.
posted by addyct at 1:35 AM on December 5, 2003

Can anyone suggest where to get the bittorrent?
It's available at www.suprnova.org
posted by chill at 1:40 AM on December 5, 2003

It was fine lasagne though, 2sheets!
I suppose we were also all too busy slapping each other on the back following another year of successfuly 'liberalising' the 'media'.
posted by asok at 2:34 AM on December 5, 2003

my first week in college the room next to us screened "the clinton chronicles" and not yet knowing what one did in college (or anyone else really) i showed up! along with half the floor :D

i grew up in beaverton (well, cedar mill :) home of nike! and uh, tektronix! (where SDB use to work :) hillsboro otoh...
posted by kliuless at 4:48 AM on December 5, 2003

I'm surprised that there are people here suggesting that this film is a left wing hatchet job. It may very well be, but - given the ludicrous parade of changing Bush Administration rationals for invading Iraq (The WMD's ! No, he's got ties to Al Qaeda ! Well, err, maybe not and maybe there were never any WMD's, but Saddam was a bad man ! Well, maybe we did promote his regime in the 80's and tacitly sanction it's use of poison gas, but.....) and the significant number of eminent Republicans - including members of the George Bush Sr. Administration - and career intelligence professionals who advised that invading Iraq would be a very, very foolish thing to do...........

Well, suffice it to say that the makers of this movie did not have to scrounge for good material.
posted by troutfishing at 8:01 AM on December 5, 2003

I think this is more on the up-and-up than most anti-Bush ramblings. For starters, a lot of the interviewees came on board during the Reagan/Bush 1.0 years and of course I think one goes back to the Carter days, some to Clinton.

And I do not think you need to go far to catch Bush with his foot in his mouth. Go to the library and start reading newspapers from Jan-March and you will see all sorts of wardrum rhetoric coming out of the White House and most of it proven false.

Lastly, I live in Jesse Helms territory; North Carolina. A state where Clinton nor Gore ever carried. Even though John Edwards is our Senator, my US Rep is a Repub and so are most of them from this state. The other Senator for NC is Dole. You can't say that NC is the pillar of liberal thought, yet I was floored to see so many of these parties in the area and most full! Hell, some churches are running this thing.

Stormy
posted by StormBear at 9:10 AM on December 5, 2003

None in New Orleans. I guess we are all just going to get drunk and watch football.
posted by bukvich at 9:33 AM on December 5, 2003

I helped make the movie - the Researcher / Associate Producer. We have gotten an amazing response from people who have seen it thus far.

We had a premiere in LA a few weeks ago where hundreds of people lined up for hours outside to get in to the 500 seat theater. If anyone's concerned that a documentary like this isn't conducive to partying, think again! That crowd was booing/hissing, hooting/hollering, clapping and yelling at the screen for the entire 56 minutes. It was great, particularly for me since that was the first time I'd seen a movie that I was involved in with a crowd. Definitely one of the coolest experiences.

And to answer the question about why this didn't hit MetaFilter earlier -- No self-links.
posted by jgilliam at 9:36 AM on December 5, 2003

Oh, and the reasoning for the rather strange distribution method is simply to get the movie out there quickly. Variety called it an "instant movie" -- we went from idea to DVD in 4 months. And it shows, the production values aren't exactly top notch, but it's the content that counts, and that's where the movie shines.

Frequently these kinds of things take years to get distribution, and we wanted the message to get out quickly and have a real impact on the 2004 election. We're actively encouraging people to make "illegal" copies and give it to friends.
posted by jgilliam at 9:49 AM on December 5, 2003

A couple of my friends take turns hosting "movie night" on Sundays, so when Nick sent out a message saying he was going to be playing this movie I didn't think anything of it. I was amazed to put in my zip code and find out that there are something like fifteen completely full-up showings going on within a couple of miles.
posted by Mars Saxman at 10:19 AM on December 5, 2003

jgilliam - Kudos to you and your team, a carton of chocolate covered toffee Kudos bars and more.

"We're actively encouraging people to make "illegal" copies and give it to friends." - jgilliam, how 'bout making a copy and sending a few bucks your team's way? That way, you could build a fund for an instant sequel. I'd suggest (and who am I? - well to paraphrase Harvey Pekar - I'm just some kid from the neighborhood...) something like "Looting the Future : the new economics.", or a piece on the voting machine/vote theft story. Heck, there's no end to good juicy topics ripe for the plucking. Get 'em while they're hot!
posted by troutfishing at 11:16 AM on December 5, 2003

Several parties planned in extremely Republican DuPage County (IL)! wow.
posted by SisterHavana at 11:47 AM on December 5, 2003

I got it last night, via bittorrent. Go to suprnova.org, then click on movies, then documentary. Oh, and load a bittorrent client on your computer after you download it, then just double-click it. Several hours later, it will be yours.

Actually, since it's ok with someone involved with the film, here: download this file. And then google for a bittorrent client for your computer (I use torrentstorm on a PC).
posted by mathowie at 12:27 PM on December 5, 2003

Can anyone suggest where to get the bittorrent?
It's available at www.suprnova.org
here
posted by Sirius at 12:31 PM on December 5, 2003

matteo: Funny thing is, Mississippi has house parties too - in Jackson - and though there are only nine people signed up for them (eight and one, respectively), that's probably similar proportionally to attendance in L.A. (I'd point you directly to the Jackson Free Press, an outstanding little alternative paper that's highly civic affairs oriented, for proof that the states has active left-of-center residents. But the site's down at the moment.)
posted by raysmj at 12:45 PM on December 5, 2003

I just started downloading it off the emule network, max sources, I should have it in a few hours....
posted by sic at 2:31 PM on December 5, 2003

and I do not think you need to go far to catch Bush with his foot in his mouth.

I was watching Frontline last night, which started with a great 'centrist' statement, to the effect of 'Many of the dire predictions of last March failed to come true, and many terrible things have happened which noone predicted..."

Never mind the slew of hoorible things predicted which did come true...
posted by kaibutsu at 2:57 PM on December 5, 2003

jgilliam: member since: sometime in 1999

More proof that everyone cool is already a member...
posted by kaibutsu at 3:00 PM on December 5, 2003

kaibutsu - and that's why I'm saving up the money I would otherwise give to public radio and television - to donate it instead to truly independant and alternative new news media.
posted by troutfishing at 8:19 PM on December 5, 2003

Interactive map.
posted by romanb at 11:08 PM on December 6, 2003