The Devil's Playground is certainly the best documentary I have seen in quite a while (The War Room and Capturing the Friedmans come to mind). Its not perfect, but the movie's subject matter is fascinating and its level of access to the darker underbellies of the Amish community is (I think) completely unprecedented.

The film jumps around between mostly unrelated character profiles of young Amish teens reflecting on the Rumspriga--a period of time after the 16th birthday during which children who have grown up in the Amish community are freed from the rules of the church and allowed a taste of the "real" world. We learn in the end that 90% of the rumspringen return to the church...the highest rate since the founding of the church in the 17th century. In following a select few "subjects" the film also captures some really amazing scenes inside the Amish world. What's most shocking is how intermeshed the free-wheeling Rumspringa lifestyle is with the larger Amish world. The result is amazing footage of kids smoking cigarettes in their family buggy.

Here's a great summary of the folks who are filmed. Filmmaker Lucy Walker's "Notes on Completing Devil's Playground" is really fascinating. Here's some excerpts:

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"The Amish generally condemn photography for fostering pride and generating "graven images" which the first commandment prohibits. But many people enjoyed being filmed so long as they weren't "posing" for the camera. And "posing" for interviews was tolerated among the Beachy Amish congregations and in some more liberal Old Order church districts. But the goal was real access to teenagers, and that turned out to be a challenge.
During rumspringa Amish young people aren't subject to Amish rules, but Amish parenting "breaks the will" of the child and they've been trained to keep their heads down, humble and invisible, in the middle of the crowd. Amish teenagers are also drastically less articulate than their "english" counterparts. English is their second language, there's no time for introspection, personal opinions are avoided, and analytical reasoning is suppressed. Of the few kids who would talk to us, very few wanted to be filmed, and fewer still could discuss themselves or their religion. "

"Each one of those introductions took days of visits and discussions. We had to earn trust every step of the way. Even with the teenagers it was crucial that I knew and respected Christian principles. It helped to refer to parables to explain our work. I spent a lot of time reading the Bible. It wasn't filmmaking, but it was what it took to make this film. "

"We weren't allowed to film any of the best scenes that we witnessed. " [almost tragic considering the amazing footage they do get]

"One night at a hoe-down I spotted Faron. He stood out from the crowd with his Tupac swagger and twang. The next day we met up again, and he was mesmerizing. I didn't immediately catch on that he was high. Other kids were hesitant to describe what they ate for breakfast, whereas Faron not only divvied up drugs on camera but shamelessly skimmed his dealer's cut too. He had an "english" girlfriend and an escalating habit. But his ambition was to follow in his father's footsteps and be a minister. He could explain aspects of the religion that completely stumped everyone else. And he told everyone that he was "joining church" in the fall."

"What has sustained me is that the experience keeps generating more questions. I still can't make up my mind. Sometimes it occurs to me that being Amish should be illegal. Learning that an emaciated 42-year-old woman I knew was anorexic because it was her only means of birth control and after 8 children she couldn't face any more. Listening to yet another boy describe how desperately he begged his parents to let him go on through high school and how much he loathed his factory job. Meeting a gay man whose Amish teen years had been a living hell of chastising himself and praying to be released from his "affliction", which the Amish consider so sinful that they won't even acknowledge it....But other times I still fantasize about giving it all up to be an Amish farmwife with sixteen kids. If you ask an Amish person you'll find out that heaven and hell are as real as New York and Los Angeles. One magic hour, sitting on the porch drinking lemonade with an old Amish couple, I was moved to tears by the love and peace and grace of their lives - free from clutter, no question as to how to live, eternity sewn up, surrounded by children and a community guaranteed to lavish love and care until the end of their days. The "english" world was ugly when I returned."

" I'm ambivalent about having documented a community that didn't want to be documented. One of the Bible passages often quoted by the Amish is 2 Corinthians 6:14: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness…" Filming the Amish is a painfully unequal yoke and I'm relieved to stop. And I wanted to promote understanding but I didn't want to ensnare people in worldly media when their life's work is to remove themselves from it."

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You'll have to read yourself to see the sad update on main character Faron.

Aaron Brown: gone from CNN but not forgotten

Drudge is running this story on former CNN anchor Aaron Brown. As much as I don't like to admit it, I watch a fair amount of CNN. Along with most thinking viewers, I was disappointed when they dropped Brown from their line-up. One could tell he really knew and cared about what he was talking about....for those of you who don't watch 24 hour news, this quality is quite rare these days (most anchors are pathetic ass-kissers).

Anyway, in the above article, Brown adds his voice to the chorus of responsible journalists who are disgusted with the state of public news today. The article notes, "Many Americans on the left and the right aren't interested in the truth, but simply want news that confirms their viewpoints." Cass Sunstein would add that such collective group-speak leads people to more extreme points of view.

Its interesting to think about why the media has come to such a state. Brown rightly notes that TV is an ultra-democratic forum...people vote instantly and constantly with their remotes. However, this doesn't really explain why people want their news in the format of a chorus of yes men confirming their pre-existing views. We just don't care about community writ-large anymore, all the political battles I can think of are essentially people fighting for their right to do what they want. There was once a time when some political movements actually centered on making the world a better place. Politics today is about "getting our way" not "doing what's right."

P.S. While writing this post, CNN interrupted their regular coverage to show pictures of a giant fire in Atlanta. If it bleeds, it leads.

Dear America, Ben Roethlisberger is NOT JEWISH

So I've been REALLY bad about the blog. So sorry. I have some fun ideas. I was going to post a list of my top 10 movies of 05 . I was going to write about my field trip to Rego Park, Queens in search of delicious Bukharian food. I was going to do a long gloating post about the Steelers amazing post-season dance with destiny.

However, I was shocked to see a giant spike in hits to the blog since yesterday...Approximately 150 people are coming here each day. This is way more than usual, especially when I'm in one of my lulls and I know the 7 people who actually check to see if I've started again (thanks guys!). So, I did a little check on my stattracker and it turns out that the hits are coming from the following searches...keep in mind that my stattracker only remembers the last 100 visitors...so this is just a sample:


Num
Perc.
Search Term

28
37.84%
roethlisberger jewish

6
8.11%
ben rothlisberger jewish

4
5.41%
is ben rothlisberger jewish

3
4.05%
rothlisberger jewish

3
4.05%
roethlisberger, jewish

2
2.70%
licoln martial law

2
2.70%
rothlisberger ben jewish

2
2.70%
roethlisberger jewish steelers

2
2.70%
ben rothlisberger jewish?

2
2.70%
roethlisberger jewish

2
2.70%
vicent sperm

1
1.35%
is rothlisberger jewish?

1
1.35%
dave coulier jeff daniels

1
1.35%
ben rothlisberger is jewish

1
1.35%
jewish

1
1.35%
jeff daniels and dave coulier

1
1.35%
ben rothlisberger religious jewish

1
1.35%
rothlisberger jewish steelers

1
1.35%
is rothlisberger jewish

1
1.35%
rothlisberger quarterback jewish

1
1.35%
is ben rothlisberger jewish?

1
1.35%
jewish roethlisberger

1
1.35%
roethlisberger nazi

1
1.35%
rothlisberger jewish?

1
1.35%
football player, rothlisberger, jewish

1
1.35%
ben roethlisberger is not jewish

1
1.35%
is roethlisberger jewish

1
1.35%
is be roethlisberger jewish?

1
1.35%
roethlisberger jewish ben


What does this mean? I guess it means that some small minority of closet anti-semites (and maybe not a few proud members of "the tribe" looking for a new Sandy Koufax) have been pouring over Google to find out the real reason why Ben's name sounds like "Roth" and he looks vaguely non-Aryan. Don't hate folks. Why can't we all just get along.