Tribeca 2005 Report: The Power of The Power of Nightmares

I just waited in line for almost an hour and a half to see Adam Curtis' doc, The Power of Nightmares - and was eventually one of maybe 100 people turned away. The door sales line stretched from the Regal Cinema's box office, almost all the way down the very long block of Vesey Street between the theater and North End - and as far as I could tell, no one in that line got in. Of course, this is what pre-sales are all about - avoiding this exact sort of thing - but the sheer mass of potential spectators turned away is a testament to the buzz-level of this film.

The gal ahead of me in line said she was there because of the coverage in the Village Voice - last week, Dennis Lim called it "the most essential documentary in years", and this week's issue includes an essay by Curtis himself.

 
As Curtis writes, "The film does not—despite allegations from some neo-conservative outriders—make a direct comparison between the ideas and actions of Islamists and neo-conservatives." Instead, it's more of an excavation of the ideological roots of both sources. The two sides are "the last political idealists in a world where grand political ideas have disappeared to be replaced by a managerial politics that serves only the demands of the modern self."

Originally aired in three parts on the BBC, Nightmares is showing in one 2.5-hour block at Tribeca (the two remaining screenings are on Tuesday and Friday evening), but otherwise Curtis has not been able to latch on to a US distributor. "The film touched a nerve" in Britain; an opinion poll found that 96 percent of viewers supported it's showing. And yet, as Curtis puts it, "no U.S. networks have so far expressed any interest in showing [the film]. If they did, they might find, as the BBC did, that the public is tiring of the politics and journalism of fear."

I don't know if this is sanctioned by Curtis (and even if it is, I don't think it's a sufficient substitute for seeing the film on a real screen), but The Information Clearing House has the entire film available for viewing online (there's also a Bittorrent file for download). The audio is bad, but - wouldn't you know it? - it's accompanied by what appears to be a complete transcript.