According to Govindini Murty, co-organizer of the Liberty Film Festival, Michael Medved has been a tremendous supporter of her and her husband Jason Apuzzo—both as filmmakers and in their efforts to put together a kick-ass film festival that celebrated the free market, the open exchange of ideas, democracy, and the United States as a force for good.

Mr. Medved flew down to Los Angeles from Seattle yesterday and spent a good chunk of the day at the festival, both participating in a panel and providing a special introduction to their presentation of The Ten Commandments. He was extraordinarily generous with his time and energy.

As most of you know, Medved is nearly unique among conservative voices, in that he recognizes the importance of film as a medium and has an encyclopedic knowledge of movies. He was one of the forces behind the Golden Turkey Awards series (which helped to popularize Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space as a cult classic), and is the author of Hollywood vs. America, a dissection of the ways in which filmmakers systematically flout the values and beliefs of mainstream America.

And he frequently articulates—as he did last week on his radio show—the fact that beauty and truth, contra Keats, are not the same thing, and we can appreciate a beautifully made movie while recognizing that the values that inspired it—or the message it delivers—are misguided (and, in some cases, horrific).

Attila Girl: Do you see conservative and libertarian filmmakers creating an alternative power structure within the entertainment industry to market our own work?

Michael Medved: To some degree, though [such a structure] won't become the dominant force. You're not going to see Hollywood become a conservative bastion; that just will not happen.

But change will come as it did with the other Evil Empire: as a response to pressure from without.

Attila Girl: Do you envision a sea change occurring with events like this and the American Film Renaissance Festival in Dallas?

Michael Medved: Yes; the great thing is that people are finally tackling this issue. When you think about the forces of conservatism over the past few decades, people like William F. Buckley—despite their contributions to public debate—were mostly detached from popular culture, and that's now starting to change.

Attila Girl: Do you see us as ever reaching something close to parity within the film industry: say, 40%-60% in their favor?

Michael Medved: Maybe more like 30%-70%. I'll tell you, the one place where I do think we'll see 40%-60% is within the Jewish community. You saw that in our panel earlier, where we had participation from people like David Zucker.

Attila Girl: Almost half of you were Jewish, right?

Michael Medved: A few of us were. I've been very active within the Jewish Republican Coalition, and this election year we're seeing a real change, one that began after 9/11 and has gotten stronger.

Attila Girl: People have had enough?

Michael Medved: Yes. They have.

Note:The exchange above is not quite word-for-word, but pretty darned close. After getting that precious three-minute interview, I discovered that the battery on my tape recorder had given out, so I quickly jotted down the whole conversation from my memory, which is pretty good for this type of thing—though bad on where I put my keys.

Posted by: Attila at 06:09 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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