Directed by George Clooney, Good Night, And Good Luck is a beautiful black and white film that tells the story of journalist Edward R. Murrow and his struggles against Senator Joseph McCarthy and the injustices of McCarthy's witch trials to root out Communism and other un-American activities during the 1950s.
I was lucky to get a seat at the Walker premiere on October 7. I found this film to be a stunning account of Murrow (played to perfection by David Strathairn), and I love the fact that so many of the people who were really there, including Joe and Shirley Wershba, collaborated on the film to make it as authentic and true as they could.
This film is going to be a great one for fostering dialogues, and not only on the obvious theme of persecuting people based on ideologies and beliefs alone. What should the role of commercial sponsorship in the news be? How does that affect news as a public essential? How has mainstream media responded to the ubiquity of smaller media outlets on the Internet? Can these smaller media outlets be effective in reforming mainstream media? At what point does government monitoring and surveillance of the public interfere with civil rights and the public's right-to-know?
Head on over here to get the conversation started at an ongoing forum hosted by mnartists.org.