Regarding the spirit of those words, which directors these days create work that help political advancement and peace and love? Is there somebody like a Hal Ashby [director of Bound for Glory] these days, whose art and attitudes and his political philosophy coalesce?
They’re out there, but they’re not out there. Amongst Hollywood directors, many of them—writers as well—do not get work. The corporatization of all our media, Bill Moyers speaks the best about that. It also goes with moviemaking. Look at the coming attractions at any time in any theater and see what it says in the [box] below: “Rated for violence, sexuality [etc.].” The established no-nos are the very thing [I look for in films]. When I see something that’s got a G rating, I figure, like a lot of people, that I don’t want to see this, it’s going to be boring. So that’s where [the movie industry] brought us, by changing our language and changing our response to images. In my documentary Who Needs Sleep? I quote George Orwell: “In a time of deceit, telling the truth can be a revolutionary act.”
One of the reasons [directors] don’t challenge [social injustices] is because those kinds of pictures don’t make money. Anti-war pictures are flops. If they’re flops, they’re failures. If they’re failures, nobody sees them. Getting back to Woodstock, [the] Woodstock [Film Festival] is a possibility for artistic, interesting, entertaining films to be showcased. [The festival] should also be a catalyst for people to see that those films that they think are worthy to be seen, are seen by more than the lucky people who come to Woodstock.
The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Haskell Wexler at the 2008 Woodstock Film Festival Award Ceremony on Saturday, October 4 by his friends and colleagues writer-director John Sayles and producer Maggie Renzi.