March 21, 2008
Why aren't audiences drawn to movies about the war in Iraq? Kurt surveys the landscape and talks with the latest director to brave the war movie marketplace -- Kimberly Peirce. Peirce's new fiction film about Iraq,"Stop Loss," was inspired by her brother, who came back from a tour in the Army and showed her the raw real-life videos combat soldiers were making. Produced by Eric Molinsky.
Kurt's conversation with director Kimberly Peirce continues. She sees a connection between "Stop-Loss" and her first feature, "Boys Don’t Cry:" “I think it was interesting seeing how a woman constructed herself as a man and how these young men also struggled to figure out what being a good man was.”
National Guard Captain Padraic Lilly related to Black 47's music instantly. When bandleader Larry Kirwan started hearing from soldiers like Lilly, their experiences fed a new batch of songs about the Iraq war. But Black 47's anti-war message doesn't sit well with all of its fans. Produced by Trent Wolbe.
Weigh in: Is there a work of art that’s brought the Iraq war home for you?
A year ago, New Yorker writer George Packer wrote an article called "Betrayed," which profiled the local interpreters who worked for the U.S. government in Iraq. Although their employment made them marked men and women in their neighborhoods, Packer found the U.S. did very little to protect them. After 16,000 words, Packer wasn’t done telling their story, so he turned the article into a play. Produced by Alexandra Poolos.
This ground-breaking rock musical is about a black teen who leaves LA to find himself in Berlin. Its creator Mark Stewart, known as Stew, talks with Kurt about the autobiographical show; it uses great humor, smart lyrics, and rock n’ roll to take on race, identity, and mother-son relationships.
"Keys/It's Alright" from the Broadway production of Stew's "Passing Strange."
This week the British movie director Anthony Minghella died unexpectedly, at 54. He had a rare talent for making an old-fashioned romantic epic feel smart and fresh –- like in his films "The English Patient" and "Cold Mountain." Kurt spoke with Minghella in 2006 when he was staging a version of Puccini’s "Madame Butterfly" at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
Anthony Minghella talks to Kurt at Bridging Cultures, Generations and Market Forces, a panel at the Rolex Arts Weekend, 2007.
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