Divide Wins CINE Golden Eagle Award

Divide is honored to receive a CINE Golden Eagle Award in the 2012 documentary short category. Check out all the winners here.

Divide Wins Best Short Doc Award at Workers Unite Film Fest!

Thanks to the Workers Unite Film fest who honored Divide with their best short doc award. A great new fest in one of America’s great cities – what a wonderful way to spend May Day!

Divide to screen at Cleveland Film Festival

Yep, that’s right. Divide will be making it’s rust belt premiere next week at the largest film festival in Ohio, the Cleveland International Film Festival. Check it out if you are in the area…or if you feel like making a road trip to watch the Tribe and see Mickey Hart’s custom-painted drum kit.

Screening: March, 28th, 4:10pm

Mitt Romney’s ‘Appalachian Problem’?

Oh boy, here we go again. Another election year and another candidate who can’t seem to ‘connect’ with the country’s most elusive voting block. From the desk of CNN in the wake of Super Tuesday:

Romney has an Appalachia problem:

Romney, a Harvard-educated millionaire, had his first test among Appalachian voters this election cycle and he did not get a passing grade.

In the hilly counties along the Ohio River in eastern Tennessee and in north Georgia — culturally conservative locales where another Harvard grad named Barack Obama was viewed with deep skepticism in 2008 — Romney lost badly to Santorum, and in some spots, to Gingrich. Some of those counties are economically vibrant while many more are not.

The only stretch of Appalachian territory Romney won on Tuesday was in southwest Virginia where his only competition was Ron Paul, who beat Romney in a handful of counties in that area.

John Ryder, a Republican National Committee member from Tennessee, described Appalachian voters as “populist” or “Jacksonian.”

“You are talking about people for whom the substance of Romney’s message ought to have strong appeal in terms of dealing with jobs, but the rhetoric of this message is not working for him with this bloc of voters,” Ryder said. “It’s an issue he will have to address.”

Pitts: Gingrich follows GOP playbook on racism

Another great article by columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. that calls out Gingrich’s coded language in South Carolina:

There has been a lot of talk about whether Gingrich’s recent language, including his performance at last week’s South Carolina debate and his earlier declaration that Barack Obama has been America’s best “food stamp president,” amounts to a coded appeal to racist sensitivities. The answer is simple: yes.

(READ MORE)

The South Ain’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie

This article from New York Times reporter Karen L. Cox outlines southern and Appalchain stereotypes that are enjoying a renewed prevalence in many new TV shows.

Such shows promise new insight into Southern culture, but what they really represent is a typecast South: a mythically rural, white, poorly educated and thickly accented region that has yet to join the 21st century. If you listen closely, you may even hear banjos.

Read more here.

With Friends Like Tom Coburn…

In a recent attempt to defend the president’s “goofy and wrong” philosophy, GOP Senator Tom Coburn points a vague finger at government programs that benefit African-Americans:

“He’s a very bright man. But think about his life. And think about what he was exposed to and what he saw in America. He’s only relating what his experience in life was …

“His intent isn’t to destroy. It’s to create dependency because it worked so well for him. I don’t say that critically. Look at people for what they are. Don’t assume ulterior motives. I don’t think he doesn’t love our country. I think he does.

“As an African American male, coming through the progress of everything he experienced, he got tremendous benefit through a lot of these programs. So he believes in them. I just don’t believe they work overall and in the long run they don’t help our country. But he doesn’t know that because his life experience is something different. So it’s very important not to get mad at the man. And I understand, his philosophy — there’s nothing wrong with his philosophy other than it’s goofy and wrong [laughter] — but that doesn’t make him a bad person.”

Check out more @ salon.com.