Fahrenheit 9/11 to show at ALA

When I got a notice from MoveOn.org that Michael Moore's new documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 was going to be opening the same weekend as the ALA Annual Conference I wondered why ALA and Moore's people didn't organize a special showing at the conference. Well, looks like they have. Got this email via Library Underground (thanks, Joel):

Forwarded from the SRRT mailing list:

Dear Colleagues,

Fahrenheit 9/11 will be shown at ALA in the Auditorium at the Convention Center, Sunday night, June 27, at 10 pm.

There will be a $10 donation that will go to ALA's efforts in the areas of the First Amendment, Intellectual Freedom, and the struggle against the USA PATRIOT Act.

Thanks to Ann Sparanese with an assist from me, ALA was able to arrange with Lions Gate (the distributor) to show the movie at ALA as a benefit.

It originally was supposed to be a benefit for the APA Salaries Initiative, but Lions Gate would not agree to that because donations to a c6 are not tax deductible.

Please redistribute and post at will.

See you all there.

mitch

Maurice J. Freedman, MLS, PhD
Immediate Past-President, American Library Association
Director, Westchester Library System

In other Moore news, it looks like Ray Bradbury is having a little hissy about the "use" of his book title. Well, actually Ray, it's an homage and completely within Moore's rights as a fellow creator, as I understand them (standard disclaimer, I guess). How sad that the author who wrote the seminal work on the frightening logical extensions of censorship, should try to censor another artist's work. I agree Moore's people should have handled this better, but I feel as if Moore's film reiterates, to some extent, Bradbury's arguments about the dangerous effects of controlled thought.