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HBO: Your film doesn't take sides. Instead, it
explores some of the voices of free speech both
historically, and within the context of today's
post-9/11 world.
Liz Garbus: Free speech is free speech. And free speech
means protecting even the ideas you hate. In
times of political crisis, there's often a march
towards conformity and towards sort of lining
up to support whatever effort the nation is
under. During World War I that was anti-Socialist fervor, and during World War II, of
course, the Japanese were suspect. During
the McCarthy Era and the Cold War, Socialist
and Progressive politics were suspect. Today
we find ourselves in some ways repeating
these patterns where people critical of U.S.
foreign policy find themselves in tight spots,
and find their free speech to be not so free.
So it felt like an important time to look at the
lessons of history and make an appeal for
mistakes to not be repeated.
HBO: In the film, you feature the comedian Lenny
Bruce who was famous for offending people
and for breaking down racial stereotypes.
Liz Garbus: Well, Lenny Bruce is a great free speech hero.
He would go on stage and give these routines
and use all kinds of outrageous language. But
he was an equal opportunity offender. He
would say things like, "Is there a nigger in the
house? Is there a kike here?" (Lenny was
Jewish) And his idea is, it's not the words
themselves that are powerful, it's the meaning
we give them. And when you throw it all in
there and mix it all up, the words become less
powerful once we become comfortable with
them. But in the late sixties when Lenny was
working, that was not the prevailing feeling at
the time. And Lenny was thrown in jail over
and over. His shows were shut down. And it
eroded a man who ultimately sort of died, I
think, in the process of trying to embrace free
expression. And so I think Lenny was
certainly a great model for the film.
Ultimately though this is not a right or a left
wing film, it's about pressure to conformity.
And if that's conforming in that you're not
supposed to talk about the Iraq War in
negative terms or if you're not supposed to
talk about homosexuality in negative terms,
then those are both pressures towards
conformity. And so we wanted to examine
that on all sides of the political spectrum.
HBO: Can a filmmaker be truly objective when
covering a subject, especially one as
controversial as free speech?
Liz Garbus: I don't believe that any sort of expression of
thought or ideas is ever truly objective. I
think what's important in this film, and for
democracy, is that if you're for free speech,
you have to also protect the ideas you hate,
and that's the real test of fighting for free
speech. I think that because the film does
have a personal bent to it, because my father
(attorney Martin Garbus) is a kind of a guide
to many of the cases that we hear about in the
film and historically, this film does have a
personal feel to it because of that unique
history that my father brings to it, and I being
his daughter, cannot help bring to it. The act
of filmmaking in and of itself is an exercise of
our free speech rights. So I think it's
impossible to not have a point of view on these
things.
HBO: What do you hope HBO audiences will take
away from the film?
Liz Garbus: I hope audiences will watch this film and look
at what we have learned in our history,
whether it be locking up Socialists during
World War I or interning the Japanese during
World War II. None of these things have really
kept us safer. So I think when we look at civil
liberties in our country, what is wonderful
about America - and it's really the core
instrument of a democracy - is the ability to
have free speech, is the ability to have these
arguments; it's how we created ourselves as a
nation. And as my father says in the
beginning of the film, for our Founding
Fathers to write the First Amendment and to
imagine these freedoms-it was so
revolutionary and brilliant, and it's really the
cornerstone of all of our freedoms.
There's a quote in the film that without free
speech you can't fight for the rest of your
freedoms. It's the one that allows you to fight
for the rest of them, and that is so important
to keep in mind as people think, well, there's
no other opinion about 9/11, or there's no
other opinion about the Middle East crisis,
that of course there are other opinions, and
we need to protect even those ideas that we
hate.
We see today the streets of Iran are
overwhelmed with people exercising their right
to protest. Free speech, free expression, free
assembly-those are the guarantees that we
have a free society. And we need to celebrate
them and understand them.
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