Howard Zinn &
Anthony Arnove – Readings From Voices Of A People’s History Of The United
States
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Documentary: B
Recently, we looked at the 2004 documentary Howard Zinn
- You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train.
To recap, Howard Zinn is another major thinker on government, war,
economy, politics and decent. Like Noam
Chomsky, Zinn is a professor who has made waves and even become the subject of
U.S. Government surveillance. He has
also written some key books on the subjects noted and A People’s History
Of The United States is one of those books. So successful is that book that Zinn has edited a follow-up
comprised of letters and other correspondence from actual people called Voices
Of A People’s History Of The United States and this new 2-hour DVD is a
taping of a reading event (from 10/22/04) involving that new book.
Name writers and performers like Lili Taylor, Wallace
Shawn, John Sayles, Paul Robeson Jr., Brian Jones, Sarah Jones and Leslie Silva
read 21 selections from the book. These
are the voices you do not hear enough of, the reasons change for the better
happened in The United States & the world.
These are the kinds of ideas corporations have been throwing de facto
censorship at, especially since the 1980s.
That makes this a really smart, informative, interesting, rich, deep
experience to just sit back and take in.
If you like the idea, you will like the program.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 image was captured on professional
NTSC video, digitized or not, but includes plenty of great film footage. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is simple and
clear, but there are no extras this time.
It is still a compelling main program, though.
- Nicholas Sheffo
