Sterlin Harjo, an Oklahoma filmmaker, had his latest movie, Barking Water, premiere at Sundance on Jan. 17. Here’s the synopsis:

Before Oklahoma was a red state, it was known as the Land of the Red People, described by the Choctaw phrase Okla Humma. In his sophomore film, Sterlin Harjo takes viewers on a road trip through his own personal Oklahoma, which includes an eclectic mix of humanity. Irene and Frankie have a difficult past, but Frankie needs Irene to help him with one task. He needs to get out of the hospital and go home to his daughter and new grandbaby to make amends. Irene had been his one, true, on-again, off-again love until they parted ways for good. But to make up for the past, Irene agrees to help him in this trying time.With steady and graceful performances by Richard Ray Whitman as Frankie and Casey Camp-Horinek as Irene, this story takes viewers for a ride in the backseat of Frankie and Irene’s Indian car, listening to their past and the rhythmic soundtrack that sets the beat for a redemptive road journey. Harjo wraps us in the charm and love of Oklahoma through the people and places Irene and Frankie visit along the way. In this sparingly sentimental and achingly poignant film, Harjo claims his place as one of the most truthful and honest voices working in American cinema today. Barking Water is an expression of gratitude for the ability to have lived and loved.
Bird Runningwater. Sundance Film Festival 2009 Catalog

A Q & A with Harjo at Sundance. And the just released trailer:

“Wouldn’t you rather be with someone with a working car?” So smart and real. And the actor, Richard Ray Whitman is incredibly sexy. So, um, “No!”

Barking Water looks spare and incredibly alive. Can’t wait to see it. No indication of when it might be in theaters. But look for it.

I did my first interview with my new Flip camera on Thursday, talking to Daniel Sandate, who was just released from Ft. Sill on Tuesday. He was accompanied by James M. Branum, “G.I. Rights Lawyer,” who was co-counsel for Sandate’s court martial at Ft. Carson, and of course whom I work with at Oklahoma Center for Conscience.

My raw footage has been cut into four parts and posted on Youtube by James. Here are the links:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

If you want to support Iraq War resisters, you could do worse than to donate at GI Rights Lawyer, or, for tax detectability, to Oklahoma Center for Conscience, marking your check for “legal support” on the note line.

I learned a couple of things about using the camera. The main one is, I need a tripod! I’m not a fan of that style of wobbling the camera around for no good reason, but if you are, you’ll love my freshman effort. Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the Flip Ultra. For a cheap camera, it does a great job.

I hope to edit the footage down to 10 or 12 minutes when I have time.

Those sober, staid folks in the diplomatic corps — you just never can tell what they’re really thinking.

h/t americablog

This day embodied everything truly great and inspiring about the United States of America. The rule of law, equal opportunity, goofy optimism, goofier commercialism. Even though it also included lots of gratuitous religiosity, Obama in his inaugural address actually recognized the existence and worth of “nonbelievers.” So diversity and inclusiveness were right up there too.

Unlike some antiwar progressives, who are already condemning Obama for seeming to show way too much respect to the outgoing administration of admitted war criminals. I choose to be more patient, and reserve judgement until we see what happens. I don’t expect to see everything I would want, but I think we will see a lot of good things that we could only dream of three years ago.

I was so inspired, not by Obama, but by the masses of people who are inspired by him and what his election means. I will not discount how meaningful this breakthrough is to people of color, or dismiss their deep excitement and joy with my own agenda. Not today, that’s for sure.

The dreaded invocation by Rick Warren was so forgettable I’m embarrassed for him. It was completely eclipsed by the depth of Obama’s address and the heights of Rev. Lowery’s benediction. Not to mention the art of Aretha Franklin and Elizabeth Alexander, which immediately banished any negativity he conveyed — or at least that was my reaction and I haven’t seen much online that even mentions Warren. And isn’t being ignored the harshest sentence?

Anyway, it’s been a long, wonderful day for our country. We once again looked sane and even beautiful to the world. It won’t last forever, but enjoy the experience, and the memories it will create.

Obama’s Inauguration and Address (with John Robert’s botching the oath of office):

The amazing benediction by Rev. Joseph Lowery:

(The beginning of his speech is from “Lift Every Voice and Sing” sometimes called the Negro National Anthem.)

No one knows how many people are in Washington for the inauguration (or even how to count them) but let’s just say, MANY.

The pundits, a cynical lot, are tripping over themselves describing the crowds they are seeing, not to mention the vibe of said crowds. People are excited, happy, thrilled to see Bush leave the scene (of the crime) and Obama begin to make his promised “change.” I hope they –we — aren’t disappointed. So many indications say Obama is just another politician, he just happens to be a very good one. But other signs portend that he may truly be planning to and able to do significant, progressive surgery on our body politic.

I choose to hesitantly believe the latter, with the full realization that I may be among the deeply disappointed. A year ago I believed John Edwards was a selfless populist, and look how that turned out. So, I don’t completely trust my judgment of Obama’s political integrity. But I know that I must stay positive, or I just can’t function. So I’m laying off the doom and gloom and giving the guy a chance to prove Booman right.

Obama uses language to unite people and to disarm them. If he occasionally says something true but harsh, he quickly apologizes. More often, he gives his ideological opponents the rhetorical benefit of the doubt. He shows people and their ideas respect…often more respect than they deserve. He studiously avoids creating lightning rods that can serve as oppositional organizing points. He reaches out to evangelicals, to the Republican leadership, to conservative commentators, to right-wing Democrats.

In the process of doing these things, he inevitably neglects to pander to those whom he most agrees with. Progressive criticism strengthens Obama precisely because it makes him look more centrist. He has succeeded in staking out the broadest middle we’ve seen in memory. He hasn’t changed any of his commitments (at least, not in any fundamental way) that he campaigned on, but he has blunted all criticism from the center and the center-right. This was the goal all along. Some call it moving the Overton Window. What was once considered radical (e.g., revisiting national health care, allowing gays to serve openly in the military) is now considered acceptable. Now we argue about the timing, not the substance.

The conditions in the country are dictating a leftward movement in the Overton Window, but the old opponents are still there opposing us. The goal is to rally the supporters and to disorganize and disarm the opposition. The goal of Obama’s rhetoric is not primarily to convince people of the merits of his policies, but to build support for them and weaken any obstacles to their implementation.

This video is not the best, but the quality of Dylan’s voice is great.

A video of folk legend Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen singing Woody Guthrie’s socialist-tinged “The Land is Your Land,” was removed by the Google-owned service after HBO complained about its exclusive rights to the event had been violated.

Oh, the irony. The song contains these often-ignored stanzas, which were not ignored by Bruce and Pete (who, at 89, must have particularly relished singing at the Lincoln Memorial — a la Marion Anderson — after being blacklisted as a commie in the 50s).

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Now a version of the song shot by a German team has been posted on YouTube, and is available as of this writing. Here it is, watch it while you still can.

The whole idea of HBO getting rights to this part of the Inaugural events, a public event at a public location, in the people’s capital, is a concern, to say the least. Seems the excuse is that the Inaugural team needed the money to pay for all the logistics. I guess that legendary internet fundraising machine was offline.

The plane comes in from the left at about 2:00 and by 9:50 everyone’s on the boats.

All the professionals involved were just spectacular. As emptywheel noted, it was a “a miracle brought to you by America’s unions.”

video h/t to Jean Warner

If you get tired of the inaugural coverage, but still want a fix of historic presidencies, some of this week’s History Channel programming may fit the bill. I plan to watch as many of these as possible, but then I’m a history geek.

The usual caveat about History Channel broadcasts applies. I haven’t seen these yet, so can’t vouch for any of it. All times Central.

The Presidents – 8 part series
If you’re going to catch all 8 parts, you probably want to rev up the Tivo. The best time to record would be the commercial-free History in the Classroom airing at 5 AM (Jan 19-23, Feb. 17-19).

• Part 1, 1789-1825: Monday, January 19 5:00 AM, 12:00 PM & 06:00 PM,
• Part 2, 1825-1849: Monday, January 19 07:00 PM & 11 PM, Tuesday, January 20 5:00 AM
• Part 3, 1849-1865: Tuesday, January 20 12:00 PM & 6 PM, Wednesday, January 21, 5:00 AM
• Part 4, 1865-1885 Tuesday, January 20 07:00 PM & 11:00 PM, Thursday January 22 5:00 AM
• Part 5 1885-1913. Wednesday, January 21 12:00 PM & 06:00 PM, Friday January 23 :00 AM
• Part 6 1913-1945. Wednesday, January 21 07:00 PM & 11:00 PM, February 17 5:00 AM
• Part 7 1945-1977. Thursday, January 22 12:00 PM & 06:00 PM, February 18 5:00 AM
• Part 8 1977-Present. Thursday, January 22 07:00 PM & 11:00 PM, February 19 5:00 AM

After cutting and pasting all that and getting confused myself, I found a better presentation of the schedule for The Presidents at Zap2It, although it doesn’t show the Feb. dates for the final three episodes for History in the Classroom. (make sure you have your time zone selected on the top of the Zap2it page).

FDR: A Presidency Revealed: Part 1.
* Tuesday, January 20 08:00 PM; Wednesday, January 21, 12:00 AM

No sign of when Part 2 might follow.

There are a bunch of other president-themed programs this week, including Lincoln mythology, John Wilkes Booth, the Kennedy Assassination, Air Force One, etc, but some of them sound hokey and I probably won’t seek them out.

You can turn off the TV and go to the History Channel website to browse a section on presidential history, including Lincoln’s Bible, on which Barack Obama will be sworn in Tuesday, and recent inaugural addresses. Or study all 44 American Presidents.

In light of President Obama’s realization of Dr. King’s dream, I’m putting this in the presidential category for inauguration week:

King
Sunday, Jan. 18
Martin Luther King is remembered with a rebroadcast of King, a documentary from last year (I think).

• Sunday, January 18 08:00 PM
• Monday, January 19 12:00 AM
• Monday, January 19 10:00 AM
• Monday, January 19 04:00 PM
• In two parts without commercials on January 29 and 30 at 5:00 AM as part of History in the Classroom

The History Channel store is having an Inauguration special, with 30% off and $1 shipping — through the 21st. Sound like it might be a good time for me to order The Universe, Seasons 1 and 2. I also liked Black Blizzard, about the Dust Bowl, and would like to share it with other hopelessly geeky Oklahomans. I already bought myself a birthday present, so let’s call this a Farewell to Bush present, shall we?

Finally, it is about over. Just two days, and we can watch watch his chickenhawk ass get out of our White House and our Capital City. Bush and his accomplices will continue to try to whitewash his “legacy” but they will fail. The best George W. Bush can hope from history is eternal ignominy. With an iota of justice applied, he will be tried and condemned to a life sentence for war crimes. But even that would not be all he deserves.