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Satiric
Film About UN Triggers Question, Who Let Its Makers
In?
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: Movie Preview
UNITED NATIONS,
November 21 -- A forthcoming
documentary
about the UN which covers among other things the uninvestigated
shooting of Ivorian civilians by peacekeepers is the subject of some
buzz in UN
headquarters in New York. The most frequently inquiry, however, is into
who let
conservative banker-turned-filmmaker Ami Horowitz into the building?
The
trailer
has footage of Horowitz inside the Security Council, with the
nameplates of current members including Libya and Belgium. The
voice-over asks,
who do you call when you have a world crisis? Ami picks up the phone
and says,
"No one here."
Many lower-
to middle-ranking UN staff express to Inner City Press enthusiasm about
the
film. At a higher level, there comes a desire to retaliate. The UN's
Media
Accreditation and Liaison Unit is reportedly denying that they ever
issued
Horowitz and his team any identification cards to enter the building.
UN's Ban Ki-moon in Ivory Coast,
uninvestigated shooting of civilians not shown
This would be consistent with obstacles MALU
threw up when the Penn
and Teller's Showtime program came to film Inner City
Press inside the UN, for an episode on peace and hypocrisy. It's
just a comedy show,
Inner City Press was told dismissively. So is this new film, U.N. Me.
When it
becomes fully available, we'll review it.
For now we
note that one of the cinematographer also worked on the film "Borat,"
whose protagonist previous penetrated the UN as Ali G, and was given a
tour of
the Security Council by a then UN Guide who
later, and simultaneously, because
the Minister of Information for Albania. You can't make
this stuff up...
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
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