It seems that abortion is a topic that can never be mentioned without people having to state their opinion on the matter. Director Tony Kaye has been filming Lake of Fire, a documentary over the past 16 years on the many different sides of this subject, and now, it is set to be released in October of this year. The good people over at yahoo.com give us this:
Indie distributor ThinkFilm has picked up worldwide rights to the provocative, graphic abortion documentary “Lake of Fire,” the first feature from director Tony Kaye since 1998’s “American History X.”
The 2-1/2-hour feature takes a stark look at all sides of the abortion debate, including footage of procedures, the killings of doctors who have performed them and interviews with such people as Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry..Kaye said he will present the film at advance screenings. “I want to take it to the Bible Belt, to Pensacola (Fla.), where all the (doctor) killings took place, to high schools, to universities,” he said. “I felt we needed a film that explored abortion in an unbiased, mathematical, scientific kind of way.”
Kaye made this movie over the course of 16 years for about 6 million dollars. He wrote, directed, produced and shot this all himself. The film is black and white, interesting choice for a subject with so many grey areas.
This film will no doubt have a LOT of debate when it comes out. It already has people praising it for the even portrayal from both sides of the picket line. Here is one comment on the film:
What is so provocative about ‘Lake of Fire’ is not that it refuses to take a point of view on abortion but the way it shows how we are victimized by a sense that what we believe is more important than what others believe,” said Mark Urman, head of U.S. theatrical at ThinkFilm. “It’s an illness that plagues our society, and the result of people acting on a sense that they are right and others are wrong can be seen in the Middle East, in Africa and many other places.”
I tend to agree, and it would be nice to see a film that doesn’t just show the two sides saying they are right and the other is wrong. John Campea mentioned that very sentiment in his earlier post on this film.
Kaye is known as a “quirky guy” TMB just reported recently that he’s having his first commercial film since American History X back in 1998, when he went a little squirrelly after production. But odd or not this guy has picked a subject and is inviting us to consider maturely, with all of the fact, what we think. Kaye is also seeking out bible belt areas to have screenings of this film with discussions afterwards, he wants this talked about it rationally with people who have been know to be irrational in the past.
I couldn’t agree more with his approach, if this is as unbiased as it is being touted as it will be a great contribution to film and to society.
If abortion were made illegal today, what would most likely happen?
a. increase in unwanted children
b. increase in the use of condoms
WTF are you talking about? You brought up the benefits of abortions, remember? This is what you wrote:
“How about keeping more young, poor, unmarried… girls from having more unwanted babies? Abortion has major positive benefits for society: lower crime rates, less welfare, less poverty…. and the added productivity you get from females that have been able to put off having a baby to continue their education and careers. Those are just a few benefits. ”
If abstinence is too hard, I also suggested condoms. They don’t cost much (PP hands them out for free!), are easy to use and come in many exotic colors.
I’m pro choice. Choose to use a condom and not abortion as your method of birth control. Not too unreasonable.
“Wouldn’t abstinence – hell even condoms – do the same thing, cost less money and not have harmful emotional and physical side effects? Abortion is about not taking responsibilty for your actions.”
Dream on, meanwhile the rest of us will live in the real world.
“And Kaye is ALSO screening this movie at universities and places where people for abortions can also debate on the subject, check out the link to the original story to see.”
Excellent. My bad. I didn’t read it that way. The quote sounded like he was focusing on the Bible Belt universities, the Bible Belt high schools. I should have read it twice.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
“How about keeping more young, poor, unmarried… girls from having more unwanted babies?”
Wouldn’t abstinence – hell even condoms – do the same thing, cost less money and not have harmful emotional and physical side effects? Abortion is about not taking responsibilty for your actions.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
“Planned parenthood tries first to help people get birth control…”
Planned Parenthood does NOT promote anything as much as it promotes abortion. Follow the money. There is no money for them in adoption, birth control or abstinence.
In the last seven years alone, Planned Parenthood has earned profits – or built a surplus – of more than $350 million. They did not earn it passing out condoms. Pretty darn good for a NON-PROFIT organization.
In that time period, it has been given government grants of nearly $1.5 billion.
That’s subsidizing the abortion industry. While, technically speaking, no U.S. taxpayer dollars are specifically allocated for abortions, Planned Parenthood performed some 1.4 million of them in that same time period. And they aren’t the only organization doing it.
This money is all a matter of public record.
Here’s more:
When it comes to pregnant women deciding between abortion and adoption, more than 98 percent of those women seeking counsel from PP ended their pregnancies with abortion in 2000, according to data collected by the organization. Meanwhile, the number of adoption referrals by PP fell for the fourth consecutive year in 2000, to fewer than 2,500.
During the same year, Planned Parenthood clinics around the country performed almost 200,000 abortions, according to statistics available on the organization’s Internet website.
Stated another way, Planned Parenthood abortionists performed almost 80 abortions for every adoption referral the organization made in 2000, the data show.
According to Planned Parenthood, there were 9,200 adoption referrals in 1997, but that number had dropped to 2,486 by 2000.
And Kaye is ALSO screening this movie at universities and places where people for abortions can also debate on the subject, check out the link to the original story to see.
Just to be clear mr. staypuff, planned parenthood tries first to help people get birth control, so that they don’t need an abortion. As well they provide condoms, they tell young people how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases and they inform people of the choice of abstinence right on their website.
Planned Parenthood also help people adopt children and…plan to be a parent. Just so you know, all of those things help you and keep your tax dollars lower than if this services was not around.
No positive benefits to society?
How about keeping more young, poor, unmarried… girls from having more unwanted babies? Abortion has major positive benefits for society: lower crime rates, less welfare, less poverty…. and the added productivity you get from females that have been able to put off having a baby to continue their education and careers. Those are just a few benefits.
If anything, we should want there to be more abortions. I wouldnt force that on anyone though, because that would be an infringement of rights, just like laws banning abortion are.
His comment shows his bias if the anti-abortion crowd is the only group he considers irrational and in need of some debate. If he were truly unbiased, he would’ve wanted the pro-abortion crowd to debate the topic as well – the doctors performing abortions, the clinics preoviding the service, etc.
While one particular abortion only affects that particualr woman, abortion as an accepted practice has consequences for society. Things don’t happen in a vacuum.
If a woman wants to choose to have an abortion, and there are no positive benefits to our society, I don’t want my tax dollars to pay for it. Funding for Planned Parenthood needs to stop.
so showing the movie to extreme supporters of anti-abortion is bias? i dont know about that, he just wanted to see the reactions of people who feel really strongly about the subject matter and spurr debate. and i dont think comparing abortion to creationism makes sense. women choose to have abortion, nobody is forcing it on them. the woman getting rid of her unborn child for various reasons doesn’t directly affect anyone besides the woman.
peace….
You mean Roe v Wade right?
This is sort of like saying there are two sides to the evolution debate. That it and creationism both deserve equal respect and therefore both should be taught in science class.
Thats just the stance of someone that is too dumb to be able to make up their own mind about the issue. And from what Ive read that seems to be the kind of person this guy is.
The abortion issue is pretty simple. There are some people that think its right and some that think its wrong. But theres only one side that wants to use the government to FORCE their belief on the other. You can think abortion is wrong and know that in a free country you shouldnt do that.
My thoughts exactly Oliver. That is what belief is. We act on what we think is right. Sometimes our opinion is arrived at through debate and research, sometimes it is guided by a higher power – God, government, parents, whatever. In this world discussion is non-existent because if it is honestly engaged in, it often causes one side to yield in some way. People don’t like to admit that they are wrong or don’t know something.
I would love to see an unbiased documentary – on any subject – for a change but I’m not holding my breath. If Kaye has an opinion, consciously or not, it will show up in the film. Kaye is hoping to show this in the Bible belt and start a debate because that is where the irrational people are. That’s called bias, everyone. It suggests to me that this film will not address both sides of this debate equally. If it did, Kaye would be hoping to screen it for abortion doctors to open up a discussion about the negative impact abortion has had on our society.
“It’s an illness that plagues our society, and the result of people acting on a sense that they are right and others are wrong can be seen in the Middle East, in Africa and many other places.”
Uh, of course we believe that what we believe is right and what other people believe is wrong THAT’S WHAT FUCKING BELIEVING SOMETHING IS. What a fucking retarded comment *blood pressure rises*.
very true sharon, the greatest documentaries don’t focus on the opinions of the filmmakers, but the topic. if he can make a documentary on abortion without ANY bias and merely show all sides….we could have something special on our hands….
peace…