Dreams from My Real Father

Just when you think the right-wing can't sink any deeper into the gutter, they surprise you. This "documentary" will take its place in history alongside every pseudo-scientific film Joseph Goebbels and the Nazis created to "prove" Jews were a sub-human species. The "plot" of "Dreams From My Real Father" is not worth discussing because it lacks any facts whatsoever. It is an election prompted piece of character assassination.

The good news is that when screened to un-decided voters at various focus group gatherings in the swing states, the response was universal revulsion. The vast majority of Americans are decent people and were justifiably repelled by the blatant lies, racism and sexism that is on display here.

It is interesting that Amazon and Netflix both categorize this film in the same genre as Dinesh D'Souza's laughable "2016" and docs about the mentally unbalanced Ayn Rand whose philosophy of greed and selfishness is a favorite of the Tea Party movement. If they included documentaries denying the Holocaust, it would be complete.

I received this DVD in the mail to me and I assume it's being mailed free to bazillions of voters around the US (and I am sure particularly here in Florida). I was curious about the film and decided to give it a watch. After all, it said that it was about President Obama's REAL father. But before I go on, I should honestly point out that I have zero intention of voting for Obama--I really hate his policies and feel he's divisive when he really should be focused on lowering out of control government spending. Yet, oddly, as I watched this film, I felt a bit sorry for him. Why? Because with the central allegation about Obama the film provided no evidence--none! It was full of declarative sentences (such as saying his father was NOT from Africa but was an American communist) with no substantiation whatsoever. Could these odd allegations be true? After seeing "Dreams from My Real Father", I have absolutely no idea! I would say that regardless of who the President's father is (even if it's a chipmunk), the film really missed the big picture. Regardless of his parentage, it should have focused exclusively on the man's policies and how the US economy and government spending is doing after four years. Stick to the concrete and provable facts--not weird speculation. As for the film's discussion of his past association with ultra-leftists and communists, this IS true and a matter of record--and is valid for discussion--though his failed policies are still much more relevant.

Weird unsubstantiated theories about the President's parentage--that just sounds like some nutty conspiracy unless facts can be presented instead of just accusations. It's a shame, as some parts of the film are worth seeing (the second half isn't very nutty and makes many valid points) but the overall picture is a bit too illogical and poorly constructed to be taken very seriously.

It is unclear whether this amateurish effort is meant to offend the political left or right. The left will find it generally offensive, and "Birthers" on the right will be frustrated by the undermining of their narrative.

A curious Director's Note precedes the film, acknowledging that the contents are "based on actual events," of "probable events," and "approximated conversations." http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/805/dreamsfrommyrealfatherx.jpg/

The whole of the film is presented in "Mockumentary" style (as are Director Joel Gilbert's other efforts, "Elvis Found Alive" and, "Paul McCartney Really is Dead-") with the first-person narrative meant to be the "true" voice of President Obama. The voice-over makes no real effort to sound similar to Barak Obama's tone or speech patterns, but continually presents fabricated emotional observations and descriptions as autobiographical.

The film is entertaining. Although the narrative is pedantic, predictable, and clumsy in it's stereotypes; Jazz music, nude photography, college education, foreigners and minorities are presented as communist threats to America; The Federal Government of the United States is (curiously at odds with modern Conservative thinking) a font of righteous American morals, including McCarthyism, the CIA, Hoover's FBI and anything vaguely military.

The writer is unable to reconcile his (again, Joel Gilbert) attempt at presenting Barak Obama's inner-voice with his own political agenda. The snide asides about Affirmative Action and habitual labeling of "Commies" are packed in with open attempts to paint President Obama as a race hater and devious subversive.

It can be hoped that reactionary personalities on both sides of the contemporary American political divide will view this film as either a baseless Mockumentary, sarcastically intended to show the ridiculous ease of exaggeration and misdirection, or as an inept and markedly vicious effort at inflaming an already discordant political environment.

For myself; I've seen plenty of this kind of garbage from both the liberal and conservative spectrum. If you find this kind of flailing and dishonest manipulation entertaining (as I do), I recommend Michael Moore's films, Glen Beck's books, and any commercial effort that purports to share a shocking and hidden truth.

Think for yourself!

At first, this brain-damaged hatchet job seems like an example of Poe's Law gone way too far. It is so outrageous that even most reasonable Republicans walk away in disgust, secretly hoping that this is either a failed parody/satire, or even better, an action by a Democrat Agent Provocateur type designed to make everyone to the right of Obama look like a lunatic.

But, instead, it is the work of a conspiracy theorist, and has been adopted by the "Obama is a secret Muslim/Communist" crowd. Every time a so-called conservative cites to this trash with approval, intelligent conservatives should hang their heads in shame, or better yet, take conservatism back from these imbeciles.

For those who are criticizing the GOP as "the party of stupid," they can point to this as Exhibit A.

Here is how you do it:

1. Listen to the "Obama quote" played over a montage towards the end of the film, where it sounds like he says the following:

"There are millions of working families in this country who are now forced to take their children to food banks for a decent meal. The free market, it doesn't work. It has never worked."

Doesn't sound quite right, does it?

2. Type in "President Obama Speaks on the Economy" in a search engine and click on the video on the White House website.

3. Play minute mark 23:23-23:30 4. Go back and play 10:58-11:01 5. Go forward to 16:18-16:22

More concerned about those dirty pictures? They were published in the magazine Erotique, which was published 1955- 1959. All issues of Erotique are scanned and uploaded online, available for free on the website retrojunkie. See for instance issue 23, picture 2, which is featured in this film as a picture of Ann Dunham. The copywrite year, 1958, is visible.

Since people who believe this movie have maintained that those are probably photoshopped (the irony), Collins also made a video where he flips through the pages of "The Complete Erotique" and zooms in on each featured picture. He posted it on youtube and it's titled "Fever Dreams of My Father".

There is of course much much more I could add, but I think that gives a pretty good idea of the quality of this film.