Crawford

This film had its World Premiere yesterday appropriately at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. The filmmakers take this small town of only 800 people and make it a microcosm for red state America and its relationship to President Bush. They take this town where President Bush bought a ranch just before running for President and they present it with all its folksy characters with charm, wit, and spirit. They show how the town has been changed by President Bush's arrival.

While the film could have become anti-Bush diatribe that really is not what happens. Instead, the film makers paint a portrait that is both humorous and informative. They show how this administration has changed America by showing the changes and divisions that have occurred in the President's new "home town" during his administration. The reverberations of the Iraq War (and in Crawford, the Cindy Sheehan protests) are particularly fascinating. They paint a picture for the big city folk of what life and attitudes are like in a really small rural town in a very red part of Texas. They show the diversity of viewpoints that exist even in a town like Crawford. It is a powerful human portrait.

The film was well-received by the crowd in Austin. This is a film that deserves a wider audience, because there are many Americans who rarely experience a place like Crawford, TX.

This is a great film. It begins as seemingly a Michael Moore-esquire film, it summons the spirit of "Hands on a Hardbody", that Texas classic and has quite a few surprises. Crawford shows what spending a lot of time in a small town you once judged broadly can do. More should see this, and is should have a wide DVD distribution.

The story relating to the teacher, seemingly stuck in a town full of kool aid drinkers, is really the heart of the show. It was impressive how that story sneaks up on you and provides some hope for all small communities, that there is truth often subtly told to power. But it also shows how destructive those little personal sacrifices and "being different" have on the soul.

Truly one worth watching to see unanticipated effects of W's political theatre had on a small town. Great stuff.

http://eattheblinds.blogspot.com

Just prior to George W. Bush announcing his candidacy for president, he relocated to a town of 705 people named Crawford, Texas. Why, exactly, would an Ivy League, Skull and Bones, multi-millionaire oil man relocate to a one horse town still reeling from its drought ravaged past? The answer to this question is the starting point of Crawford, a new documentary available on Hulu.com.

Over the next 75 minutes we get familiar with a cross-section of Crawford's residents and witness the effect the arrival of Bush has on each of their lives. Director David Modigliani uses Crawford as a microcosm to represent the great divide emblematic of present day USA, a country bitterly divided by those on the right and those on the left. Modigliani tries very hard to stay in the middle of the road, but his efforts are thwarted by those on the right who glibly play their part as defined by their stereotype. These are people intolerant of others, judgmental, willfully ignorant, and openly religious, blind followers of Bush and all too ready to regurgitate his clichéd rhetoric. These aren't bad people and they're never presented in a way that would make you hate them, but their overall lack of self-awareness and self- righteous zeal to promote their world view makes them very hard to empathize with.

The few people in Crawford who we make a real connection to are those who defy the small town stereotype, those who dare to be different in the face of a very tight knit, conservative community. It is through the eyes of Crawford's liberals that we get a glimpse into what it really means to be exposed, vulnerable, curious and concerned with what's wrong with the world. These few people aren't set in their ways, they aren't bullies and they're not preaching. Ironically these few who aren't religious are the ones living the religious example "There but for the grace of God go I." In the end, Crawford doesn't editorialize, nor does it force you to pick sides; it simply shows people as they are and it lets us decide who we'd rather break bread with. You would think the decision is a no-brainer, but you can never underestimate the power of those with no brains.