Pledge of Allegiance Blues (3 1/2 Stars!)
Featured in Video Librarian
By P. Hall
Published: May/June 2007 (Volume 22, Issues 3)

In 2004, the Supreme Court found itself reviewing a potential hot potato case: Sacramento-based, blues-playing physician and lawyer Michael Newdow, a self-described atheist, brought a suit against a California school district to remove the words “under God” from classroom recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, citing it as a violation of the First Amendment. The court sidestepped the issue via a convenient loophole—claiming that Newdow, who sued the school district where his daughter was enrolled, was not entitled to bring the suit since he was not her custodial parent (his ex-wife had parental authority). But the fact that Newdow came so far to present a cogent argument against the religious assumptions in the Pledge of Allegiance was a testament to his perseverance. Lisa Seidenberg’s documentary portrait is hardly hagiographic: Newdow, though a powerful figure, often comes across as both arrogant and humorless, but he presents his argument with a laser-focused coherence. Of course, not everyone is swayed by Newdow, who maintains a log of hostile voicemail messages from those who seem to be far more interested in childishly demeaning his intellect than realistically challenging his opinions. Newdow obviously enjoys the camera’s attention, and even makes noted legal eagle Alan Dershowitz (who is interviewed here) seem shy and reserved by comparison. Both as a lesson in law and as an entertaining personality profile, Pledge of Allegiance Blues is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)

 

Film Review: PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE BLUES
Featured on Institute for Humanist Studies for HumanistNetworkNews.org
By Jennifer Hancock
Published: August 6, 2008

By now most of you know about Michael Newdow’s case to eliminate the words “under God” from the pledge of allegiance. It was, after all, national headline news just a few years ago.

Turns out that an independent journalist named Lisa Seidenberg followed this case and created a documentary on the subject: Pledge of Allegiance Blues. Distributed by Alive Mind Media, the film follows Newdow on his journey all the way to the Supreme Court.

Like most humanists, I watched this case with interest. While I would not have taken the time to protest this particular violation of our Constitution myself, I have to admit, the inclusion of those two words in our pledge is rather annoying.

If we are going to have a pledge it would be nice to have one that doesn’t make me feel so uncomfortable. Having our religious brethren tell us that we can just opt not say it, or stay silent for two beats while everyone else says those words isn’t a very satisfactory solution.

Of course, now that I am the mother of a young boy, this isn’t just an annoying issue. While I don’t mind my son being exposed to religion, I don’t want it presented as some official thing that everyone has to participate in.

Older children can decide for themselves whether or not to participate in the pledge. Young children, who are just learning it, aren’t capable of deciding for themselves whether to participate in it or not. And that is exactly why Newdow sued. Well that, and because he apparently thought it would be a fun thing to do.

Which brings us to this nice little film. If you have not had the pleasure of meeting Michael Newdow in person, Pledge of Allegiance Blues provides an engaging look at who he is and what drives him. Newdow is a very intelligent man with a good sense of humor and an excitement for all aspects of his life. In short, he is your typical humanist. Oh, and he also sings, plays guitar and writes fun songs about whatever is on his mind. Most of the songs in the film are his. My favorite was “Callipygian”. If you don’t know what that means, I suggest you look it up.

But this film is really about the pledge case. Early on, Seidenberg asks Newdow why he filed this case. His answer was simple. No one else had. The Act of Congress that added those words in 1954 was clearly unconstitutional. For some reason, no one had ever filed a suit to restore the pledge to its original more constitutional form–so, he did.

What makes this film interesting and sometimes scary are the segments that follow the exploits of the members of the religious right who really want to keep our nation “under God.” The scariest sequence was Milford, Connecticut’s Day of Prayer event.

A group of large men literally laid hands on a rather small mayor and prayed for him with all in attendance reaching out with their hands to add their prayers to him as well. They apparently wanted to touch him; they just couldn’t reach that far.

I have been in many churches over the years and consider myself to be very tolerant as far as these things go, but I have never seen anything like that. It was actually frightening to me. These people looked like zealots. It made me think that perhaps I should go to my local day of prayer just to see what kind of funky rituals they might be performing.

There were a few high points in the movie for me. The interview with Larry Flynt was great, as was the interview with Alan Dershowitz. But what really got me excited was when I started to recognize people I know at the rally at the Supreme Court building. I had no idea some of my friends had gone up to witness this historic event and provide a counter voice to the religious zealots who were busy praying for the Supreme Court to ignore the Constitution in favor of theocracy.

The most important aspect of this film is that it very clearly discusses the merits of the case itself–using both a historian and Dershowitz to explain the historical and legal aspects of the inclusion of those two words in the pledge. Anyone who might have been confused as to what this case was about, and let’s face it, there were a lot of people who were, should see those two interviews. They make it very clear and very simple.

For we humanists, I think what is also made clear in this film is that many of the people who were so adamant that the words “under God” remain in the pledge, don’t even know how to say the pledge right in the first place. They all get it wrong. Wrong words, wrong order, the only thing they get right is the “one nation under God” part. And, it isn’t like that pledge is hard to remember. It is only 31 words drilled into our heads since childhood. Dershowitz is absolutely right when he says that most of these people are incredibly stupid.

Is this film worth seeing? Surprisingly, my answer is yes. I don’t normally like documentaries about issues such as this. But I learned a lot I didn’t know from this film, and I consider myself well informed. It is also rather short, coming in at just about 70 minutes. It doesn’t take a long time commitment to watch.

Alive Mind Media, the distributor of Pledge of Allegiance Blues, is new to me. Any company whose goal is to “engage the power of humanist values in illuminating and entertaining ways” is worth checking out.

They have another interesting title available on DVD, related to the documentary “A History of Disbelief,” that aired on PBS a couple of years ago. As part of that series, several interesting atheist-intellectuals were interviewed, including Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Arthur Miller and Steven Weinberg. Alive Mind Media has the complete interviews of all these individuals and more as part of The Atheism Tapes. That is definitely going on my “Chris-kwaan-zukah” wish list.

Pledge of Allegiance Blues and The Atheism Tapes can be purchased directly from Alive Mind Media at: www.alivemindmedia.com.

Jennifer Hancock is a writer, humanist and the mother of a three year old boy. Her website is sumogirl.com. Included on the website is her weekly podcast: “Humanist Thought of the Week”.

 

Church, State, Pledge, People Fighting. Film at 11.
Featured on Faith In Honest Doubt / Dances With Anxiety
By Dale Smith
Published: July 22, 2008

I got a chance to watch Pledge of Allegiance Blues, a documentary by Lisa Seidenberg concerning Michael Newdow’s efforts to take “under god” out of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Well, that’s how it begins. The documentary opens by asserting that there are two kinds of stories — the kind in which a stranger arrives in town, and the kind in which the protagonist goes on a journey — and that the documentary will be both. In fact it is both of those things and more things besides.

A blurring of purpose dogs the film, but what emerges is nonetheless an interesting and informative snapshot of some of the lively antagonisms roiling the USA as of 2005 or so, and of some of the people involved:

• - The historical, political and legal questions of “under god” in the pledge.
• - Alan Dershowitz overcomes his crippling camera-shyness and gives an interview in which he uses the F__ word.
• - Speaking of the F__ word, Larry Flynt appears to discuss the usual things he discusses when he’s not discussing his porn empire: censorship, the schemings of the religious right, etc.
• - Sandy Rios, arguably the most concerned of the Concerned Women for America, speaks for the theocrats. She’s quite a piece of work.
• - There are scenes concerning Judge Roy Moore and his Ten Commandments monument. He’s quite a piece of work.
• - Above all, the film profiles Michael Newdow himself: concerned parent, doctor, lawyer, publicity whore (not necessarily a bad thing), singer-songwriter, citizen activist, self-made man, contrarian, possible crackpot.
• - The film offers plenty of ‘man on the street’ interviews that show just how low the Low Information Voter is capable of going in the USA, especially when it comes to these hot-button cultural divisions.

The film is worth watching for the portrait it paints of a society divided over some very basic questions — strangers to each other in surprising ways and yet trying to take a shared journey.

 

Filmmaker Completes ‘Pledge of Allegiance Blues’
Featured in the Westport News
By Frank Luongo
Published: June 18, 2004

In her recently completed feature-length documentary, Pledge of Allegiance Blues, Westport filmmaker Lisa Seidenberg tells the viewer that most stories begin with either a stranger coming to town or someone going on a journey. “This has both,” the viewer hears her say.

The stranger was Michael Newdow who in the fall of 2002 came to Westport to speak about his successful challenge in federal court to the constitutionality of the phrase “under God” in the saying of Pledge of Allegiance by his daughter’s elementary school class in California.

That decision was set aside Monday on Flag Day by the United States Supreme Court, which found that Newdow did not have the legal standing necessary to bring the case to court because he was not his daughter’s custodial parent.

Seidenberg attended Newdow’s talk out of general curiosity, with no intention of making a movie, but came away launching a film-journey to understand Newdow’s action and to explore the intertwining of religion and patriotism in America.

“I wanted to know what makes someone wake up one morning and sue the Congress and the president before breakfast. I also wanted to know why it bothered people so much,” she says in the film’s narration, her first appearance in one of her own documentaries.

Whether it was just good luck or a residual of good planning, the value of the timing of the Supreme Court’s decision is not lost on Seidenberg in terms of the promotion of the film, which she hopes to sell for commercial distribution.

She will be coming to the movie-market at a time when documentaries are doing well, as evidenced in the critical acclaim for Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911, which won “best picture” designation - unusual for a documentary - at this year’s Cannes Film festival and is scheduled for release nationwide June 25.

It was Newdow’s one-person stand, a kind of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” story, that interested Seidenberg. “He did it with only a computer, a printer and Google. He set a great example that anyone can go to the Supreme Court.”

Of course Newdow, as Seidenberg was quick to acknowledge, is not just anybody, and that was part of his appeal for a movie-maker.

He has a law degree, but is a physician by profession. He sued on behalf of his daughter’s rights, but was opposed by the girl’s mother, with whom he was estranged and not married. He holds a certificate of ordination for life as a minister of the Universal Life Church, which entitles him to perform weddings, subject to the limitations of state law

To top it off, Newdow wrote folk ballads and strummed a guitar, as he did at the end of his talk in Westport with a rendition of his Pledge of Allegiance Blues.

Seidenberg at once saw she could have an interesting issue, an unusual subject, “like a modern-day Woody Guthrie,” she said, and a jazzy title for a documentary, all in one package.

“A documentary must be entertaining. It can’t be a bitter pill that’s good for you. I wouldn’t watch that kind of movie either,” she said.

“When I first saw the Bill of Rights, I sure had some sleepless nights,” Newdow sings early on in the film, after a scene from an interview with Connie Chung on CNN, in which she said: “Probably a lot of people out there, our viewers in particular, think what you are doing is blatantly anti-American.”

With more than a touch of sass, Newdow shot back: “Those people don’t understand the Constitution, which says that Congress shall make no law establishing religion. I would only ask those people how they would feel if they had to say the Pledge under Sun Myung Moon, David Koresh or Jesus Christ.”

“He touched a sensitive nerve,” according to Seidenberg, and she captured this on film, moving around the country, including a stop in Montgomery Ala. for the public eruption over the removal of stone replicas of the Ten Commandments from a state court house, a furor that included derogatory references to Newdow.

“There’s a larger emotional issue at work. Removing the phrase would threaten some people’s values, even though it wasn’t in the Pledge until 1954,” Seidenberg said. “The Pledge has become an icon for those who see America under siege, alone in the world.”

Although Seidenberg has directed and produced seven documentaries and was the director of photography for six others, Pledge of Allegiance Blues is her first feature-length film.

She called this new film a “great adventure, exploring America. This was really the first time I had looked at my own country.”

Most of her experience has involved filming in China, the Middle East and Russia. Her film, Mongolia on the Edge of Time was shot in one of the remotest places on earth.

The Connecticut Commission on the Arts awarded Seidenberg a fellowship in 2002, and she earned a “Best of Fest” prize from the Rochester International Film and Video competition in 1998, as well as a Bronze Apple Award in the National Educational Film and Video Festival in 1991.

Seidenberg has more than 20 broadcast and cable television credits, including The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. She is a founder and former director of Norwalk’s SoNo Film and Video Festival and was film curator at the Westport Public Library from 1999-2001.