Ironic Surrealism II

“Bloody Cartoons” documentary to air in Finland.

Thousands of angry Syrian demonstrators eventually storm the Danish Embassy and set fire to it

Bloody Cartoons

Producer: Alan Hayling
Director: Karsten Kjaer
Editor: Anders Refn
Country: Denmark

“Innocent white paper until black ink is applied”- Lead line in documentary

This was a chance to respond to terrorists who provoke us - by using religion as their spiritual ammunition - Fleming Rose

ABOUT THIS FILM

Bloody Cartoons is a documentary about how and why 12 drawings in a Danish provincial paper could whirl a small country into a confrontation with Muslims all over the world. He asks whether respect for Islam combined with the heated response to the cartoons is now leading us towards self-censorship. How tolerant should we be, he wonders, of the intolerant. And what limits should there be, if any, to freedom of speech in a democracy.

The director films in Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Qatar, France, Turkey and Denmark, talking to some of the people that played key roles during the cartoon crisis.

DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY

KARSTEN KJAER is a Journalist, Director and Producer who worked as a foreign correspondent for World Media before turning to television. He has produced more than 200 programmes for Danish and European television as well as numerous specials on world affairs, especially in the Middle East. Karsten is the founder and owner of the independent production company Freeport Film in Copenhagen. He is best known for his use of satire, humour and extraordinary methods in the coverage of sensitive political and cultural issues.
FILM CONTEXT

The controversy over the Cartoons started when the independent liberal daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in September 2005. The publishing of the cartoons was motivated by the difficulties of finding artists to illustrate a children’s book about the prophet. Artists were reluctant to provide the drawings out of fear of being attacked by religious extremists.

Political History
Denmark is the oldest kingdom in the world and one of the countries that constitute Scandinavia. To this day it is a constitutional monarchy. However, Denmark has been an indpendent democracy since 1849. The country has been a member of the European Union since 1973. From the beginning Denmark has been sceptical towards the union. Denmark has neither accepted the Euro as its currency nor supports the idea of a common defence force.

The Political Scene
Denmark has a multiparty system and is a welfare society. In the 2001 elections the Liberal-Conservative parties came into power and formed a minority coalition government. This ended many decades of Social Democratic domination. The leader of the Venstre (Liberal) Party, Prime Minister Rasmussen, was re-elected in February 2005. The Liberal-Conservative government supported the US-led war in Iraq, and has troops present in Afghanistan.

In recent years the Right-wing Danish People’s Party has gained prominence on the political scene. As the third biggest party in Denmark, the Danish People’s Party is part of the Liberal-Conservative coalition that forms government. Amongst others, this has lead to a new stricter immigration policy and a district and city council reform that has resulted in fewer but larger districts throughout the country.

World Relevance
The cartoons sparked a controversy far beyond Denmark’s borders and caused violent protests throughout Muslim communities around the globe. A number of countries in the Middle East boycotted Danish goods in January 2006 and Danish, Swedish and Norwegian embassies were attacked. Some countries even recalled their ambassadors from Denmark. The Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called the controversy Denmark’s worst international crisis since World War II.

Looking Ahead
Critics of the cartoons claim that they were racist and Islamophobic. According to the critics the controversy is an expression of a society and a political system that is becoming more and more hostile towards non-European immigrants in general and Muslims in particular.

Meanwhile, supporters argue that no one was looking to attack Muslims, and that the cartoons are but an expression of freedom of speech in a Western democracy where drawings of religious prophets are published all the time. They point out that the worldwide discussion and protests is a result of living in times with widespread Islamic terrorism. In fact, magazines, newspapers and news websites all over Europe published the Muhammad cartoons in support of Jyllands-Posten and concept of ‘freedom of speech’.

Bloody Cartoons goes behind the controversy of the Muhammad caricatures by documenting the escalation of the political crisis and in the process examiniing the need for freedom of speech in democratic societies.

Description: Life and livelihood were heavily at stake when a small Danish newspaper chose to print a selection of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed. Karsten Kjaer takes us through the events that followed, and travels the world to question the protesters and explore their motivations. Could a few Muhammed Cartoons have affected the future of free speech?

Danish director angered at YLE decision to shelve documentary

Danish film director Karsten Kjær has reacted with anger and astonishment at a decision by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) not to show his film Bloody Cartoons, which analyses the controversy surrounding the publication of caricatures depicting the prophet Muhammad by a Danish newspaper in early 2006.
The film is part of the world’s largest international documentary project called Why Democracy?
In October this year, more than 300 million people around the world will have access to ten documentaries concerning democracy. About 40 TV companies are involved in the project.
Only nine of the films are to be aired by YLE. The decision to shelve Bloody Cartoons is exceptional: even the Al-Arabiya,the second-most popular TV channel in the Middle East, will air the film on November 11th.
Kjær says that in Britain, the BBC pondered whether or not to allow shots showing the controversial cartoons during the airing of the documentary. The BBC decided to show the cartoons, even though it would not do so while the controversy itself was raging.

YLE reverses decision: documentary on Muhammad cartoons to be shown

The film, Bloody Cartoons by director Karsten Kjær is to be shown on YLE TV2 on Tuesday, October 16th at 11:00 PM. The film is part of the international Why Democracy? project.
When he heard about YLE’s initial decision, Kjær accused YLE of censorship, and compared the case with the practice of Finnish self-censorship at the time that Finland was a neighbour of the Soviet Union.

The reason given by YLE not to air the documentary was that the topic was seen to have been worn out. It was also noted that the time slot for documentaries on TV2 is limited.

Or is it??

H/T Finland For Thought

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