The “Weekly Standard” profiled libertarian-leaning conservative and political commentator turned documentarian Evan Coyne Maloney, whose new documentary about the leftist ideological indoctrination and pervasive political correctness in the US higher education system is called “Indoctrinate U”. Saturday May 19, CSPAN ran a segment about his film on the network’s “Washington Journal”, but CSPAN posts footage of the shows online (when they have it up, I'll post it. His spot is at the two-hour mark). You can see a clip of his film on YouTube as well as the film's website, Indoctrinate-U.com.
“Indoctrinate U” focuses on the pervasive trampling of free speech and thought on college campuses and traces the modern history of free expression on campuses from the ‘60s through today. The doc covers personal stories like “the Kafka-esque nightmare faced by Steve Hinkle, a student at California Polytechnic, who the school attempted to sanction for placing a flier in the university's multicultural center announcing a speech by conservative African-American author, Mason Weaver.” It also features a professor who “excitedly tells the camera ‘whiteness is a form of racial oppression…treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity’.”
The “Weekly Standard” highlighted what the documentary covers (my emphasis throughout):
There was no shortage of topics. The free-wheeling film first documents the rise of the "campus free speech movement" in the 1960s and '70s, then cuts to examples of modern-day conservatives being shouted down and otherwise intimidated on college campuses. Ward Connerly is verbally assaulted for daring to disagree with campus orthodoxy on the issue of affirmative action and black professors like John McWhorter, formerly of UC-Berkeley, Carol Swain of Vanderbilt University's Law School, and Temple's Lewis Gordon all express their dismay with the current state of the academy, and the suppression of intellectual diversity therein.
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Maloney points out the intimidation tactics used against ROTC recruiters on campus, including a students protest designed to shut down a college job fair the Army Corps of Engineers is attending. The litany goes on and on, with conservative student publications stolen and professors told "we never would have hired you if we knew you were a Republican." Daniel Pipes sums it up best noting, "Going to a university today in the United States is like joining a church--you have to be a believer, you have to have the right set of views, or you're excluded."
Now that “Indoctrinate U” is completely finished, the “Weekly Standard” said he is trying to find a way to distribute his film and is relying on word of mouth and grassroots organization to encourage a distributor to take a chance. Dot-com whiz Stuart Browning, who is also one of the film’s producers, stated, "The idea is to show the demand for a film like this and show there's a ready made audience. That's the hope."
How Maloney got his start in the cinema verite genre is also interesting; it involved Michael Moore and a video camera. A sidewalk confrontation of Moore turned into an on-camera interview and after a little career advice from the Cuban health care aficionado, Maloney started down the path of becoming a documentarian. He made a short film of the encounter and posted it on his website; others followed.
Check out his appearance on CSPAN’s “Washington Week” website, and visit both his personal site Brain Terminal and the movie site Indoctrinate-U.com for updates on how the search for a distributor is going. New York-based Maloney also occasionally blogs at his website Brain Terminal.
*Image of the "Indoctrinate U" logo is from Indoctrinate-U.com
Contact Lynn Davidson at tvisgoodforyou2 AT yahoo DOT com
