ARTHOUSE FILMS: "SCREAMERS" RATING 3 OUT OF 4
by Bill Stamets, Special to The Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun Times
Final Edition
February 9, 2007 Friday
The recent documentary "Shut Up & Sing" showed the Dixie Chicks
accidentally inciting a political ruckus by bad-mouthing President Bush
at a 2003 London concert. "Screamers" is a new documentary that opens
with System of a Down playing in London two years later. On tour in
Europe and the U.S., this Armenian-American alternative-metal band
is all about bad-mouthing Turkish leaders who deny or downplay the
slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenians by Turks in 1915. Fans wear
T-shirts alleging "Turkey Republic of Inhumanity."
Armenian-American director Carla Garapedian, who got a doctorate in
international relations at the London School of Economics, presents
a wide-awake, high-decibel briefing on foreign policy, with Harvard
prof and human rights correspondent Samantha Powers serving as an
expert witness. Garapedian samples 11 songs by the L.A.-based band,
including the accusatory "P.L.U.C.K." ("Politically Lying Unholy
Cowardly Killers"). Turkey has outlawed such rhetoric via legislation
that indicts defamers of "Turkishness."
Interviewees include Hrant Dink, editor of the Turkish-Armenian
weekly newspaper, who was slain in Istanbul on Jan. 19. "Screamers"
implies that the Britain and the United States cannot acknowledge the
Armenian genocide, because of the risk of losing access to a military
airbase at Incirlik.
Garapedian deftly blends the System of a Down’s onstage invective —
"It’s time to make the Turkish government pay for their f—–g crimes"
— with an equally blunt one-liner from Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.):
"Ignoring genocide begets genocide."
(Rated R for disturbing images of genocide and language. Running time:
91 minutes. Opening today at Webster Place Theatre.)