The Anatomy Of Hate: A Dialogue For Hope
source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/08/27/anatomy.of.hate/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn
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Mike Ramsdell was recently out of film school when the 9/11 attacks threw America's sense of security upside down.
Born to a Lebanese mother and a father who is a social studies teacher, the Michigan native grappled with the horror of what happened to his country that day just as he paid attention to people's reactions.
When he heard President Bush's declaration of war on terrorism, he thought to himself: "A lot of people are going to die."
He set out on a six-year journey to explore that which fuels wars big and small, real and perceived. He wanted to know why people hate.
"If we are a species that is born with the intent to live a peaceful, prosperous and content life," Ramsdell, 36, wanted to know, "why is it that we've never been able to collectively achieve that?"
The filmmaking odyssey took him to the white supremacist movement, to Christian fundamentalists with an anti-gay agenda and across the globe to the Middle East. There he spent time with Muslim extremists, Palestinians fighting the Intifada, Israeli settlers and soldiers and with American troops serving in Iraq.
Along the way, he weighed in with a team of experts in psychology, sociology and neurology.
"I never confronted anyone in an ideological context," he said, describing how he gained access to groups and individuals. "My goal at the end of the day was to understand."
The end result was "The Anatomy of Hate: A Dialogue for Hope," an award-winning documentary from Under the Hood Productions. The film will screen in Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday evening at the Carter Center as part of the Atlanta International Documentary Film Festival, also known as DocuFest.
---CLICK THE LINK TO READ AN INTERVIEW WITH THE FILMMAKER---
Born to a Lebanese mother and a father who is a social studies teacher, the Michigan native grappled with the horror of what happened to his country that day just as he paid attention to people's reactions.
When he heard President Bush's declaration of war on terrorism, he thought to himself: "A lot of people are going to die."
He set out on a six-year journey to explore that which fuels wars big and small, real and perceived. He wanted to know why people hate.
"If we are a species that is born with the intent to live a peaceful, prosperous and content life," Ramsdell, 36, wanted to know, "why is it that we've never been able to collectively achieve that?"
The filmmaking odyssey took him to the white supremacist movement, to Christian fundamentalists with an anti-gay agenda and across the globe to the Middle East. There he spent time with Muslim extremists, Palestinians fighting the Intifada, Israeli settlers and soldiers and with American troops serving in Iraq.
Along the way, he weighed in with a team of experts in psychology, sociology and neurology.
"I never confronted anyone in an ideological context," he said, describing how he gained access to groups and individuals. "My goal at the end of the day was to understand."
The end result was "The Anatomy of Hate: A Dialogue for Hope," an award-winning documentary from Under the Hood Productions. The film will screen in Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday evening at the Carter Center as part of the Atlanta International Documentary Film Festival, also known as DocuFest.
---CLICK THE LINK TO READ AN INTERVIEW WITH THE FILMMAKER---
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