JAREK KUPSC — "The Reflecting Pool," trying to tell the truth, in America, through film

“For anybody born and raised
behind the Iron Curtain,
it wasn’t difficult to realize
what you were getting from
the television, newspapers
and the media did not exist
outside your house,” Kupsc says.
__________
“People developed other ways
to find what was going on.”

__________

I think the press
provides the pictures,
and the government
provides the wars.

Jarek Kupsc

__________

I was angry at the
success of corporate media
with propagandizing
the official lies.

__________

I have no hope
whatsoever in Obama.

THE
New American Dream Interview




JAREK KUPSC, 43, lives in Los Angeles, as of February 2009.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Jarek has been involved in independent film production since 1983.

He studied art and history in his native Warsaw, Poland, learned Byzantine Icon painting techniques in Greece, and received his B.A. in Film Writing/Directing from San Francisco State University.

He authored and illustrated "The History of Cinema for Beginners," a comic film history textbook (Writers&Readers, New York/London, 1998).

As a writer/director/producer, Jarek completed numerous short films, including the Rosebud Award-winning "Dog."

He debuted in 2001 with "Recoil" in the feature film category, following with "Slumberland" in 2005 (Winner of Special Jury Prize, 2006 Gdynia Film Festival, Poland; First Prize, 2007 Oskariada FF, Poland; Best Screenwriter, 2007 Young Film Festival, Poland.).

He is the writer/director of the 9/11 film "The Reflecting Pool."

“For anybody born and raised behind the Iron Curtain, it wasn’t difficult to realize what you were getting from the television, newspapers and the media did not exist outside your house,” Kupsc says.

“People developed other ways to find what was going on.”

[Boulder Weekly, Aug. 28-Sept. 3, 2008]


More about Jarek Kupsc:

http://www.boulderweekly.com/20080828/artsculture.html

Oped News interview with Michael Bonanno:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Bonanno-Interviews-Jarek-K-by-Michael-Bonanno-080827-638.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Bonanno-Interviews-Jarek-K-by-Michael-Bonanno-080828-89.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Interview-with-Jarek-Kupsc-by-Michael-Bonanno-080829-58.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Interview-with-Jarek-Kupsc-by-Michael-Bonanno-080830-502.html

__________

The New American Dream Trivia Question:

To win something be the last person to correctly answer the following.

Jarek Kupsc would rather be ....

a. Perusing piles of Pierogi
b. Buying a vowel
c. Telling American jokes at the Jadlodajnia Filozoficzna
d. Sharing notes with D'Toqueville
e. Able to talk loud enough to make Americans understand
f. Hovering over red borscht soup at the Neptun Polshy Restaurant on First Ave., New York


Answer:
"All of the above, except (b), (c), (d), and maybe (f)."

__________

NAD: Jarek, hello, thank you for taking the time for this.

What do you think of the press in the United States?

JAREK KUPSC:
What press?

I think the press provides the pictures, and the government provides the wars.

It's a perfect union, from the corporatocratic perspective.

I don't read anything in print anymore, except Rock Creek Free Press.

I get my information from a wide variety of websites, which I cross-reference obsessively to make sure the facts hold up.

Sometimes I consult www.whitehouse.gov, verifying the insidious laws and orders they keep passing and publishing on their website for the world to see, without any apparent interest from the corporate media.




NAD: How about films? Can political films be made here? I suppose there are tons of political films being made by independent filmmakers, right?

JAREK KUPSC:
I made a political film, alright.

I tried to make an honest film about an event that shaped our lives in this century, and is likely to influence the next several generations.

Dealing with 9/11 in an open forum is nearly impossible in the U.S.

You can do it under the radar, as most political films are being produced.

But if you want to do a mainstream, populist film, you have to follow the official line, say, like "United 93," for example.

So, propaganda is being awarded, while honesty is relegated to the underground.

Of all the documentaries made on the subject, none has received theatrical release.

Those movies, including ours, which is a narrative, were made with little money fronted by the filmmakers themselves, so it's a losing proposition, financially speaking.

Of course, nobody who is interested in truth is trying to get rich.

In fact, the search for truth is the easiest way into bankruptcy. I guess, that's democracy for you.




NAD: Why don't they get into the Cineplex 34? Not good enough?

JAREK KUPSC:
I don't know.

"The Reflecting Pool" has won some nice awards, but all big festivals have turned it down, except one in Poland.

We cannot find a distributor to open the movie in theaters.

We had to rent our own theaters to show the film in NY City, and other places.

Same goes for the DVD, which we are self-distributing with some success.

Without any push from some established critics or an honest distributor any movie dealing with an uneasy topic is bound for relative obscurity.

Luckily, the Internet helps, as it propelled "Loose Change" to great notoriety.

The press is not helping much, refusing to give these movies good reviews or at least talk about the subject matter without any bias.

Blogs and independent news sites help, but it is still not nearly enough to reach the Bible Belt and beyond.



NAD: The Reflecting Pool.

What caused you to want to make it?

Any idea how many people have seen it?

Did it change anything?

JAREK KUPSC:
I made "The Reflecting Pool" because someone had to.

I waited for that someone, and it didn't happen as of 2005, so I decided to go for it.

At the time, it was the first investigative drama about 9/11 told from an honest perspective.

I was angry at the success of corporate media with propagandizing the official lies.

From that angle, our movie is about the pursuit of truth and the cost one must pay for it in today's America.

On the seventh anniversary of 9/11, I decided to post the movie for free on Google Video, and we've gotten close to 10,000 hits so far.

Since we opened the movie in February 2008, in theaters and screening rooms, we reached about 2,000 people, plus another 4,000 with the DVD.

I've been very encouraged by the reception we've been getting.

Even though we are mostly preaching to the choir, still, the audiences are uniformly grateful a movie like that was made.

Unlike documentaries, "The Reflecting Pool" engages you emotionally as you follow the development of two main characters and share in on their struggle to overcome these insurmountable odds while dealing with 9/11.

I appreciate how our audiences get involved on a visceral level with the story.

I think the movie gives people the permission to experience these very uncomfortable emotions and thoughts: how the government is lying to you, how the media is providing a channel for the lies, and how the industrial/congressional/military complex is truly getting away with murder.

You don't get that from cable TV or satellite radio.




NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?

We don't ask this to make fun. We ask because we really seek the answers.

— Are UFOs real?
— Did we land on the moon in 1968?

I'm trying to narrow my research and interests to strictly terrestrial affairs. Having said that, I think the movie "Capricorn One" is terrific.


— Did Bush knock down the towers?

I didn't see him there with a sledge-hammer, so I'm not sure.

What I'm sure of, most of his cabinet members were directly responsible for providing security to this country, and were in the position to prevent the attacks.

I firmly believe their failure to act and prevent the attacks is a clear indication they have masterminded the September 11th events.

It testifies to their complicity in confusing the Air Defense, and the reluctance to act on multiple warnings. The money trail between Pakistani intelligence, ISI, and Atta, as well as the fact the alleged terrorists received training on secure U.S. military bases, and at a flight school connected with Jeb Bush, all point to the Made It Happen On Purpose scenario.

The list goes on and on. By contrast, there is zero evidence suggesting the attack was perpetrated by 19 hijackers with box cutters. Unless, of course, you believe in the intact terrorist's passport found in the WTC debris, where one-third of the human remains could not even be identified.

And did I mention Building Seven and Mr. Larry Silverstein?


— Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?

Of course it was an accident.

Just like the suicides of Bruce "Mr Anthrax" Ivens, Deborah "DC Madam" Palfrey, and the recent plane crash of Mike "Mr Email" Connell.

Are you trying to suggest we have some renegade assassination squad going around the country, taking out people whose testimonies could topple our government?

That's crazy, Mike.



— The Oklahoma City bombing? Wasn't that just another U.S. government terrorist exercise? Or not.

All there is to know about Oklahoma City, is that the investigators found a second, unexploded bomb, and possibly a third explosive device in the debris.

Now, how this could be done by Mr McVeigh, I don't know.

Apparently, neither does the government, because the live TV reports on the other bombs in the building were broadcast only on local networks, and censored from reaching the rest of the country.

So, as far as America is concerned, a maniac with a bunch of fertilizer took out the Murrah building.

Scientifically speaking, I subscribe the the expert opinion that such tremendous damage to the building could not have been caused by that type of an explosive.

(John Culbertson, "Case Study Relating Blast Effects to the Events of April 19, 1995, Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, utilizing test results from: Armament Directorate, Wright Laboratory, Eglin Air Force Base", January 22, 1997, pp. 19-20).

Also, I can't stop thinking about Controlled Demolition, Inc., being involved in the cleanup of both, Oklahoma City and WTC.


— Waco. We burned kids, right? You can see flames shooting out of the tanks. Or not.

Waco, what can I say? When you have a woman Attorney General who looks and acts like a man, bad things happen. I wish women politicos would act more like women instead of imitating the alpha-male archetype. We would have less problems all around.


— Is Bigfoot real?

Great question as a follow up to Waco, Mike. Next time I'm in the Himalayas, I'll check on that for you.


— Is there a God?

Can't help you there. I think we should look into ourselves for answers to our problems. Too many people relegate that duty to some other entities, and the result is the mess we're in.


... What makes you think that?

The mess I'm in.



NAD: Do you have hope in Obama?

Why?

Why not?

Do you care about Obama?


What should Americans be caring about, knowing about, that we don't know about or care about right now?

JAREK KUPSC:
I have no hope whatsoever in Obama.

I don't trust 95 percent of the people he's surrounded himself with. I think Obama is less transparent than Bush, more intelligent, and therefore much, much more dangerous.

Besides, anybody who wins an election because of a Soviet-style propaganda poster is suspicious to me.

I hope I'm wrong, but somehow I don't see Obama pulling a JFK while in office.

Americans should study very carefully what every member of the Obama Administration represents.

And then, take to the streets.



NAD: Does your favorite coffee cup have words on it? What are they?

JAREK KUPSC:
"Dobre rano, milacku!"

Which means, "Good morning, darling."

It's in Czech, and I'm Polish, but I like the Czechs. I think they're smart and charming, which is a great combination.


What did you absolutely have to get done by noon today?

This interview. But it's already past 1pm, so I'm late.


How about by Christmas 2009?

Pay back all the debts I incurred while trying to tell the truth with "The Reflecting Pool," so I can get the IRS off my back.


What else would you like to add? What else should I have asked?

You did a good job. I would like to add something positive at the end, but I'm out of material at the moment.


If you would like — please insert a link here to something you would like linked to, with a brief tag re: where that link goes:

Please support our movie - get your blissful friends a copy at:
www.reflectingpoolfilm.com

____________

About

THE New American Dream Feature Interviews

If you search the archives below, you will find, in a sort of order [last to first], interviews with:

Bill O'Driscoll, arts editor, Pittsburgh City Paper

Gerry McCarthy, editor of The Social Edge

Jim Cullen, editor of The Progressive Populist magazine

Bartcop, old-school blogger from Tulsa

Lee Rayburn, radio show host from Madison, Wisconsin

Aimee England, bookseller in Michigan

Al Markowitz, poet for the working woman & man

Timbre Wolf, a Tulsa peace minstrel goes to Hawaii

Steven Stothard, a radical grows in Indiana

Dale Clark, an artist in the desert

Jacqui Devenuau, Green Party organizer in Maine

Don Harkins, co-editor of The Idaho Observer

Stewart Bradley, independent film producer

Rick Smith, Cleveland area radio host

William P. Meyers, independent book publisher, political activist

Ian Woods, Canadian publisher, 9/11 Truth activist

Richard D. Brinkman, Edmonton, Canada 9/11 Truth

Lynn Berg, New York City actor

Alejandro Rojas, of MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network

Brian Kasoro, publisher of The Liberator magazine

Brother Raymond, walked from Denver to D.C., for truth

Korey Rowe, one of the producers of Loose Change

Dave Zweifel, editor of The Madison Capital Times

Cathleen Howard, expatriate, from Tucson to Mexico, to pursue her dreams

Sander Hicks, Brooklyn radical entrepreneur, writer, publisher

Joe Bageant, America's blue-collar author

Frida Berrigan, a lifetime of faith, hope and love

Denise Diaz, brewing up a revolution, at The Ritual Cafe in Des Moines

Deanna Taylor, Green Party activist, teacher, in Salt Lake City

Rossie Indira-Vltchek, writer, filmmaker in Jarkarta, Indonesia

Nora Barrows-Friedman, Pacifica reporter in Gaza

Delaney Bruce, Friends of Peltier

Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs

Michael Sprong, South Dakota Catholic Worker

Brian Terrell, Des Moines Catholic Worker

Bob Graf, One of the Milwaukee 14

Loren Coleman, Bigfoot researcher

Monty Borror, Sci-Fi artist from Virginia

David Ray, Great American Poet

Jack Blood, radio show host, in Austin, Texas

Danny Schechter, A Real Reporter

Bob Kincaid, host, Head-On Radio Show

Tony Packes, Animal Farm Radio Host, Keeping An Eye on Big Brother

Richard Flamer, Working With the Poor in Chiapas

David Ray Griffin, 9/11 Truth activist author

Barry Crimmins, U.S. comedian, author, social activist

Bret Hayworth, political reporter for the Sioux City [IA] Journal

Lisa Casey, publisher of website All Hat No Cattle

Joe & Elaine Mayer, activist couple in Rochester, Minnesota

Fr. Darrell Rupiper, U.S. priest revolutionary

Whitney Trettien, MIT student, Green Party activist

Meria Heller, radio show host

Phil Hey, professor, poet

John Crawford, book publisher

Steve Moon, Iowa Bigfoot researcher

Carol Brouillet, California social activist, 9/11 Truth

Russell Brutsche, Santa Cruz artist

Kevin Barrett, professor, radio show host, 9/11 Truth activist

A'Jamal Rashad Byndon, social activist in Omaha

Chris Rooney, Vancouver, Canada Catholic Worker, website publisher

Marc Estrin, political novelist, from the left

Peter Dale Scott, poet, professor, author, activist

Anthony Rayson, anarchist zine publisher, works with prisoners

Alice Cherbonnier, editor of The Baltimore Chronicle, an independent newspaper