Upon reading of the assassination of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh as a consequence of his participation in a project critical of some people's interpretation of Islam, I was filled with sadness. It's just so pointless. A film, in the end, is a piece of information and all that the Islamists are doing is to push filmmakers to CGI and anonymous filmmaking.
Imagine this, a CGI epic description of the life of Muhammed, told warts and all, set for pay-per-view Internet release only. There are no theaters to bomb, no actors to intimidate, by the time the islamists even hear of the project, it's a completed work and being viewed. The only names associated with the production are distributed server systems distributing content from impossible to identify anonymous servers maintained by large corporations.
The technology is already there. The tech geeks have been building such systems to prepare for such situations for over two decades now. It's just a matter of will in the artistic community to create the script, create the world, and give Theo van Gogh a fitting monument.
Posted by TMLutas at November 3, 2004 01:20 PM