Alternative Weekly on Loose Change

The Phoenix New Times is a typical arts and entertainment weekly; think of the Village Voice. It's reliably liberal to leftist. To give you an idea, the last two years their "Best of Phoenix" award for best talk show host has gone to Charles Goyette and Mike Newcomb, two Air America Phoenix gabbers.

But even they did not fall for Loose Change. Here's a terrific broadside from a critic who calls himself The Bird:

The looniness of these theories was topped only by the filmmakers' suggestion that the cell phone calls from the hijacked planes were faked. See, apparently the government has this technology where it can easily replicate someone's voice. All that Bush's nefarious peels had to do was a little research and they could easily fake a bunch of relatives into thinking they'd heard their loved ones' final goodbyes.

Now, if you think this all sounds way too stupid even for Hollywood, you'd be right. But it's not too stupid for our intrepid filmmakers, a trio of kids who genuinely believe this stuff. The Bird's not kidding: They call this little comedy a "documentary."

He goes on to question the sanity of one of the presenters of the movie:

And that leads The Bird to ask a question, too. Namely: How is it possible that someone stupid enough to fall for this shit is teaching at Scottsdale Community College?

Like the young documentarians, The Bird's got evidence to spare. The film was introduced by a woman named Carrie Jones, who the college's Web site confirms is a faculty member in SCC's motion picture/television department.

And Jones isn't exactly bashful about her views. "I had two weeks of depression after seeing this film," she told the crowd at 3 Roots. "And I've never been depressed in my life."

Not because the film was so bad, mind you. But because Carrie Jones believes it!

"I can say with 100 percent confidence," she continued, "that this was an inside job by our government."

Actually it looks like Scottsdale Community College is a hotbed for this kind of nuttery:

The Loose Change crew's visit to the Valley is sponsored by a course taught at Scottsdale Community College entitled "Lights, Camera, Activism: Documentaries for Social Change." The class is taught by Dr. Penelope Price, a Telly award-winning documentarian and faculty member of SCC's Motion Picture/Television Department.

The SCC screening of Loose Change 2, which is free and open to the public, will occur Tuesday evening, April 11. Starting at 7:00 p.m., the movie will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers. The screening will be held in Motion Picture/Television Studio A (Room AP209), which is in the Applied Sciences building on the east side of campus. SCC is located at 9000 E. Chaparral Rd., Scottsdale.

On Wednesday, April 12, "Lights, Camera, Activism" will host an informal luncheon with the filmmakers from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. to allow MP/TV students the opportunity to mingle with the makers of Loose Change and ask further questions. The luncheon will be held at Motion Picture/Television Studio B (Room AP211), Applied Sciences building, SCC campus.

Dr. Price said she invited the filmmakers to screen their documentary and participate in discussions with MP/TV students because, "I believe artists are the true counselors of the nation and that Loose Change will ignite dialogue and encourage critical thinking."