Informant

Informant (2012)

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81 min - Documentary - 13 September 2013
Big Blue Sky Rating : 5.0/10

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Director : Jamie Meltzer
Writers : Jamie Meltzer
Stars : Brandon Darby, Scott Crow, Lisa Fithian, Caroline Heldman

A documentary on radical left-wing activist turned FBI informant, Brandon Darby.

This guy is so full of himself

OK, it is clear from the very beginning this guy may just be one of the biggest B.S.er's on the Planet. Brandon Darby is the proto-typical teenage middle class white kid who runs away from home wearing his Che Guevara T-shirt and falls for every "revolutionary", damn the man, cause that comes down the pipe. He is arrogant, aggressive, thinks he knows better than everybody else and then finds himself in a world where he realizes that he know very little.

The problem with this guys "stories" (whether some of them are true or untrue) is he is the same figure that makes up most left wing radicals. They just want attention and will seek out every cause on the planet until they find one they can make a name, and hopefully fame and money from.

My guess is that most of these crazy activist leftist groups saw this dude for who he was....a B.S. er. and when he couldn't become that star he became an informant. He became an informant because he was just seeking some sort of "exciting" life. He really could care less about anyone else.

The kids who got busted for the molotav cocktails deserved to get busted. They say they had no intention of using them, but why then create them at all? One said he didn't know just making them was a crime...Ignorance is no excuse and its an incendiary device, what kind of idiot thinks thats OK?

Either way, Brandon, David, and anyone involved are all self absorbed idiots. Which pains me to give it a 7, but just because I don't like the people involved doesn't mean it's not a decent film.

All-in-all this just shows the loopy extreme left-wing and how they prey on young, white, middle class people, and many of them just grow out of that stage, but some just become pawns in this fake, "damn the man," fight they always create out of thin air. Teach your kids reality, when you see them wearing Che Guevara shirts, and joining activist groups, teach them some history so that they don't believe the revisionist history that the left tries to teach today.

Watch Informant Trailer :

OR

Better This World

Better This World (2011)

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82 min - Documentary - 23 April 2011
Big Blue Sky Rating : 6.8/10

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Director : Kelly Duane, Katie Galloway

Stars : Scott Crow, Brandon Darby, Matthew Vadum

A pair of childhood friends from Texas who set out to prove themselves.

A Powerful Film that Speaks Truth to Power

It was a pleasure to attend the World Premiere of Better This World at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. This film tells the Kafkaesque story of how two young idealistic political activists from Texas – Brad Crowder and David McKay - were charged with domestic terrorism while protesting at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, MN. Better This World raises serious questions about the abuse of civil liberties in the post-9/11 "War on Terror." The two key issues that emerge are 1) The use of government informants to entrap people into committing criminal acts and the 2) The widespread practice of using plea bargaining to entice the criminally accused into admitting guilt and accepting a lighter sentence rather than risk a much longer sentence at trial. The use of informants is an issue that is rarely discussed, but seems to be increasingly common in recent years. The issue of plea bargaining has recently been spotlighted in several films about the events in Tulia, TX and the feature film American Violet.

Both practices raise serious questions about how far the police and prosecutors will bend the rules in order to make their cases. The film is well-made and compelling examination of how the justice system acted to tear apart the lives of two young men who never hurt anyone and seemed at worst to be guilty of poor judgment. There will always be a balance between protecting civil liberties and seeking to secure justice and protect public safety. In this case and too many others in recent years, it seems as if we've failed to protect the rights of the criminally accused. As Ben Franklin told us centuries ago, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty." If we sacrifice our civil liberties, we sacrifice our democracy. Films like Better This World force us to ask difficult questions about how our democracy functions.

Better This World is scheduled for broadcast on PBS's POV in the fall. It deserves to be widely seen as we seek "a more perfect union."

Watch Better This World Trailer :

OR

Informant

Informant (2012)

---

81 min - Documentary - 13 September 2013
Big Blue Sky Rating : 5.0/10

---

Director : Jamie Meltzer
Writers : Jamie Meltzer
Stars : Brandon Darby, Scott Crow, Lisa Fithian, Caroline Heldman

A documentary on radical left-wing activist turned FBI informant, Brandon Darby.

This guy is so full of himself

OK, it is clear from the very beginning this guy may just be one of the biggest B.S.er's on the Planet. Brandon Darby is the proto-typical teenage middle class white kid who runs away from home wearing his Che Guevara T-shirt and falls for every "revolutionary", damn the man, cause that comes down the pipe. He is arrogant, aggressive, thinks he knows better than everybody else and then finds himself in a world where he realizes that he know very little.

The problem with this guys "stories" (whether some of them are true or untrue) is he is the same figure that makes up most left wing radicals. They just want attention and will seek out every cause on the planet until they find one they can make a name, and hopefully fame and money from.

My guess is that most of these crazy activist leftist groups saw this dude for who he was....a B.S. er. and when he couldn't become that star he became an informant. He became an informant because he was just seeking some sort of "exciting" life. He really could care less about anyone else.

The kids who got busted for the molotav cocktails deserved to get busted. They say they had no intention of using them, but why then create them at all? One said he didn't know just making them was a crime...Ignorance is no excuse and its an incendiary device, what kind of idiot thinks thats OK?

Either way, Brandon, David, and anyone involved are all self absorbed idiots. Which pains me to give it a 7, but just because I don't like the people involved doesn't mean it's not a decent film.

All-in-all this just shows the loopy extreme left-wing and how they prey on young, white, middle class people, and many of them just grow out of that stage, but some just become pawns in this fake, "damn the man," fight they always create out of thin air. Teach your kids reality, when you see them wearing Che Guevara shirts, and joining activist groups, teach them some history so that they don't believe the revisionist history that the left tries to teach today.

Watch Informant Trailer :

OR

Better This World

Better This World (2011)

---

82 min - Documentary - 23 April 2011
Big Blue Sky Rating : 6.8/10

---

Director : Kelly Duane, Katie Galloway

Stars : Scott Crow, Brandon Darby, Matthew Vadum

A pair of childhood friends from Texas who set out to prove themselves.

A Powerful Film that Speaks Truth to Power

It was a pleasure to attend the World Premiere of Better This World at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. This film tells the Kafkaesque story of how two young idealistic political activists from Texas – Brad Crowder and David McKay - were charged with domestic terrorism while protesting at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, MN. Better This World raises serious questions about the abuse of civil liberties in the post-9/11 "War on Terror." The two key issues that emerge are 1) The use of government informants to entrap people into committing criminal acts and the 2) The widespread practice of using plea bargaining to entice the criminally accused into admitting guilt and accepting a lighter sentence rather than risk a much longer sentence at trial. The use of informants is an issue that is rarely discussed, but seems to be increasingly common in recent years. The issue of plea bargaining has recently been spotlighted in several films about the events in Tulia, TX and the feature film American Violet.

Both practices raise serious questions about how far the police and prosecutors will bend the rules in order to make their cases. The film is well-made and compelling examination of how the justice system acted to tear apart the lives of two young men who never hurt anyone and seemed at worst to be guilty of poor judgment. There will always be a balance between protecting civil liberties and seeking to secure justice and protect public safety. In this case and too many others in recent years, it seems as if we've failed to protect the rights of the criminally accused. As Ben Franklin told us centuries ago, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty." If we sacrifice our civil liberties, we sacrifice our democracy. Films like Better This World force us to ask difficult questions about how our democracy functions.

Better This World is scheduled for broadcast on PBS's POV in the fall. It deserves to be widely seen as we seek "a more perfect union."

Watch Better This World Trailer :

OR