The Fire Bill Maher campaign, which Gina blogged about, is claiming that host of HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher must be called to account for mocking the Pope. The people behind the campaign are also saying Maher got away with anti-Catholic jokes but would not have been able to get away with jokes making fun of Jews or Muslims. As Maher himself points out, he is an equal opportunity offender and makes fun of all religions without discriminating. It is also important to remember this is not the first time people have attempted to silence Maher. Bill Maher really was fired and his show Politically Incorrect really was canceled after Maher said that the 9/11 hijackers were not, in fact, cowards as Bush had claimed. Maher was not defending the people behind 9/11, but merely analyzing how and why they were able to do what they did. Then and now, Maher is a reminder of why we need to defend free speech, especially when it calls for a critical thinking and goes against conventional wisdom.

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HBO has announced their summer documentary program line-up. The season will kick off on June 9th with the new documentary, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, based on Roman Polanski and the statutory-rape case against him.

Also on board is a new doc on Heidi Fleiss, one about high school teens in Iraq called Baghdad High and one that focuses on Bush’s No Child Left Behind act.

There are a lot of great docs on the schedule including Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery.

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Last month I blogged about the upcoming debut of the film The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo a shocking exposé of a ic of Congo (DRC). Now you can take even more action and join hundreds of activists and viewers across the country to watch the premiere of this HBO documentary. The organization ENOUGH has teamed with HBO to coordinate and organize house screenings across the U.S. to view and discuss the film together on Tuesday, April 8th at 10:00 PM EDT.

The ENOUGH project is a group that uses in-depth knowledge to create clear, viable policy recommendations, and engage activists to apply pressure on the perpetrators and well-meaning governments whose own inertia prevents them from taking the steps necessary to stop genocide and

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Mediarights.org has a great interview with Lisa F. Jackson, director of the film The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo which will premiere on HBO April 8th. The film, which won a Special Jury prize from Sundance this year was shot in the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006. The documentary breaks the silence surrounding the tens of thousands of women and girls who have been kidnapped, raped and sexually tortured in that country’s intractable civil war.

Just viewing the short trailer below sent chills through my body. I feel infuriated and disgusted by the horrors these poor victims of war have faced and continue to face. I can only imagine the powerful impact this film will have on viewers.

and visit the links page for The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo which features a comprehensive list of organizations working to help women in the Congo.

The series finale of “The Wire” was last night - and as exhilarating as it was, it was also a bit sad - not just because of what happens to some characters, but because our journey with them is over. I will put all information specific to the finale and Season 5 below the fold - so as not to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t seen the episode yet - or is still catching up on past seasons (hurry - there is so much good stuff to get to!).

But before I do that, I want to post a video of the first scene of the show (I think it’s good to watch it again) and also quote creator David Simon from an interview he gave, which I think speaks to the importance of The Wire:

You know it’s funny, we’re trying to tell a story that we think is more universal than that, but at the same time it always made sense that somebody where their credibility rested on their proximity to the game, to the street world, would be interested is some of what The Wire had to say. We always sort of knew that we might hook into that a little bit. What I love is when you get some 50-year-old white guy with a two car garage who’s watching what D’Angelo Barksdale is going through and how squeezed he is by his bosses, and he goes, “Shit, that’s my job.” That to me is subversive. [The FADER]

On to the finale :

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This Sunday marks the end of HBO’s “The Wire” - one of, it not the best TV shows to come out in some time, has it’s series finale on March 9th.

I should start this off by saying that I am 2 episodes behind this season (so don’t reveal any spoilers to me!). But that being said, I am sad to think that I won’t get to hang out with Bubs, Kima, Carver, Omar and the rest of the gang (as I write this, any of those folks could already be dead…eeek!)

More than entertainment, “The Wire” gave us a window into worlds that we often see misrepresented or not represented in the movies, on TV or in the mainstream media.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Don’t miss these excellent posts on some very engaging and thoughtful topics - from going green at the office to Julian Beever to dystopian film telling us to take action now. Check out our most popular articles of the week on a variety of subjects, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

Katoucha’s Body Found: Model Helped African Women Escape Mutiliation

Julian Beever Brings Art to New Orleans Sidewalks

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Nicole:

Heath Ledger Nick Drake Video for “Black Eyed Dog” Hits Web

Top 10 Ways to Go Green in the Office

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Giulia:

Crate & Barrel Goes Green

The Black Comedy Project

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Gina:

Top 10 Dystopian Future Films Telling Us to Take Action Now

Going to “The Edge of Heaven” with Fatih Akin

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Kerry:

Sustainable Songstrees Sue West’s Rural Revival

No Impact Home A Hit At Ecobuild Exhibition

Oh when will the ignorant humor epidemic end? You know, lame comedians perpetuating racial and ethnic stereotypes through lame shticks. We’ve seen it, we’ve heard it, and we still don’t think it’s very clever.

Fear not intelligent comedy fans! There are comedians out there who are making an effort to explore and celebrate their heritage on stage without being hacky. Better yet, there are groups of comedians joining forces to explore and celebrate their heritage without being hacky. One of those groups is The Black Comedy Project.

As explained on their site “there’s a difference between what people think “Black Comedy” is and what it actually happens to be. NYC Based comedians Baron Vaughn and Elon James White have reached out to comedians across the nation to finally let the world know that there’s very different voices within the community. Let us bring them to you.”

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I love HBO’s The Wire, and if you come to the TakePart Blog now and then, you probably already knew. But what I want to share with you all is not another recommendation for The Wire, but instead for the mini-series and book that inspired the show.

Before he started work on The Wire, creator David Simon wrote a book and made a mini-series for HBO, both entitled The Corner. Like The Wire, The Corner takes place in Baltimore, but where The Corner differs is that it doesn’t look at the police and political side of things, instead it focuses on a family, on three people struggling to overcome drugs. It’s a personal take on the streets that is extremely powerful and very moving.

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One of the reason’s that HBO’s The Wire (my latest obsession) stands out from other television shows (beyond relevant plot and the best character development I’ve ever seen) is the way they really place the viewer in Baltimore (where the show is set). They work hard to make the dialogue “Baltimore dialogue”, using slang that is native to the city - like calling the young kids that are starting to sell drugs “hoppers”.

NPR has some great interviews with two of my favorite characters from the show, Dukie, a 9th grader trying to overcome a school system that doesn’t care and an awful home life, and Omar, an entrepreneur of sorts who makes his money holding up drug dealers while presenting a very nuanced portrait of homosexuality (if you haven’t started watching The Wire yet, click on those links with caution - spoilers are in the character descriptions).

Actor Jermaine Crawford (Dukie) talks with NPR specifically about how the creators of the show work hard to make the show as real as possible:

“It’s not filmed on a set. It’s filmed right on the streets of Baltimore. As it’s filmed, they [street kids and drug dealers] are on the streets watching,” he says. “You just try to reflect what you see. Not mimicking, but envisioning what you see and trying to do your best.”

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