Thor Halvorssen - Documentaries - Movies - New York Times

The New York Times has a profile of Thor Halvorssen , described by First Amendment activist Nat Hentoff as "the embodiment of the nonpolitically correct person." He is a half-Norwegian Venezuelan who has founded a nonprofit to support and distribute documentary films. "At a time when the most successful documentaries on political or social issues all seem to be anti-corporate, anti-Bush, pro-environmentalist and left-leaning, the Moving Picture Institute has backed pro-business, anti-Communist and even anti-environmentalist ones." I have seen four of their films so far, including "Indoctrinate U," about suppression of free (right-wing) speech on college campuses and "Mine Your Own Business," which "portrays environmentalists as condescending elitists while impoverished locals insist they would welcome the jobs and development the mines would bring." Like the films of Michael Moore and other left-leaning documentarians, these films do not pretend to be balanced. And like those films, they make important points that shift the burden of proof to the other side. I look forward to seeing how the films of Halvorssen's Motion Picture Institute are received by audiences and by the people they portray. And to seeing whatever they come up with next.