Anna Broinowski’s terrific film, Forbidden Lie$, looks at Khouri’s story, and attempts to untangle the many threads–fact, fiction, con, hoax, art–that surround Khouri, her book, and her detractors. Khouri is a strong presence in the film, and her interactions with the filmmaker raise new questions, spin new stories and result in a trip to Jordan where Khouri attempts to prove her veracity.

Khouri is mesmerizing, but is it the passion of an activist or the seduction of a con artist that draws us in? A running poll on the film’s website shows that opinions continue to differ. Wander into the tangled web and make up your own mind!

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As always, the disclaimer applies: This is a festival to which I have a substantial connection. I have volunteered for the past two years and sat on this year’s Selection Committee. I wrote for the festival catalog and will likely be introducing some of the filmmakers and subjects at the festival. Feel free to adjust for my bias. My blog reportage and opinions, however, do not represent the views of AFI or the SILVERDOCS festival, the Selection Committee, or of any of their staff. No one should construe anything expressed on this site as being endorsed or supported by AFI, SILVERDOCS or anybody other than me.

I have not been adding text daily because this is not a blog ((Surely, at first glance, saying “this is not a blog” seems to fail the duck test–that is, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and swims like a duck, it’s a duck. While this website looks like a blog, runs on a popular blogging platform, and has all the trappings and indicia of bloggery, it is not, I assure you, intended to be a blog.)). Please don’t get me wrong. I am not blog-adverse. I read lots of blogs, keep my feed reader open all day, and even had a blog myself for a while. It is just that I am constitutionally unfit to be a blogger.

My brilliant nephew, who is a gifted designer and all-around web monkey, once said “Non-current information is BLASPHEMY! I need it in RSS or I cannot consume. In addition, information older than 22.4 days is stale and not to be consumed.” While he was kidding ((Sort of. At least I think so, since he followed this proclamation with “I am a stabbing robot.“)), he voices an opinion common to many bloggers, readers and other info-junkies.

Blogging is usually fast and frequent–whether it is breaking news ((“This just in–U.S. invades Canada, freeing up our strategic poutine reserves”)), personal updates ((“Today, we laid down the new tiles in the bathroom, I gave birth to twins, and little Ben made biodiesel in kindergarten with organic soybeans we grew ourselves.”)), or rapid one-shots linked to some new item of interest ((All hail Boing-Boing!))–blog readers seek a constant flow of the new. I, on the other hand, am slow, and seeking to become slower.

What we often lose with quick hits of information is context. We have lots of data, but little reflection and contemplation of what it means ((This issue is not new–newspapers give reportage with little context, the weekly and monthly magazines are supposed to serve as platforms for analysis and expert opinion, all while selling soap and toothpaste, of course.)). I’m finding that while I have access to ever more information, I seem to have less access to integrated and deeper knowledge ((And can I even mention wisdom without getting heaped with scorn? It may be a concept that may seem less and less relevant modernly, but seems more and more necessary in my day-to-day life.)).

So, I’m not contributing to the sound and the fury. I’m going to take my time and reflect on the things that matter to me. If something moves me to write, then I’ll write, and hopefully it will be worth reading ((If it isn’t, then, at least, there won’t be a lot of it to offend your delicate sensibilities, Dr. Johnson.)).

In addition, political blogging wears me out and makes me tend towards the vicious ((Think I’m kidding? Did you even go look at my old blog? Even I hate me.)). Blogging tends to encourage me to mock, to take the easy shots, to be negative. I detach, rather than engage. I know some bloggers who are so steeped in irony that I don’t think even they know when they are being ironic ((They are still often funny.)), but I don’t want to be one of them.

When I blog, I lock in on professional politics, or the daily outrage. It’s easier for me to be angry than thoughtful, to sling invective ((Even funny invective. Yes, I’m talking to you.))rather than try to seek insight ((I don’t think I’m any more insightful or profound than the next guy. In fact, I suspect I’m probably less so–too much book-readin’, not enough livin’. Still, why aspire to your basest level?)).

So, I won’t be putting up new material as often as I did as a blogger, but I hope when I do, it’s a little better thought-out than my blog posts tended to be and still something you would like to read. So, pick up my feed with your reader, and come back when there is something new ((You don’t know what a feed reader is? What are you doing on teh interwebnets? Go get your stone axe and kill me a mastodon, caveman.)).