Letter in Support of Andrew Bolt and Free Speech

Dear Mr Bolt,

 

In my view Free Speech is Free Speech. If you want to ‘racially vilify’ someone (whatever the hell that even means!) go right ahead. This should not even BE a crime. It’s all only just words. All this should be covered and protected as Political Free Speech apropos cultural identity.

 

Today Mr Bolt you are a Free Speech hero. Unpopular Speech must be protected as much as popular. Some may not agree with your views but your right to express them is paramount, whatever they are, unpopular or not.

 

This to me seems self evident re: Free Speech. But a lot of people miss the subtlety. You can’t just like the speech of the people you agree with!

 

I created this hash tag to repost on twitter: #supportandrewbolt.

 

By the way I found the comments you made on the Aboriginal Community an interesting take and filled, like much of your writing, with a cheeky sense of humour. You should be congratulated for daring to question a standard of the scared cow of Australian Political Correctness, the Aboriginal Community. A community that is far from perfect.

 

You have my full support and that of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, an event I run that supports Free Speech.

 

Best Regards

 

Richard Wolstencroft

Letter for Larry

Hi Idea Fix peeps,

…some updates.

First a defense of Larry Wessel who was under attack at the Headpress site:

Greetings from Down Under,

Iconoclast is an excellent documentary. Larry won Best Director and the Film won Best doco at the recent 12th Melbourne Underground Film Festival that I run in Australia.

See: http://www.muff.com.au.

Trolls like this Barnish chap can be mostly ignored. There are always people with an ax to grind, personal or otherwise and with Boyd Rice these types seem to crawl out of the woodwork. The net gives every idiot a voice and we have to tolerate. Until say a Future Artists Utopia can be established with some quality control, etc. Hehe.

As someone who knows both Boyd and Larry this doco is a truly unique fusion. As Jimmy The Exploder our Jury head said at MUFF 12, “Iconoclast is like a four hour afternoon hanging out with Boyd”. And having hung out many afternoons with Boyd I can attest this to be true. I have spent hours in Boyd’s company and have never been bored a minute. 4 hours is if anything, too short! But all good things have their time and I think Larry got it just right. Boyd’s mind is that of a polymath and his temperament that of a congenial Renaissance man.

Larry is equally a gent. I was lucky to be previewed this film at his house with his beautiful wife Tora. We watched two hours had a delicious PIzza and discussion and watched the other two hours. I introduced them to Mark Savage that day, an amazing Oz filmmaker, and it was a great day and great pleasure to introduce these folks.

I have been extremely impressed by Wessel’s previous work, especially TAUROBOLIUM. Pure Ontological Cinema. A serious new vein of Underground Cinema can be found in Wessel’s work. Larry takes the notion of underground cinema and documentary to new places. He should be funded by the Getty or other such US arts organization.

Iconoclast is an epic passion project that must not have been easy for personalities as large as Larry and Boyd. So, hats off to both of them as we cinema lovers and audience gain. Buy a DVD and see this film. Support Underground Cinema. It Matters!

Best Regards

Richard Wolstencroft

Filmmaker and MUFF Director