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DEC 5, 2008
'Great Speeches from a Dying World' FILM
'Great Speeches from a Dying World'

Ostensibly, Great Speeches is a documentary about homeless people in which they recite speeches by Chief Sealth, Bobby Kennedy, Sojourner Truth, et al. Deep down, the film (by local director and Stranger Genius Linas Phillips) is really about language—its subjects' hard-luck stories about drugs, rape, and death are a means to understanding the speeches. (A guy who has attempted suicide seven times, for example, gives a heartbreaking recitation of Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech from a hospital bed.) The film strips the crust of history away from the words, making them unsettling and dangerous all over again. (Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, 829-7863. 7 and 9 pm, $9.) by Brendan Kiley

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1
Chief Sealth never delivered Chief Sealth's speech. It was written by a white man many years after the fact. No one has any idea what Sealth actually said.
Posted by Fnarf on December 5, 2008 at 1:30 PM · Report
2
hello my name is fnarf and i know eleventy things you don't know about and also you are racist.
Posted by Eleventy! on December 5, 2008 at 1:33 PM · Report
3
@1: Fake though it be, the central quote has provided an Iron Eyes Cody moment in zoos around the world for decades, usually in the form of a calligraphic sign near the big cats or the pandas:

"For what is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to man."
Posted by rob on December 5, 2008 at 2:44 PM · Report

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