How the Museum of the Moving Image Captured Why Trump Happened
By: Ondine Janiv
Tags: Roger Stone, Museums, Trump, Film, 2016 Election

Will the country recover from the Trump Presidency? It’s a question that has many of us fluctuating between motivated opposition and the desire to disengage. As the country probes his legitimacy, the Museum of the Moving Image, in Astoria, NY, offers a fascinating and novel insight into answering this question.

MOMI houses the nation’s largest collection of artifacts documenting the evolution of the art and technology of the moving image. The museum is located in a building formerly owned by Kaufman Astoria Studios, a historical film studio facility now serving as New York City’s only backlot. It offers its visitors a diverse program of permanent and temporary exhibitions, educational events, and screenings. These depict the role that film plays in our modern society.

A couple of weeks ago the museum screened the political documentary Get Me Roger Stone in the main auditorium. It was followed by a lively panel discussion with directors Morgan Pehme, Daniel DiMauro, and Dylan Bank, and broadcast news mogul Dan Rather. The revolutionary political documentary tells a story of reciprocal reverence between Stone and Trump, tracing their relationship back to the 1980s. A historical archival resource in its own right, the film successfully takes apart the idea — propogated by some — that Trump’s behavior is anywhere near acceptable or even unprecedented.

The film portrays Stone as a surreptitious facilitator of President Trump and the ultimate hardball player in American politics. Stone says he saw Trump as “prime political horse-flesh” in the 1980s and convinced him over time to run for office. The idea that many of the tricks securing Trump’s election were unprecedented is an illusion — one that the country urgently needs to face. Get Me Roger Stone convincingly argues that Trump’s America and the alt-right would not exist without the 1990s sex scandal that alienated Stone from the Republican Party — a claim harrowingly reminiscent of Hitler’s bitter reaction to two rejections from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. The documentary, which was released in May, exposes the abuse of capitalism and civic norms as a consequence of Stone’s dissident tactics, which include destroying (vs. beating) one’s opponent, adjusting to his motto “it’s better to be infamous than never to be famous at all,” and spreading the forces of hate rather than love in political strategy.

The museum also recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of Michael Mann’s acclaimed movie The Last of the Mohicans. It is a visually and musically driven production replete with aesthetically slow shots of the American landscape and wilderness, and is reminiscent of a silent film. MOMI introduced and played the 1936 version directed by George B. Seitz alongside the theatrical and director’s cuts of Mann’s production, organized by film critic Matt Zoller Seitz. “A primordial movie about mating and perpetuating one’s bloodline on every level” Seitz says, The Last of the Mohicans conveys nationalism as the fight, and willingness to die, for land and women. The film shares major themes with Trump’s campaign narrative, which focused on anti-abortion policies and the end of undocumented immigration. It clarifies the direct correlation between our country’s nationalism and commodification of the woman’s body.

The contrast between the harmonious nature of the theatrical cut and the cacophonous qualities of the 1936 version and director’s cut is striking. It is a testament to the importance of editing in conveying a final narrative to an audience. The cutting and adding of scenes and exposure to different versions, Steitz says, “messes with your memory of the film… your fixed image of the movie.” In the mass media, editing can successfully promote unethical agendas. The degree that news sources have deliberately edited out information has had a horrible effect on our country. The channel’s efforts to edit out inconvenient information, and give a very particular version of reality, led to the confusion that enabled Trump to assume control. Conservative Andrew Sullivan described in 2009 the Fox News programming as “neo-fascist,” and warned us that reality-bending methods would lead to the country’s inability to clearly identify destructive forces like Stone.

As a powerful influencer since the 1970s, Stone is in many ways to U.S. politics as Harvey Weinstein is to Hollywood. Weinstein is accused of sexual exploitation, assault, and rape. Stone’s positive influence on the presidential career of a man who says to “grab ’em by the pussy” normalizes assault on the woman’s body and encourages it to take place on a national scale. Both men have sadly been protected by the industry they’ve been credited with being at the forefront of shaping despite their offenses. Stone’s efforts to destroy norms constitute an abuse of U.S. Democracy. For example, Stone has been hired by banks to lead fake Occupy Wall Street rallies against their competition. While we don’t know the full extent of the devastation he has wrought, it is clear that it is powerful. Get Me Roger Stone’s directors explain that the documentary portrays only a small fraction of the incriminating evidence collected during their five-and-a-half years of filming.

MOMI evokes the mindset that there is much more to be discovered and, in doing so, points us towards the formation of a countermovement against Trump. The Democrats were “so assured that the march of history was towards their world view,” says Rather, that they failed to build a counter movement. Fundamentally undemocratic and un-American in nature, this assumption relies on forgetting that “the march of history” previously belonged to the Europeans, and that America was “founded on the opposite principle.” Having “the heart and courage to be ever improving — to recognize that we will never have a perfect system” Rather says, is the only effective opposition to Trump.

Today, U.S. citizens and residents face the new media reality of having the president indict everyone in the press. What can journalists do in an age where fake news is prevalent and widely inserting paranoia? Rather has three recommendations: First, never forget that “free press is the beating heart of democracy.” A journalist focuses his or her energy on helping, and cannot be occupied with validation, winning, or success. Second, “Remind your readers and viewers not to think we’ve reached an era where facts don’t matter.” The notion that truth is fungible must be resisted continuously, at all costs, because a democratic society cannot function otherwise. And finally, journalists must do their job “with humility and understanding.” And how do we avoid history repeating itself? Rather says we must work to ensure voter participation — acting rather than just talking, and dedicating “ourselves to our capacity, as engaged citizens, to fight.” Ultimately, “don’t lose heart,” he says.

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