Seacoast Freedom Network Holds Film Fest

Portsmouth to host its first conservative film festival
Organizers aim to counter left-leaning events in city

PORTSMOUTH — Film festivals tend to tilt left, and the founders of the Seacoast Freedom Network have taken notice.

So on Saturday they are offering a counterpoint to Al Gore and Michael Moore with what’s being billed as the first-ever conservative film festival in Portsmouth.

Right-Compass Film Festival
When: 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday
Where: Portsmouth Public Library, 175 Parrott Ave.
Details: Event free; e-mail the Seacoast Freedom Network at seacoastfn@aol.com for info.
“That’s why it’s called Right-Compass,” said Sue Polidura of Portsmouth, Seacoast Freedom Network co-founder and co-chairwoman with Diane Bitter of Rye Beach. “We’re pointing in a different direction.”

The Right-Compass Film Festival will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Portsmouth Public Library.

Polidura and Bitter went to Washington, D.C., for the Sept. 12, 2009, tea party march, and it was there they met the producers of this festival’s headlining documentary, “Not Evil, Just Wrong: The True Cost of Global Warming Hysteria.” (This is “the film Al Gore and Hollywood are working hard to make sure you can’t and don’t see,” the movie’s Web site states.)

At least three other films will also play at the free festival, to be chosen by the participants that afternoon from a list of several dramatic and comedic options — including three with local ties:

– “I.O.U.S.A.: One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt” — Co-written and executive produced by Stratham native Addison Wiggin, this film won the award for best documentary at the 2008 New Hampshire Film Festival in Portsmouth.

– “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” — In 2008, the Clarion Fund — whose executive director, Peter Connors, lives in Portsmouth — distributed 28 million copies of this film to various newspapers.

– “The Third Jihad: Radical Islam’s Vision for America” — The Clarion Fund also promoted this follow-up to “Obsession” and it played at the 2009 N.H. Film Festival with Connors in attendance to answer questions. Polidura and Bitter both attended its Portsmouth screening.

– “Tea Party” — Documentary about the Sept. 12 march on Washington.

– “Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin was Targeted” — Documentary about media bias in the 2008 primary and general elections.

– “A More Perfect Union: America Becomes a Nation” — Feature film dramatizing the events of the Constitutional Convention.

– “33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age” — Heritage Foundation documentary about nuclear attack threats.

– “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” — Comedian-commentator Ben Stein investigates science being taught today.

– “An American Carol” — This comedy, a Michael Moore parody, is “just kind of fun,” Bitter said, and is an option in case the festival starts feeling too heavy.

Group discussion will follow the viewing of each film.

The plan is to have “Not Evil, Just Wrong” play in the library’s larger Levenson Room (capacity of about 125) and then have three more films play in that room with three others playing upstairs in one of the smaller meeting rooms.

The festival will be very casual, Polidura and Bitter said, and people can slip in and out of screenings if they’ve seen the current selection playing, but they do ask that people show up on time so they can start right at 1 p.m.

Light refreshments will be offered, they said, and they mean light since they have “zero budget” and are just putting this together themselves.

If the festival is a success, they could make it an annual or some other repeating event.

“It’s a trial. We’ll see how it goes,” Bitter said.

The Seacoast Freedom Network doesn’t have any official membership but it has an e-mail list with about 200 names, including people who belong to other local organizations.

“The response we have had (to the film festival) so far has been very positive,” Bitter said. “They are very excited about it.”

Polidura and Bitter are both members of Seacoast Republican Women and town Republican committees, but they launched the Seacoast Freedom Network last year — after the April tea party event in Portsmouth — as a nonpartisan forum, open to people who may have frustrations with both parties.

The SFN was founded “for the purpose of promoting the freedoms and liberties granted to the American people in the U.S. Constitution and to enhance the knowledge and understanding of these rights through education and example.”

The group’s logo, a tree with a red “liberty” flag, was inspired by the Liberty Tree used by colonists in Revolutionary times and is meant as a reminder that U.S. citizens’ freedoms are under attack and need to be protected, they said.

All SFN-sponsored events, including the Right-Compass Film Festival, are open to everyone, from liberals and conservatives to independents — the latter group being the biggest voting block in Portsmouth, Polidura said.

Bitter said in her town, Rye, there are more Republicans.

They can’t speak for other Seacoast towns, but they know there are more conservatives out there, even if they tend to stay silent while the other side is more active and visible in the community.

“That’s the nature of conservatives,” Bitter said. They tend to have a kind of quiet acceptance of other people’s opinions, she said.

“They’re not activists,” Polidura added. “We participated in the tea parties, but it wasn’t in our nature.”

“We had to work at it,” Bitter said. “It looks one-sided (on the Seacoast) because the liberals tend to be a little more vocal. We feel as if we need to ask conservatives to step up to the plate sometimes.”