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		<title><![CDATA[Forums - Bricks in Motion - RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
		<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/topic/16822/rip-roger-ebert/</link>
		<description><![CDATA[The most recent posts in RIP Roger Ebert.]]></description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:22:09 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300618/#p300618</link>
			<description><![CDATA[For future reference -- requests to "CLOSE THIS THREAD" followed by an attempt to get the last word first aren't likely to be honored. We've had problems with people doing that in the past and it makes it sort of unfair to close the thread. It's my feeling that we shouldn't try to silence with civil discourse about controversial issues, especially when they end up having some kind of relevance to filmmaking like this.

Admittedly, my post was made mostly in frustration about a thread about Ebert becoming a debate about atheism, considering Ebert was fairly careful to avoid self-categorizing. I don't think it's an unimportant issue on its own, but Ebert did a lot for film critique and the internet film culture and it's odd to me that people would jump straight to this when he was fairly careful to dodge making it an issue himself.

[quote="Roger Ebert"]I have never said, although readers have freely informed me I am an atheist, an agnostic, or at the very least a secular humanist – which I am.[/quote]]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Sméagol)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:22:09 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300618/#p300618</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300614/#p300614</link>
			<description><![CDATA[You know what, you are right. This website does seen a bit lonely. But it's no place for insulting other people's beliefs, which is what I think we should avoid. If a mod says that this kind of discussion is ok, then that's cool. I was afraid of saying that because I am not a mod, but now that it's been said I will go along with it.
Now I didn't see anything about making nonoffensive films or something but I agree that one should make their art meaningful, be it film, review, music, or anything. I'm just bringing up the example of Reppelling Spider's Valentine's day film, which had a religious theme in it. People seemed fine with that, he was just expressing his beliefs. For a long time I have been contemplating writing a film about atheism. How would people feel about that? I feel that it would offend at least one person here. But I'm not trying to insult others, my film is just denying the existence of any gods rather than making fun of Christians. And Spider's film was not saying anything against atheists, just denying the non-existence of God (confirming the existence of God.) if people can look at debates on religion, and any other heavy topic this way things would go well.  Just because someone includes atheism in their film reviews does not mean they are insulting theists. On the contrary; they are expressing their beliefs. I don't think this kind of belief should be taken as offensive by people.
Tl;dr what squash said

EDIT: Maybe we should make a new thread for this discussion though. I feel like I'm being disrespectful to Mr. Ebert. You should put it in this forum instead of the Community forum though so we can all keep discussing [i]politely[/i].]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (topit)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:27:44 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300614/#p300614</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300612/#p300612</link>
			<description><![CDATA[[quote]I have a policy of Don't Ask, Don't tell with my brickfilms. I don't reveal characters' sexuality, political views, religious outlook, and so on... If someone wanted to make a "fan fiction" sequel to one of my films, they could explore ANYTHING, as the characters, to that point, aren't developed, and could go any direction.
Having been on youtube for nearly 5 years now, I know that if your content doesn't have highly argued subject matter, then it WON'T be such a bulls-eye for trolls, and less likely to be a "battleground" for religious debates in the comments. This isn't 100% true, but if things do pop up, you can delete those comments on your channel.[/quote]
To be honest, I think this is kind of a shame. I mean, what is a film if it doesn't represent something you feel strongly about? If you don't challenge people, they'll never have any impetus to challenge their beliefs. Obviously I'm not saying every film should make people uncomfortable or have some big overarching moral but I think intentionally being non-confrontational in your own films for the sake of not offending anyone isn't really doing favors in the long run. In the same vein, I disagree with HoldingOurOwn's assertion that social critique has no place in film reviews. Art is about ideas, and the ideas being presented are going to play a role the reviewer's enjoyment of a work. There's nothing wrong with acknowledging that in a review- if anything, it's better than giving the film a terrible rating with no explanation.

And seriously guys, if we can have civil discourse about this (maybe a bit optimistic... but miracles happen) I personally don't see any problem with discussing it. This is a site for filmmaking, after all. If we want to understand why we get so many bland, unremarkable brickfilms, this could be a decent place to start. If Smeagol or one of the other moderators decides to close the thread, I won't complain- but I don't intend to close it myself. If it makes people think more about the things they're creating, maybe the site needs a little drama.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Squash)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2013 15:42:50 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300612/#p300612</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300610/#p300610</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Yeah... this is heading in a bad direction... Please--- CLOSE THIS THREAD

Reading eberts article sourced by smeagol, now I know that it's not just his reviews that were way off base.  But what seems to be contradiction (he's an atheist but calls himself Catholic), is clear to me and I see in complete perspective.  Because, I know social justice.  I could write much about this topic, but will not because this isn't the place and I don't want it posted here by myself or others.  We don't need this thread to explode into an inflamed argment.  I love BiM and this community; this is my escape from all these stresses.

I'm only mentioning this at all because it affected me personally.  Avoiding details, this movement reared its head in my diocese, and directly within my own parish.  Those involved led people astray from Christ's teachings, and drove others away in disgust, and members of the parish had to take action against it.  In the end, the pastor even fired the deacon, one of those involved.  (He retired after being fired.)  We're still dealing with an unpopular local priest who writes columns praising Marxism and other things of a nature that I won't discuss here.  But it did a lot of damage to the faithful before we fought back.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (HoldingOurOwn)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2013 15:35:25 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300610/#p300610</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300604/#p300604</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Not sure what you mean by ruining our reputation as brickfilmers because most of us don't even have a reputation to begin with but other than that yeah please stop arguing
I can't believe I started all this nonsense
I'm so sorry :(]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (topit)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2013 15:27:32 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300604/#p300604</guid>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300602/#p300602</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Yeah, I mean seriously guys. You can't go anywhere without there having to be a discussion on religion. :/]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Mickey)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2013 14:53:32 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300602/#p300602</guid>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300600/#p300600</link>
			<description><![CDATA[This discussion is meant to be about Roger Ebert, and for those who confuse him with religious symbols can read the wikipedia page: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_ebert[/url]. Religion should not be argued ANYWHERE on these forums. As a small and growing community, a site like this can't take such a "split" like this.

I have a policy of Don't Ask, Don't tell with my brickfilms. I don't reveal characters' sexuality, political views, religious outlook, and so on... If someone wanted to make a "fan fiction" sequel to one of my films, they could explore ANYTHING, as the characters, to that point, aren't developed, and could go any direction.

Having been on youtube for nearly 5 years now, I know that if your content doesn't have highly argued subject matter, then it WON'T be such a bulls-eye for trolls, and less likely to be a "battleground" for religious debates in the comments. This isn't 100% true, but if things do pop up, you can delete those comments on your channel.

I don't know Roger Ebert's views on religion: and frankly, I don't care. HE didn't openly add religious or sexual comments on his reviews because he knew that no matter who is right or wrong, there's always ONE person that will argue a point: even for just the sake of arguing.

If further replies are posted to this forum, they should be about Ebert, and Ebert alone. The furthest we should stray is to talk about Siskel, or their T.V. Show. Posting ANYTHING that is sure to be argued with could RUIN your reputations as a brickfilmer. You wouldn't want people to give your films 1 stars if they are good, JUST because of comments that were made. It's one thing to hide behind a "username" and argue, but in the real world, wars have been fought. This discussion should be a nice little "fact forum" to once-in-a-while post little bits of information about Ebert and/or how his death may have effected your life. Let's just call the battles a truce for the sake of this site, for the sake of Sméagol, for the memory of Roger Ebert - leave the fighting for other places, and stay on topic.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[thedylandproductions@yahoo.com (Dyland)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2013 14:30:16 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300600/#p300600</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300586/#p300586</link>
			<description><![CDATA[[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALFpRJKnK2U]G*dd*mm protestants[/url]]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Darkman)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:28:00 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300586/#p300586</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300561/#p300561</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Oh my gawsh if you people are still going to be talking about this I don't know what to do. :P

I'm sorry I snapped at you AnW. Just before posting that I was having a heated argument with someone so I was a bit belligerent. I suppose I just got a bit snappy. Sorry about that :/
(Just so you know I'm not the kind of guy who goes around slamming religion. My argument was actually with another atheist who didn't respect religious people or something. I'm an atheist but not an "extremist," and I don't like it when people are like that.) 


Anyway I was watching Ishtar today, and then I read Roger Ebert's review of it. Harsh!]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (topit)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sat, 20 Apr 2013 23:44:11 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300561/#p300561</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300560/#p300560</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Smeagol, if he wasn't a atheist, he must have had a heck of a time fighting the rumors.  I've even read news sources stating this.  You really have to get as close to the horse's mouth as possible these days, the way so much info is unsourced.  I did read a few Ebert articles in the 90s where he was harsh on Catholism as a whole.  I read that he was raised a Catholic and he was pro-life.  He also was an altar boy.  I would like to read the sources where he affirmed he wasn't an atheist.  Can you help by directing me to such an article? I'm sure that if Ebert said so himself, it's a more accurate source, and therefore other bio is likely to be sourced and more accurate.

---


Oh, wait, Smeagol.  You have a URL in the post I just noticed!  DUH on me.  I'm reading it now.

----

It was a big help!  He makes no sense.  But at the same time, it completely explains things and it all DOES make sense.  He's a Catholic, but he doesn't believe in God.  What I read also explains his hostility toward Catholic beliefs.  He also espouses that the nuns who taught him were from the "social justice" movement.  If you know the history of the movement, it's not pretty.  Beginning in the 1880s they infiltrated the church but have nothing to do with Catholic teaching and much to do with replacing it with Marxist teaching.  I should not get into this here, though, because this subject is very controversial.  We better end this discussion.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (HoldingOurOwn)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sat, 20 Apr 2013 23:34:03 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300560/#p300560</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300553/#p300553</link>
			<description><![CDATA[That was an interesting article, he made some very good points, and then some insensitive ones (I think it's ultimately the mother's decision on whether they want to keep their child, and no one else's) that I completely disagree with.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Carousel)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sat, 20 Apr 2013 22:39:01 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300553/#p300553</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300551/#p300551</link>
			<description><![CDATA[[quote=HoldingOurOwn]Ebert was known for being hostile or condescending to religions other than his own, particularly aiming at Catholicism, which is also unusual because his own mother was Catholic.[/quote]

Ebert was pro-life, and [url=http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/how-i-am-a-roman-catholic]generally supportive of Catholicism[/url]. He denied being an atheist numerous times.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Sméagol)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sat, 20 Apr 2013 22:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300551/#p300551</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300528/#p300528</link>
			<description><![CDATA[IT is weird that the religion debate cropped up on this thread.  I don't think the post originally came up as the guy having a problem with Ebert being an atheist.  I think all of us here can respect each other's freedom to hold our own religious beliefs.  In fact, just the other day I watched an hour-long discussion on atheist morality, between famous atheist Penn Jillette and famous monotheist Glenn Beck.  And there was two-way respect.  But, in contrast, Ebert was known for being hostile or condescending to religions other than his own, particularly aiming at Catholicism, which is also unusual because his own mother was Catholic.  Just like in BiM forums, that kind of criticism doesn't need to be in movie reviews.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (HoldingOurOwn)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sat, 20 Apr 2013 13:56:16 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300528/#p300528</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300484/#p300484</link>
			<description><![CDATA[[quote=topitmunkeydog][quote=AnW]He almost invariable held views that where, if not opposite, very much different than mine. Guess it was to be expected with him being an atheist. [/quote]

Seriously? What does that have to do with anything? Atheists have the exact same capacity to be great people as any other "theists." I'm not even like really sure what you are saying here so I'll refrain from saying any more; I may be grossly misinterpreting your statement. 
[/quote]

Hehe, love the way you just grabbed the middle bit of my comment, made it say something it doesn't (where exactly does it say that atheists are sub-human life forms with no hope of achieving anything in life... ?), and then jumped all over me for it. I knew someone would do that... :rolleyes: 
For your info, yes, you are grossly misinterpreting my statement. Oh... and did you miss this little part? "I respected him though. He did a lot to raise the art of film critiquing to where it is today I think. It's to bad." 'nough said, moving on.

Meh, Atlantis is an Ok movie. Nowhere near my favourite animated film (probably not even top 20...), but I've seen far worse. I actually haven't even thought about that movie in years...

On topic, I didn't even know even know he had cancer like that. Wow. And to still keep doing film reviews like he did. Impressive dedication.

@Darkman
Really?! Got a link? I'd like to see that.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (AnW)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 Apr 2013 23:14:21 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300484/#p300484</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Re: RIP Roger Ebert]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300272/#p300272</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I remember when Harry Bossert was at this film festival in LA with his brickfilm and Roger Ebert wrote about him, and Harry was all like: "who is this man?".]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Darkman)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sun, 14 Apr 2013 09:34:10 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/300272/#p300272</guid>
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