THE DIXIE CHICKS: SHUT UP & SING

Film review

by Jessie Emkic

With more than 30 million albums sold and 13 Grammy awards won, the Dixie Chicks have written history as the most successful female band of all times. In March 2003, at the peak of their stardom and the onset of Iraq invasion, the Dixie Chicks are touring the world. The lead singer Natalie Maines, deeply disturbed to witness an enormous wave of anti-American sentiment drifting through Europe, makes a spontaneous statement at a London concert: “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.” Enjoying a vigorous applause by the audience, she doesn’t even anticipate this statement will be abbreviated and manipulated by the US media into a ‘shocking’ symbol of anti-Americanism at home. Keen on silencing national voices of opposition, the American right embarked on one of the most obscene persecutions manifested in younger US history, taking on a character reminiscent of the McCarthy era. Politicizing Chick’s music, thousands of country music radio stations boycott the band, causing their singles to lose major chart positions. Well organized extreme right civil groups, besotted on Bush’s aggressive propaganda, give a crucial helping hand in launching a nation-wide campaign against the Dixie Chicks. The band suffers massive financial losses through meager sales of concert tickets and music. Facing a potential ruination of their careers, and with it their lives as they were, the extensive emotional pressure reaches its peak when Natalie receives death threats and the Dixie Chicks begin wondering which way to go.

Two time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple teams up with Cecilia Peck to direct this exceptional documentary. We watch the band members telling their stories summoning up emotions and experiences, transcending the borders between celebrity and private person. The film avoids narration, but instead tells the story through documenting three years in lives of the band members, their families and everyone involved. The value of “Shut Up & Sing” is not only cinematic, but of a historical document on lack of democratic sentiment in those who praise individual liberties, on politicizing music and the shameful evasion to condemn the violation of basic human right of speech in a democratic country. A remarkable testimony of friendship, dignity, individual strength and determination to stand up.

published in Norwegian in Le Monde diplomatic

here's the official ad for the film...

...and a shorter version TV stations BANNED from being aired