Longtime antiabortion activist Steve Ertelt, editor of Life News, is worried about the forthcoming release of Tony Kaye's documentary film Lake of Fire.  Due for release in October following a series of appearances at film fests, Lake of Fire is a 152 minute documentary on the politics of abortion in the United States.  The apparent source of Ertelt's concern is that the film features a side of the antiabortion movement he would rather us not see: religiously inspired domestic terrorism.

The most ambitious and likely to be the most influential film ever made on the politics of abortion, will have its U.S. premier on January 28th, during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Lake Of Fire, by film maker Tony Kaye, in the works for more than 15 years, was a hit at the Toronto film festival last fall, gaining strong, positive reviews, for example in the Miami Herald and Variety.  It sought to be an exceptionaly even-handed treatment of the subject. By everything I have, read so far, it looks like Kaye succeeded.  A New York Times reviewer said: "it serves as a prime candidate for the definitive abortion documentary."

But beyond rave reviews, I think the film will be politically important. I think it will inform and shape -- and perhaps transform -- public conversation about the politics of abortion for years to come, as any  work of such force and distributed on a wide scale can do. In exactly what ways it will change the discourse on abortion, I cannot predict. But the coming of the film is nevertheless worth noting as we enter the election season. Those pols and the consultantocracy who believe they will no longer have to talk about abortion, may find themselves quite mistaken.

Two films about different aspects of the religious right are on their way to reaching the general public. Both sound like interesting and important films that have taken unusual and similarly difficult approaches. They have sought to make films without a point of view.  In the case of Jesus Camp, the film was immediately, fairly or not, accused of demonizing evangelicals. Lake of Fire, which took 15 years to make, has been praised so far for accomplishing what it set out to do -- to present both sides of the abortion struggle in the U.S. clearly and fairly.