In focus of Homeland Security

This column explores the intersection between celebrity and politics.

Documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras took on a life-threatening project when she spent two years in Iraq capturing footage of strife and chaos for her film “My Country, My Country.”

But she didn’t anticipate that she would be considered a danger when she came back to the United States.

Poitras, an Emmy-nominated filmmaker who grew up in Boston, discovered recently that she’d been deemed a high security risk by the U.S. government, which meant traveling by airplane had become a red-tape-riddled nightmare.

When she tries to book a flight, airline officials are immediately alerted by the government, via intralinked computer, that her name is on a list of suspicious people. Getting clearance requires many calls to the Homeland Security Department. Although she’s ultimately allowed to buy a ticket, she’s then subjected to extensive searches at the airport.

“Basically, I get stopped going on and off every plane,” said Poitras, who was greeted by armed guards when she arrived in New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport from Vienna this week to promote her film, which opens Sept. 15 in Los Angeles.

She says she’s tried to get her name off the list but has gotten nowhere. “It’s very Kafkaesque.”

“What concerns me is there doesn’t seem to be anyone who can give me information about why I got on this list, other than I made a film in Baghdad,” she said during a phone interview from her home in New York.

The filmmaker said she discovered she was on the list only recently, after arriving in Newark, N.J. after a trip in Israel. “I flew back from Jerusalem the day Israel started bombing Lebanon,” she said. “They announced on the plane that there would be security control when we got off the plane.”

She said a security guard did a double take when he saw her name on her passport. He made a notation on her customs form and escorted her down a hallway to another security guard, who took her up an elevator to a room where two federal agents went through her bags. “I had to wait while there were lots and lots of phone calls,” she said.

Her movie, which has been showing at various film festivals around the world, focuses on an Iraqi doctor who was campaigning as a Sunni political candidate critical of the U.S. occupation.

She came up with the idea for the piece after reading a New Yorker article about the early days of the war.

“I was compelled to go there and document it, almost as a requiem to the war. I sent e-mails to the military saying I wanted access and they said, ‘OK.’ ... Now that the film is done, there seems to have been some tripwire.”

In 2003, Poitras co-produced “Flag Wars,” a film about politics and prejudice between blacks and gays caused by gentrification in a Columbus, Ohio, neighborhood. It was nominated for an Emmy after it aired on PBS.

Hollywood

and Hezbollah

A group of 85 Hollywood notables -- among them Nicole Kidman, Bruce Willis, Dennis Hopper and Sylvester Stallone -- have placed their names on full-page ads accusing Hamas and Hezbollah of being terrorist organizations.

“We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas,” said the statement, which ran recently in the Los Angeles Times, Hollywood Reporter and Variety. “If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die. We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs.”

The effort was put together by movie producers Danny Dimbort and Avi Lerner, in conjunction with a variety of others, including Israel’s consul general in Los Angeles, Ehud Danoch.

“As 1 million Israelis sat in bomb shelters and 3 million were in the line of fire of Hezbollah and Hamas missiles, it strengthened the citizens of Israel to read that high-level members of the Hollywood film industry came out so clearly against terrorist organizations, which threaten them and free societies all over the world,” Danoch said.

The ad, however, has prompted local blogs to buzz with criticism and wisecracks.

“Sad that Hollywood is in such an extreme place where that many celebrities actually felt they had to say they were ‘opposed’ to terrorism,” one person wrote on David Poland’s entertainment industry blog.

And another person posted this comment on Charles Johnson’s political blog, “Little Green Footballs”: “Gee, I don’t see America or Israel listed as terrorists, are we sure this is Hollywood?”

Willie Nelson, energy czar?

Musician and mystery writer Kinky Friedman will appear on Texas’ November ballot as an independent candidate for governor.

But if the thought of a chief executive named Kinky sounds too weird to be true, consider that Friedman wants his energy czar to be country singer Willie Nelson.

Friedman got on the ballot by turning in a petition in May with more than 170,000 signatures.

During his campaign, he has repeatedly suggested that Nelson would make a fine choice to head an energy commission for the Lone Star State.

Nelson has been a vocal proponent of biodiesel fuel and helped launch two biodiesel plants, one in Texas and one in Oregon.

Friedman has said Nelson is the best choice for the job because he “would never have his hand in Texas’ pocket.”

Nelson has yet to comment on the offer and there’s no word yet on whether Friedman might consider making Nelson’s pal, Kris Kristofferson, head of the Texas Rangers.