Films concerning the First Amendment to air

NEW YORK -- If you don't think the First Amendment is a burning issue, you've already forgotten the ruckus over "Saving Private Ryan" just three weeks ago. Spooked by how the Feds might punish them, 66 ABC affiliates played safe by squelching that acclaimed, ultrapatriotic war film. Their excuse was its handful of swear words.\nA case of prior restraint imposed by the government? Not exactly, but with 66 stations caving in to a perceived threat from the Federal Communications Commission, it's the next best thing. This is an excellent time, then, for "The First Amendment Project," four short films that, seizing various entry points, examine with flair what "freedom of expression" really means -- and the threats it's facing.\nIn an unusual partnership, this series has been co-produced by Sundance Channel and Court TV -- both of which will air each half-hour film. The films will premiere at 9 p.m. EST on Sundance Tuesday and at 10 p.m. on Court TV:\n"Fox v. Franken" revels in Fox News Channel's quixotic crusade to bar publication of Al Franken's book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right." Directed by Chris Hegedus and Nick Doob ("The War Room"), this film investigates, in aptly cheeky style, the First Amendment implications of cribbing a trademarked phrase (Fox's "Fair and Balanced" slogan) for the purpose of parody.\nDespite Fox host Bill O'Reilly's ire that his photo was on the book cover (and Fox's legal complaint that Franken was "deranged") the First Amendment stood firm against the Fox lawsuit, while, fueled by the publicity, Franken's book shot to the top of the best-seller list. Right after that, "Poetic License" recalls the clash between New Jersey's poet laureate Amiri Baraka and his government patron, which in 2003 stripped him of his funding and title after a poem about the events of 9/11 triggered charges of anti-Semitism. Directed by actor-filmmaker Mario Van Peebles ("Baadasssss!"), this film interlaces Baraka's reading of his prickly poem with numerous viewpoints on the sometimes conditional nature of government arts money and whether this amounts to government censorship.\nThe film will air at 9 p.m. Dec. 15th on Sundance and 10 p.m. on Court TV:\n"Some Assembly Required" travels back to the Republican National Convention in Manhattan, where the need for security collided with the First Amendment rights of protesters to assemble peaceably- and where the First Amendment took some serious hits.\n"Every tyrant knows that if you can eliminate spaces where people assemble, you can protect yourself really well," one speaker said, noting how freedom of assembly is an innate part of the First Amendment.\nThe film, by John Walter ("How to Draw a Bunny"), follows a couple of rather ordinary Americans as they, with some half-million others, exercise their right to dissent. The resistance they encounter is captured in footage you probably didn't see on TV news.\nThen in "No Joking," actor-filmmaker Bob Balaban ("Strangers with Candy") takes a fractured look at what is actually protected as free speech, and what isn't (hint: CBS firing the outspokenly satiric Smothers Brothers in 1970 wasn't, in constitutional terms, censorship). This film, which features Eric Bogosian and Richard Dreyfuss, unearths fascinating footage of First Amendment poster boy Lenny Bruce, as well as other standards-flouting comedians such as Richard Pryor and George Carlin, who marvels at the variable power of language: "No one has ever gone to jail for screaming 'pneumonia' or 'topography.' But there are some words you can go to jail for!" Or, at least, that stir the hot breath of the government (as viewers who couldn't see "Saving Private Ryan" last month should consider).\n"We felt like this was a time when filmmakers' perspectives on the First Amendment were something that an audience would really like to hear," Sundance programming head Adam Pincus said, "and it's only grown more timely in recent weeks."\nThis joint exploration was a natural for Sundance and Court TV, their bosses agree: Court TV is devoted to important legal matters, while Sundance, an outlet for independent films, embraces artistic expression.\nThe big idea emerging from their collaboration is that the First Amendment "makes all the sense in the world," Sundance Channel President Larry Aidem said, Aldem still worries that "it's blasphemy right now to a lot of people."\n"I think we have fundamental agreement on our respect for the First Amendment," Court TV Chairman Henry Schleiff said. "What we're struggling with, all of us, is the right balance"