PROMISES NOT TO LET BRIAN DE PALMA'S VOICE BE SILENCED
"We've gotta preserve films made by men." That is the skewed perspective of the sketch above from an upcoming episode of IFC's Portlandia (this one will air February 9th). "If you look at a newspaper, blog, television show," begins one of the two male programmers in the sketch, "what do we hear about? Women in film." The small group of men in the audience nod in agreement. Soon after, the programmer played by Fred Armisen begins by pulling from a container one of the audience's anonymous suggestions of films and directors to showcase: "I see the name Brian De Palma." [Applause] Turning to a young boy in the audience, he asks him if he's heard of Brian De Palma. "No. I was born in 2003." The other programmer (played by Carrie Brownstein) chimes in, "So, you've probably only heard about female film directors." They bring up Kathryn Bigelow, and the boy nods in agreement. After riffing on her, the Armisen male gets animated: "Brian De Palma is this guy who worked overtime to make movies." Brownstein: "Carrie. The Untouchables. Scarface." Armisen: "Do you guys know these movies? No, not so much. Well, we're going to educate you." Brownstein: "We will not let his voice be silenced."