The barbaric executions of eight black members of a South Carolina church this month are inspiring southern lawmakers to remove Confederate flags from public spaces. The 21-year-old executioner, whom federal law enforcement officials expect to charge with hate crimes, posted pictures on the Web of himself posing with the vanquished slaving government’s battle flag. ‘C.S.A.: Confederate States of America’ is a mockumentary its producers expected would offend some black people and southerners. But through the use of humor and parody of Ken Burns’ ‘The Civil War’, one of the greatest-ever documentaries, th filmmakers sought to spark conversation about slavery among people who otherwise nod off in history class. ‘C.S.A’ turns a critical eye not only on the racism and terrorism the Confederacy represented but on modern pop culture; and President Lincoln himself, whom the film implicitly lambasts for having exercised abolition out of pragmatic, political calculation.
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