Topic politic
Golden Rule — The Investment Theory of Politics
622 views
Golden Rule presents a picture of today's political economy interpreted through the framework of the "Investment Theory of political Parties". The theory, first articulated in 1983 by Thomas Ferguson, is largely based on quantitative analysis of activity in the stock market and its relationship to politics--that is to say that "elections are moments when groups of investors coalesce and invest to control the state." The film takes this theory and tests it against developments in the political and social spheres of recent decades, right up to the election of Barack Obama in the United States in 2008...
The Revolution Business
811 views
The Revolution Business examines the role of United States intelligence agencies in the whitewashing of recent revolutionary movements such as the Arab Spring and others by the use of "Revolution Consultants". Of particular interest is a man called Gene Sharp--the founder and director of the 'Albert Einstein Institution' in the United States and author of the handbook Dictatorship to Democracy on non-violent direct action strategies which were apparently widely disseminated in the "Colour Revolutions" of Eastern Europe, the Arab spring uprisings, and in the "Occupy" movement...
Cypherpunks
1.42K views
Cypherpunks is a movement originating from the 1980s aiming to improve Internet privacy and security through proactive use of cryptography. With WikiLeaks being a recent offshoot of the many projects derived from the Cypherpunk movement, WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange talks with three activists from the Cyberpunk world to cover the topics of mass surveillance and social control being tied directly into technology as modern society progressively intertwines with technological progress...
Media and War — Challenging The Consensus
1.26K views
John Pilger talks about the various mainstream media commonalities of today--censorship by omission, information management, Public Relations and the 'massaging of information', as well as the clever distractions such as the election of Obama as a war monger in the land of slavery, alongside powerfigures such as Hillary Clinton and Julia Gillard as a false win for so-called 'feminist ideals'. Amongst the ongoing wars played by the United States, Britain and Australia, Media And War -- Challenging The Consensus is a renewed call to unravel complex propaganda and cut through distractions...
Murdoch’s Scandal
907 views
Over half a century, Rupert Murdoch's rapacious business audacity has built one of the world's most powerful and ubiquitous media empires. But with revelations of bribery, blackmail, collusion with police and government, wiretapping and other invasions on privacy, the empire seems to be showing cracks. The scandal has prompted criminal investigations on both sides of the Atlantic and also broken open the insular world of the Murdoch family, its news executives, and the vast political elite who court their favour. Murdoch's Scandal tells the story of the battle over the future of News Corporation and the challenging of the extensive media empire...
The Power Principle
2.24K views
The Power Principle is a series of films examining the history of the United States and the building of its empire with particular emphasis on the last seventy years of United States foreign policy. The methods that make empire possible are also examined -- the politics of fear, the rise of public relations, the 'Mafia Principle' and the reoccurring use of fabled enemies, contrasting the Soviet Union and the Cold War alongside the parallels of today with the "War On Terror". Not only does The Power Principle tie together historical events to revive a common thread, the series may also encourage viewers to reconsider their understanding of historical events and the portrayal of them, showing how those in power play a role in manipulating the collective memory through generations.
Perfect Storm — The England Riots
707 views
Perfect Storm offers an initial analysis of the underlying causes and wider context surrounding the riots throughout England in 2011. Contrary to the portrayals presented by mainstream media and trite political rhetoric around law and order, were the riots sparked by poverty, inequality and frustration over police killing a young man in Tottenham? And how does the damage weigh up to the criminal conduct of banks and corporate tax avoiders when the costs of the riots are 4,320 times less of the recent financial crisis?
The Fuck-It Point
5.46K views
People from civilisation are fast to defend it, saying that we depend on this way of life for our survival. It's an addiction. But what if civilisation is the very thing that is killing us and everything else around? How could we survive then? The Fuck-It Point is about this hidden side of civilisation, its true cost, why and how we need to take it down right now, and why most civilised people don't want to...
END:CIV
3.24K views
By examining the modern culture of industrial civilisation and the persistent widespread violence and environmental exploitation it requires, END:CIV details the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations, while further delving into the history of resistance and the prospect of fighting back against such abuse. Detailed is an overview of the environmental movement analogous with the historical whitewashings of the 'pacifist' social struggles in India with Gandhi and Martin Luther King in the United States; the rise of greenwashing and the fallacy that all can be repaired by personal consumer choices. Based in part on 'Endgame', the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the trees, poisoned the water, the air, contaminated the food supply and occupied the land by force, would you fight back?
Breaking Australia’s Silence — WikiLeaks and Freedom
173 views
John Pilger talks at a public forum in Sydney about the recent revelations of WikiLeaks and the importance of leaked information in exposing the lies and machinations of Public Relations in mainstream media and political rhetoric. Pilger demonstrates the parallels with the plight of Julian Assange and the treatment of David Hicks through the United States legal system, and also explains using recent leaked documents why state power sees investigative journalists and others as a major threat to the established order...
The War You Don’t See
3.49K views
The War You Don't See traces the history of 'embedded' and independent reporting from the carnage of World War One to the destruction of Hiroshima, and from the invasion of Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan and disaster in Iraq. As weapons and propaganda become even more sophisticated, the nature of war is developing into an 'electronic battlefield' in which journalists play a key role, and civilians are the victims. But who is the real enemy?
The Persuaders
1.73K views
Each year, legions of ad people, copywriters, market researchers, pollsters, consultants, and even linguists (most of whom work for one of six giant companies) spend billions of dollars and millions of hours trying to determine how to persuade consumers what to buy, whom to trust, and what to think. Increasingly, these techniques are migrating to the high-stakes arena of politics, shaping policy and influencing how Americans choose their leaders. What's this manipulation all about?
Orwell Rolls In His Grave
2.01K views
Could a media system, controlled by a few global corporations with the ability to overwhelm all competing voices, be able to turn lies into truth? This documentary examines the relationship between the media, corporations, and government. In a country where the top 1% control 90% of the wealth, the film argues that the media system is nothing but a subsidiary of the corporate world. Have we entered an Orwellian world of doublespeak where outright lies can pass for the truth?
Palestine Is Still The Issue
1.03K views
John Pilger returns to the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza where, in 1974, he filmed a documentary with the same title -- Palestine Is Still The Issue -- a film about the same issues, a nation of people, the Palestinians, forced off their land and subjected to military occupation by Israel. Pilger hears extraordinary stories from Palestinians, though most of his interviews are with Israelis whose voices are seldom heard, including the remarkable witness of a man who lost his daughter in a suicide bombing. But for Palestinians, the overriding, routine terror, day after day, has been the ruthless control of almost every aspect of their lives, as if they live in an open prison. This film is about the Palestinians and a group of courageous Israelis united in the fight to be free...
Power, Propaganda and the Silence of Writers
1.38K views
"These days, a one-dimensional political 'culture' ensures that few writers write, or speak out, as they did in the last century. They are talented, yet safe. In the media, the more people watch, the less people know. Beneath the smokescreen of objectivity and impartiality, media establishments too often ventriloquise the official line, falling silent at the sight of unpleasant truths." Renowned independent journalist John Pilger speaks about complicity and compliance, censorship and citizen journalism as well as issues such as the holocaust in Iraq and Rudd's shrewd political apology to the Indigenous peoples of Australia...
Peace, Propaganda and The Promised Land
895 views
By providing a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, Peace, Propaganda and The Promised Land zeros in on how structural distortions in U.S. media coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how, through the use of language, framing and the context of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media...
The Power of Nightmares
14.47K views
Is the threat of radical Islamism as a massive sinister organised force of destruction, specifically in the form of al-Qaeda, a myth perpetrated by politicians in many countries—and particularly American Neo-Conservatives—in an attempt to 'unite and inspire' people following the failure of earlier, more utopian ideologies?
Truth, Lies and Intelligence
871 views
In March 2003 thousands of Australian troops and others were committed to fight a 'war' as part of a pre-emptive strike on the sovereign nation of Iraq, a country from whom there was no threat. Two years on, Australia has suffered its first casualty in the conflict while the American death toll stands at nearly two thousand, a result of an invasion which has all but destroyed a foreign nation and seen an estimated 100,000 of its civilians killed, millions made homeless, leaving a legacy of destruction and religious division instilled in its wake. Did Australia get it wrong? How could our Government have made such a catastrophic and historic 'error'?
Flying The Flag, Arming The World
712 views
John Pilger and David Munro look behind political rhetoric to discover the hidden world of international arms dealing...
Breaking The Silence
1.17K views
The discrepancies between the "war on terror" and the facts on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq are many. In 2001, as the bombs began to drop, George W. Bush promised Afghanistan "the generosity of America and its allies". Now, the familiar old warlords are retaining their power, religious fundamentalism is expanding its grip and military "skirmishes" continue routinely. In "liberated" Afghanistan, America has its military base and pipeline access, while the people have the warlords who are, as one woman says in the film, "in many ways worse than the Taliban" -- which, after all, is funded by the United States, remember?
Spin
806 views
Using the 1992 presidential election as his springboard, film-maker Brian Springer captures the behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings of politicians and newscasters in the early 1990s. Pat Robertson banters about "homos," Al Gore learns how to avoid abortion questions, George Bush talks to Larry King about halcyon and other drugs -- all presuming they're off camera. Composed of 100% unauthorised satellite footage, Spin is a surreal expose of media-constructed reality...
Outfoxed — Rupert Murdoch’s war on journalism
869 views
The global growth of Rupert Murdoch's media enterprise is cause for concern. The concentration of media ownership on a global scale in the hands of one man infringes on the freedom of the press by definition at the very least. But the real life example here is Fox News and it's own claim of being "Fair and Balanced" -- one only has to look at the coverage of the invasion of Iraq for example, or "commentators" such as Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity and the interactions they have with their "guests"; the vast political connections between Fox News, the Whitehouse and the Pentagon propaganda unit; the suppressed news stories, the censorship, the manipulation and control over the "news" by Murdoch and the president Roger Ailes themselves, not to mention the control over reporters, with former journalists alleging that Fox News asked them to lie and when they refused they were fired. Even lawsuits entailed from this with the court ruling that it is not against the law to lie on a news program...
The Century of The Self
31.17K views
To many in both business and government, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power is truly moved into the hands of the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society. How is the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interest?
Pandora’s Box
12.78K views
Pandora's Box -- A fable from the age of science, is a six part series examining the consequences of political and technocratic rationalism, tying together communism in the Soviet Union, systems analysis and game theory during the Cold War, economy in the United Kingdom during the 1970s, the insecticide DDT, Kwame Nkrumah's leadership in Ghana during the 1950s and 1960s and the history of nuclear power.
Oh Dearism
2.32K views
As the mainstream media attempts to create a simple narrative from hugely complex events, much is obviously lost in the translation -- most often purposefully. This short film attempts to contrast the nature of this narrative in the 1990s, where events were almost universally portrayed as 'the little guy versus the big guy' to the post Rwanda narrative of 'scattered terrible things happening everywhere, Oh Dear'. Perhaps the film suggests that it is not that we actually can't do anything about these events, it is only that mainstream news presents these events within a framework that makes it seem that way, and how that in itself is a very powerful means to social control...
It Felt Like A Kiss
4.20K views
Based on the immersive theatre production and experimental work by Adam Curtis, It Felt Like A Kiss shows the story of an enchanted world that was built by American power as it became supreme post-war, and how those living in that dream world responded to it. Using extensive archive footage and music from many sources, the film explores the theme of how power really works in the world...
Richard Nixon — Paranoia and Moral Panics
2.12K views
"This is a film about how all of us have become Richard Nixon. Just like him, we have all become paranoid weirdos. Its the story of how television and newspapers did this to us and how it has paralysed the ability of politics to transform the world for the better"...
Cambodia — Return to Year Zero
156 views
John Pilger travels to Cambodia to investigate how the United Nations has allowed the Khmer Rouge regime to grow stronger. Why has Pol Pot's organisation grown stronger and more menacing since the arrival of the UN? Cambodia -- Return To Year Zero looks behind the façade of the so-called 'peace process' and asks: Has the unthinkable for Cambodia at last been made acceptable for the rest of the world?