In the 1960s and 70s, British governments conspiring with American officials, secretly tricked into leaving and then expelled, the entire population of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean as to make way for a major American military base. Indeed from Diego Garcia, American military planes have since bombed Afghanistan and Iraq. Stealing A Nation documents the story of the islanders who were dumped in the slums of Mauritius and in the words of the British officials who left a 'paper trail' of what the International Criminal Court now describes as 'a crime against humanity'...
The Secret of the Seven Sisters is a four-part series examining the rise of a powerful cartel of seven companies that control the world's oil supply. The 'seven sisters' comprises Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now BP); Gulf Oil, Standard Oil of California (SoCal) and Texaco (now Chevron); Royal Dutch Shell; Standard Oil of New Jersey (Esso) and Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony), (now ExxonMobil). Prior to the oil crisis of 1973, the Seven Sisters controlled around 85% of the world's petroleum reserves, but in recent decades the dominance of the companies and their successors has declined. This series is about the power of oil, the conspiracy of business, and the control that oil provides the few...
McCarthy chronicles the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, the United States senator who came to power after a stunning victory in an election that no one thought he could win. Once in office, he declared that there was a vast conspiracy threatening the United States--not emanating from a rival superpower, but from within. Then, without restraint or oversight, he conducted a vast crusade against those he accused of being "enemies of the state," a chilling campaign marked by groundless accusations, bullying, intimidation, grandiose showmanship, and cruel victimisation. With lawyer Roy Cohn at his side, McCarthy belittled critics, spinning a web of lies and distortions while spreading fear and confusion. After years in the headlines, he was brought down by his own excesses and overreach.
The Trials of Henry Kissinger examines the evidence of war crimes by Henry Kissinger during his time as the United States "National Security Advisor" and later Secretary of State for President Nixon and President Ford. Acting in the role of the prosecution, journalist Christopher Hitchens presents solid evidence of Kissinger's complicity in a series of war crimes involving Indonesia, Bangladesh, Chile, Cyprus, East Timor and many other countries...
Orgreave in the North of England was the focal point for a mass protest by miners in June 1984. At this time, miners were angry over proposed pit closures and reacted by striking and pressuring other pits to close. The culmination of these protests was a mass gathering of miners from all over the country at Orgreave. On the morning of 18th June miners were escorted into Orgreave. At this point, police tactics already resembled a military campaign. After a push by the miners, the police acted with force, charging the pickets on horses. The protest soon turned violent with the police deploying dogs, batons and guns in an attempt to suppress the protest. The Battle for Orgreave interviews defendants directly about their experiences of Orgreave, and how those experiences changed their life...
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."
Project X is a short film taking viewers on an undercover journey based on formerly top-secret documents that show a partnership between the National Security Agency and telecommunications corporations such as AT&T and Verizon for mass surveillance and bulk data collection of voice and data. The documents reveal TITANPOINTE, the codename for a large windowless sky scraper in New York, where AT&T and other corporations house vast Internet switching equipment and data centres. The facility is also tied to a nearby FBI building, and its rooftop equipment to the SKIDROWE satellite surveillance system. These findings were possible because of documents released to the public by Edward Snowden and other brave whistleblowers.