44:12Split Screen tells the story of January 6, 2021, where an estimated 2,000 people stormed the United States Capitol building, attempting to stop the certification of votes from the 2020 election. What started as a protest became violent chaos, killing several people and injuring over 140. The event was the culmination of years of angst, anger, violence, and confusion, that began stirring years or even decades earlier in the thick of growing polarisation in the United States. Certain media outlets and social media influencers spread content fuelling division and angst in the months leading up to and following the election. Allegations of voter fraud--rejected by state and federal officials in both parties, as well then-Attorney General William Barr--were amplified and emboldened by conservative media, ultimately igniting the rage and frustration of an undeniable portion of people in the United States who get their news and information through big tech, and the slurry of social media echo-chambers.
1:21:45Filmed over three years, Hacking Democracy documents a group of American citizens investigating anomalies and irregularities with the electronic voting systems used during the 2000 and 2004 US Presidential elections. The investigation revolves around the flawed integrity and security of the machines, particularly those made by the Diebold corporation. Could the elections have been rigged?
1:29:27The American Blackout chronicles the 2002 defeat, and 2004 re-election, of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney to the U.S. House of Representatives, focussing on issues surrounding voter disenfranchisement and the use of electronic voting machines in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections...
1:29:38Along the way to winning an eight-hour workday and fair wages in the early 20th century, the Wobblies were one of the few unions to be racially and sexually integrated and often met with imprisonment, violence, and the privations of prolonged strikes. The Wobblies airs a provocative look at the forgotten American history of this most radical of unions, screening the unforgettable and still-fiery voices of Wobbly members -- lumberjacks, migratory workers, and silk weavers -- in their 70s, 80s, and 90s.
43:25Cover Up
Why did appointed officials of the Australian Reserve Bank and its employees break sanctions in Iraq and cosy up to Saddam Hussein through a frontman during the late 1990s, early 2000s and beyond? Why did a former Deputy Governor and other directors hand-picked by the Reserve Bank to safeguard its subsidiary companies from corruption, end up--over a decade--overseeing some of the most corrupt business practices possible? How did they allow millions of dollars to be wired to third parties in foreign countries--including a known arms dealer--in order to win banknote contracts knowingly using bribery and supporting corruption?
57:45How can we make political change if peaceful demonstration is not effective and violence only brings more violence? War/Peace posits this question by reintroducing two surviving figures from the Weather Underground movement of the late 1960s, Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. Coming from the hippy counterculture, the Weather Underground was a radical militant organisation, with revolutionary positions characterised by the Black Power and civil rights movements, as well as opposition to the Vietnam War. In 1970, the group issued a "Declaration of a State of War" against the United States government, with the goal to overthrow the government and end United States' imperialism, culminating in a bombing campaign targeting government buildings along with several banks. War/Peace rewinds to the past to draw out the complexity of these political struggles, and what went wrong, while drawing parallels to the struggles of today, where a lot has changed, but a lot has also remained the same.
From the Cold War to COVID, While the Rest of Us Die is an exploration of the history of the United States government's doomsday plans, called the Continuity of Government (COG). The series explores various national security spending on hidden underground cities, a secret air force, and several layered structural plans to suspend various democratic systems in order to serve the interests of the elite class--all without the knowledge of the public. It's origins stretch back to the 1950s with the prospect of nuclear strikes during the Cold War, but have secretly and significantly expanded in the proceeding decades.
49:56The Carlyle Group is one of the largest investment banks in the world. Based in Washington, it has accumulated its wealth mainly by investments in defence--a lucrative market in the continued tradition of American war, imperialism and militarism. A strange coincidence? Their list of private investors include George Soros, the Saudi Royal Family and the Bin Laden Family. How does the Carlyle Group really operate and who are the people behind it?
51:13Apartheid based on race is 'outlawed now', but the system always went far deeper than that. The cruelty and injustice were underwritten by an economic apartheid, which regarded people as no more than cheap expendable labour. It was backed by great business corporations in South Africa, Britain, the rest of Europe, and the United States and it was this apartheid based on money and profit that allowed a small minority to control most of the land, most of the industrial wealth, and most of the economic power. Today, the same system is called--without a trace of irony--the free market.
51:06Inside Burma -- The Land Of Fear exposes the history and brutality of one of the world's most repressive regimes. Nearly the size of Texas, with a population of more than 40 million, Burma has rich natural resources. Yet Burma is also a secret country. Isolated for the past 40 years, since a brutal military dictatorship seized power in Rangoon, Burma has been relegated to one of the world's poorest countries, with the assault on its people all but forgotten by the rest of the world. Award winning film-makers John Pilger and David Munro go undercover to expose how the former British colony is ruled by a harsh, bloody and uncompromising military regime...
1:28:52American Radical is a film about the life of academic Norman Finkelstein, a son of Holocaust survivors and ardent critic of Israel. Called a lunatic and self-hating Jew by some, and an inspirational figure by others, American Radical also serves to explore the issues at the centre of Palestine and Israel as Finkelstein travels around the world negotiating a voice of realism among impassioned critics and Israeli supporters. Uncompromising, even in the face of a denial of tenure at DePaul University, Finkelstein is revealed as a rare academic figure who puts the pursuit of justice above the security of his career, to expose the brutal reality of the occupation of Palestine.
1:31:50In 2015, peaceful protests and destructive riots erupted when Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American, died in police custody in Baltimore, United States. While the city waited to see the fate of the six police officers involved in the incident, who were all ultimately not punished, Baltimore Rising shows activists, police officers, community leaders, and gang affiliates, who struggled to hold the city together, as the homicide rate hit record levels. The death of Gray by police catalysed the longstanding fault lines in a distraught community, damaged by corruption and inequality. Baltimore Rising chronicles the determined efforts of people on all sides who are working to make their community better, sometimes coming together in unexpected ways.
1:17:43The 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...
In these three films, John Pilger and Alan Lowery return to Australia to celebrate the country’s bicentenary, interviewing an extraordinary range of Australians from diverse backgrounds, each of whose views are a long way from those of the treasured Aussie stereotypes...
55:46Between 1964 and 1973 the United States conducted a secret war in Laos -- dropping over 2 million tons of bombs, making it the most heavily bombed country in history. Millions of 'cluster bombs' did not explode when dropped, leaving the country massively contaminated with "bombies" which are as dangerous now from when they fell over 30 years ago. Bombies documents unexploded cluster bombs through the personal experiences of a group of Laotians and foreigners who go about dismantling the bombs. These weapons are still a standard part of the United States military arsenal and were recently dropped in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq...
1:21:05Cypherpunks 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...
1:31:20The Hacker Wars explores the strange duality of the modern-day computer-hacker as a mischievous provocateur, but also in some cases, societal activists with underlying political fervour, serious or not. The film explores this by profiling some of the renowned characters that have tickled the secretive inner workings of corporations and government agencies for various reasons—ranging from the nefarious and narcissistic, to the political and scandalous. Some do it for the lulz, others do it to prove a point, and others do it to "speak truth to power." In any event, many have faced severe punishments as a result. By following through this, The Hacker Wars touches on issues of whistleblowing, social justice, and power relations, in a time where computer technologies represent extreme power and control. But for whom? And what? This poses the question in deciphering the personalities of the hackers themselves. Are they serious activists with good intentions, or are they driven by insane ideologies?
Ithaka
Ithaka depicts the incarceration of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange through the experience of his wife Stella Assange and his father John Shipton. Julian Assange faces a 175-year sentence if extradited to the United States. His family members are confronting the prospect of losing Julian forever to the abyss of the justice system. This David-and-Goliath struggle is personal, and, with Julian's health declining in a British maximum-security prison, the clock is ticking. Through this behind-the-scenes view of the extradition hearing, the films grasp the personal cost paid by Julian and the true cost of truth.
45:20The shocking story of a well respected Indigenous community leader in outback Western Australia who was locked in a metal cell in the back of a prison van and driven through the desert in the searing heat. Four hours later he was dead. Reporter Liz Jackson reveals the tragic train of events that led to this death, despite repeated warnings that Western Australia's prisoner transport system was unsafe and inhumane...
1:20:13Uncounted documents how the election fraud that altered the outcome of the 2004 election led to even greater fraud in 2006 and now looms as an unbridled threat to the outcome of the 2008 and future elections. The film shows how easy it is to change election outcomes and undermine election integrity across the United States using electronic voting machines and even other simple methods of manipulation...
42:43Payback Time
Payback Time recounts the experiences of Ramin Bakhtiarvandi as an asylum Seeker in Australia's Detention Centres from June 2000. After his release from a 4 year long detention, Ramin receives a $227,000 bill from the government. Payback Time raises serious questions about the conduct of the Australian Government to this day when dealing with asylum seekers, as well as revealing the harsh realities of a racist culture and complicit mainstream media.
1:25:20Brussels, the capital and largest city of Belgium, has a long history of hosting the institutions of the European Union within its European Quarter; while the Union itself claims it has no capital and no plans to declare one--despite the fact that Brussels hosts the official seats of the European Commission, Council of the European Union, and European Council, as well as a seat of the European Parliament. In any event, it is here--in this centre of smoke and mirrors--that exists one of the largest concentrations of lobbyist power in the world. The Brussels Business scratches the surface of this extensive world hidden-from-view by looking at the direct influence of lobbyists and the complete lack of transparency in the decision-making processes. Speaking with lobbyists and activists themselves, The Brussels Business reveals the beginnings of a vast landscape of PR conglomerates, front companies, think-tanks and their closely-interlinking networks of power and ties to political and economic elites. The questions then become: Who actually runs the European Union? How? And why?
This Is Neoliberalism is a series of video essays that explore the origins and makings of neoliberalism--the dominant ideology of capitalism. The series explains what neoliberalism is and where it came from. Economic liberalisation, privatisation of the public sphere, deregulation of corporations, tax cuts for the rich, "free trade," "austerity," and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in society are just some of the many themes of neoliberalism, which as an ideology, fundamentally seeks to increase the power of corporations and ensure wealth remains shifted to the upper class. The series begins in 1918, and takes us up to modern politics, through globalisation, and to the modern ruling economy.
2:22:34Democracy on Trial presents the foundations of the multiple criminal cases against former United States President Donald Trump, stemming from his 2020 election loss. With the presidential race for 2024 underway, veteran filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team examine the evidence of the January 6 committee--a government panel formed to investigate the attack on the United States Capitol building in 2021. The result highlights federal criminal charges stemming from these inquiries, and explores what unprecedented legal actions mean for the integrity of democracy in the United States.
43:02They brought us war in Iraq, the promotion of "American global leadership," pre-emptive strikes; the "spreading of Democracy." This is the Project for the New American Century. But what do the hawks in Washington have in store for the world now? The War Party investigates this group of beurocrats responsible for the Project for the New American Century, called the neo-conservatives. This interconnected, dispersed group are running the White House in concert of the Bush years and family dynasty. Is it surprising how little has changed?
1:13:25In the name of "protecting children," the Australian Government's so-called "emergency intervention" into Aboriginal communities in the remote Northern Territory, has taken away all existing Aboriginal land rights, suspended racial discrimination laws and placed over 70 communities under compulsory government control with subsequent measures of course having very little to do with "protecting children." Instead, the outcome has been the disempowerment of traditional land owners, the further theft of Aboriginal land, the theft of resources, with the intent being to forcibly assimilate Aboriginal culture.
26:50Mr Nixon's Secret Legacy covers the absurdity of the supposed logic behind "Mutual Assured Destruction" or MAD--a doctrine of military strategy and the national security policy of the United States during the cold war. During this time, MAD is supposedly disassembled, but replaced with a strategy called "Counterforce." This film investigates the propositions of "Counterforce," questioning the rhetoric of executing a "flexible, acceptable nuclear war."
1:44:40The Internet's Own Boy is a biographical documentary of the programmer and activist Aaron Swartz, who died at age 26. From his help in the development of the basic Internet protocol RSS at age 14, to the co-founding of the social network website Reddit in 2006, Swartz becomes disillusioned with the grooming of academia to the corporate life presented to him, and turns instead to work on issues of sociology, civic awareness and activism. It then becomes Swartz's work in social justice issues and political organising, combined with an open and sharing approach to information access that ensnares him in a two year legal battle, in which authorities seek to make an example of him and the work. The battle sadly ends with Swartz taking his own life. This film is a personal story about what we lose when we are tone deaf about technology and its relationship to the political system, civil liberties and human relationships.