Discover PS.org's Framing and Tactical Assault Projects!
11/22/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Deadline Iraq: Uncensored Stories of the War
Categories :: Documentary
Deadline Iraq: Uncensored Stories of the War, produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Company for local television in November 2003 (still unaired in the United States), examines the invasion and initial occupation of Iraq from the perspective of fifty journalists, cameramen,...
11/14/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Oil on Ice
Categories :: Documentary
Oil on Ice, a timely documentary directed by Bo Boudart and Dale Djerassi and narrated by Peter Coyote, examines the struggle to safeguard the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a pristine19-million acre refuge located in northeast Alaska, from oil exploration...
11/12/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Aftermath: The Remnants of War
Categories :: Documentary
”The remnants of war exist as unexploded artillery shells and swaths of unburied landmines. They drift as sea mines in oceans and moulder as dead soldiers left unburied beneath forest leaves.”
Donovan Webster (author), Aftermath: The Remnants of War
11/02/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Brothers in Arms: John Kerry [Documentary]
Categories :: Documentary
Written and directed by Paul Alexander (author of a flattering biography of Arizona Senator John McCain), Brothers in Arms examines, in broad strokes, John Kerry’s military service as the commander of a swift boat in the Mekong Delta during the...
10/20/04 :: By Mel Valentin
The Motorcycle Diaries
Categories :: Film Reviews
Political tract or conventional narrative, The Motorcycle Diaries proves to be an artistic failure, an occasionally admirable or engaging failure, but a failure nonetheless. It offers little in the way of clearly articulated political ideas (and ideals), and, when viewed...
10/19/04 :: By Mel Valentin
The Hunting of the President
Categories :: Documentary
The Hunting of the President, another in the rapidly expanding series of partisan, political documentaries released in 2004, chronicles the decade-long campaign to discredit (and later impeach) former President William J. Clinton. Written and directed by Harry Thomason and Nicholas...
10/16/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Distorted Morality: The War on Terrorism?
Categories :: Documentary
Distorted Morality: War on Terrorism? features two lectures by Noam Chomsky given in 2002, after the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C, but before the March 19, 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States. Noam Chomsky is a professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, a position he’s held at MIT for more than forty years. In the 1950s, Chomsky pioneered linguistics research, formulating what he called “universal grammar” (a theory, in simplistic form, that posited innate, cognitive structures within the human brain inherently predisposed to generating complex language systems). For non-academics, Noam Chomsky is better known as a longtime political critic and activist. He began his second career as an activist during the 1960s, as a critic of U.S. involvement in Vietnam abroad and an activist for civil and political rights at home.
10/13/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
Categories :: Documentary
Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, the latest in what appears to be an unending series of anti-Bush political documentaries released this season, covers little new ground in examining George W. Bush’s meteoric, if unfortunate, rise to power in presidential politics and as such, indicates the limits, if not of the short-form documentary format, then of a subject matter that has been exhaustively scrutinized and discussed both in the alternative press and the mainstream media, to diminishing returns.
10/12/04 :: By Mel Valentin
The Yes Men (Taking on the WTO)
Categories :: Documentary
The Yes Men, directed by Dan Olman, Sarah Price, and Chris Smith (American Movie), follows two anti-corporate/anti-globalization pranksters, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano, as they impersonate World Trade Organization (WTO) officials at various trade and business conferences. The WTO is...
10/05/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry
Categories :: Documentary
Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry, loosely based on Douglas Brinkley’s Tour of Duty, is the latest in a series of political documentaries intended to educate, enlighten, and more importantly, impact the upcoming general election. Despite its unapologetically...
10/02/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Persons of Interest: Muslims/Arabs After 9/11
Categories :: Documentary
Funded in part by the Sundance Documentary Fund and directed by Alison Maclean (Jesus' Son, Crush) and Tobias Perse, Persons of Interest examines arbitrary arrest, secret detention, and deportation of Muslim and Arab immigrants in the after of the 9-11...
09/24/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Shooting the War: Documentary
Categories :: Documentary
Shooting the War, a 1999 Canadian documentary co-directed by Patrick Chauvel and Antoine Novet, explores, in cursory fashion, the subgroup of photojournalists who work and have worked in high-risk war zones, from World War II through the smaller, if nonetheless...
09/19/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Hearts and Minds: Vietnam War Documentary
Categories :: Vietnam War
Hearts and Minds, the 1974 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature directed by Peter Davis, critically dissects the consequences of the Vietnam War on both the South Vietnamese the U.S. ostensibly meant to assist against so-called “Communist aggression” from...
09/15/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
Categories :: Media
Ambitious in scope, and culled from more than five years of footage by documentary filmmakers Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick, 1993’s Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, is an often unfocused (and often uncritical) documentary on the life, times,...
09/08/04 :: By Mel Valentin
The Fog of War: Lessons for Yesterday and Today
Categories :: Foreign Policy
Winner of the 2003 Academy Award for Best Documentary, The Fog of War (rated PG-13 for images and thematic issues of war and destruction) is a fascinating, thought-provoking, but ultimately frustrating experience, primarily because Errol Morris's quarry, Robert McNamara, best known as the Secretary of Defense from 1961-1967, directly avoids answering questions about his own personal responsibility for the Vietnam War.
08/31/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Bush's Brain: How Did This Happen?
Categories :: Tactics
Who is Karl Rove? And why is he the most powerful man in America that most people haven’t heard of? Karl Rove sits in the margins of the frame or stands in the corner during speeches made by the man...
08/24/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War
Categories :: Iraq
More a primer for the initiated than a thorough examination of the claims used to justify the invasion of Iraq by the Bush administration, "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War" deconstructs the Bush administration’s post-9-11 decision to invade...
08/14/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Control Room: Al-Jazeera Documentary
Categories :: Media
"Control Room," a new documentary directed by Jehane Noujaim ("StartUp.com"), is a behind-the-scenes look at Al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language, independent satellite news channel that’s been often criticized by the Bush administration for its anti-American bias (Al-Jazeera has been described as the Arabic equivalent of the FOX News Channel).
08/08/04 :: By Mel Valentin
The Corporation: Documentary Reviewed
Categories :: Activism
"The Corporation", an ambitious, sweeping, 145-minute left-leaning documentary (a longer, 225-minute version will be likely available on DVD) directed by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott & Joel Bakan (who provided the source material), examines the 150-year history, growth, and consequences of...
08/01/04 :: By Mel Valentin
Kerry and Vietnam War Crimes (Part II)
Categories :: Kerry, John
First, the claim that Kerry committed “war crimes” falls short, due to lack of evidence. All they have are 33-year old statements (without corroborating evidence) made by an ex-Vietnam veteran appearing before a Senate committee. You seem to lack an understanding of a key rhetorical device used in public speeches: hyperbole. Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration for effect.
08/01/04 :: By Mel Valentin
John Kerry and Vietnam War Crimes
Categories :: Kerry, John
At one of the message boards I frequent, the rabid anti-Kerry contingent cited John Kerry’s testimony before a Senate committee in 1971 and its negative implications for Kerry’s character and his suitability to become the next president of the United...
07/31/04 :: By Mel Valentin
OutFOXed: (Un)Fair and (Un)Balanced
Categories :: Media
"OutFOXed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism", directed by Robert Greenwald, takes a highly partisan approach to FOX News, a 24-hour “news” channel with a decidedly right-wing slant. In short, FOX News is a 24-hour propaganda machine not just for the Republican Party, but also for the current president and the ideologues in his administration, whose policies are firmly supported (financially and ideologically) by Rupert Murdoch, the multi-billionaire owner of the FOX News Channel.
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