Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

2004: Year of the Documentary (& Hopefully, Political Reform)

Rmcz3k | 08.07.2004 19:51 | Culture | World

(mini reviews of "The Corporation" "Control Room" "Orwell Rolls in His Grave" and "Uncovered")

Perhaps because of tumultous events of recent history, ever-increasing speed of information technology, corporatization of mass media, or a combination of these and other factors, 2004 is a historic year for documentary filmmaking by any standard.

As a first shot across the bow, Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me created a buzz at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Though not heavily publicized, the film accumulated numerous rave reviews leading to so much positive word of mouth it went on to become the fourth largest grossing documentary film of all time. However, it may have also been boosted by free publicity through news stories about McDonald's phasing out its "supersize" option in March and introducing "Go Active" adult Happy Meals in April (just prior to the nationwide release of Super Size Me in May) all the while declaring the decisions had nothing to do with Spurlock's film.

Even before its release, Fahrenheit 9/11 (and Michael Moore) became the center of controversy in newsrooms and chatrooms across the country. Perhaps reflecting the polarization of the current American political climate, people debated and argued about merits and flaws of Moore and his film, whether Disney was practicing censorship for refusing to distribute it, if the MPAA's R rating was given for political reasons, or if Moore was exploiting such controversies for personal gain. As is common for corporations to do when covering their behinds, anonymous individuals even hired a PR firm to create a pseudo-grassroots organization in an attempt to discourage people from seeing the film.

Demonstrating how this type of strategy can backfire spectacularly, Fahrenheit 9/11 became the highest grossing documentary of all time on its opening weekend alone, and had the second largest per theater average for a film that opened in wide-release. Also surprisingly, it received generally (or grudgingly) positive reviews even among corporate media outlets slammed in the film.

One of F9/11's strengths and weaknesses was the vast range of information it presented. Even at two and a half hours, although a commendable effort, there's no way any film could have said all that needed to be said about corporate/military control of news content, the election theft of 2000, oddities surrounding the official 9/11 story, hidden agendas behind the Patriot Act and the war on terror, and the many reasons why the invasion of Iraq was a huge mistake. Fortunately for those hungry for more information on some of the topics touched on in Moore's film, a number of other great relevant films released this year can help fill in the gaps.

Prior to the release of F9/11, the record for highest grossing documentary film in Canada had recently been broken by The Corporation. Directed by Jennifer Abbot and Mark Achbar, the film is not a one-sided attack on corporations, but a fascinating overview of what a corporation is, the origins of the corporation, the many problems caused by corporations on a local and global scale, and ways the corporate model might be changed for the better. Featured throughout the film are illuminating interviews with Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore and Ray Anderson (CEO of a billion dollar company who displays remarkable candor acknowledging his past mistakes his epiphany that gave him the determination to correct them). Despite the mind-blowingly awful corporate crimes it reveals, the film doesn't lose sight of contradictions and ironies of the system (throwing in jokes about itself being a corporation). As co-director Jennifer Abbot said, "There are some big problems here. It's not your fault though you might be implicated. You know it. We know it. What are we going to do about it?"

Control Room is the newest film from Egyptian-American director Jehune Noujaim (who previously co-directed Startup.com) and was released in May near the same time The Corporation opened in America. It's a revealing behind-the-scenes look at Al-Jazeera and CENTCOM (Central Command), the strategic and media PR center of American military operations in Iraq. Though the film contains fascinating footage of the Al-Jazeera news rooms during crucial moments of the war such as the initial bombings and the takeover of Baghdad, at it's heart are three central characters who befriended the filmmakers during the film shoot. Hassan Ibrahim (Al-Jazeera journalist), Samir Khadir (Al-Jazeera producer) and Capt. Josh Rushing (U.S. Press Officer for CENTCOM). Though this film, like Al-Jazeera, has been criticized for its lack of objectivity, one of the central themes of the film is that total objectivity in news is an illusion. What western media can learn from Al-Jazeera and this film is the importance of giving a voice to a number of different points of view,

Robert Kane Pappas' Orwell Rolls In His Grave was twenty years in the making but it couldn't have been released at a more approprate time in American history. Similar to how Moore's film alluded to Ray Bradbury's cautionary tale, Pappas' film draws frightening comparisons between America today and George Orwell's prophetic novel "1984". In fine detail, the film examines corporate domination of modern American politics and global mass media. As two major examples, the documentary revisits the 1980 and 2000 U.S. presidential races, revealing damning evidence of big media collusion with Republican dirty tricksters leading to the election of Reagan and Bush, subsequent legislation leading to further deregulation, increased profits for big media and other corporations...and the cycle of corruption continues to this day. Along with many eerily topical quotes from Orwell, the film is punctuated with informative and revelatory interviews with Rep. Bernie Sanders, Charles Lewis (director of the Center for Public Integrity), media scholars and authors Robert McChesney and Mark Crispin Miller, former member of British Parliament Tony Benn, investigative journalist Greg Palast and (once again) Michael Moore. While Orwell Rolls In His Grave is an important reminder that 1984 is no longer a date in the future, presenting much information that is frightening and depressing, in an odd way it also leaves one inspired and uplifted because a film such as this can still be made and seen (at least for the few able to catch it at film festivals or have seen it on video). Being informed of the nature of current problems can be upsetting, but is also essential to prevent a further descent to a completely "Orwellian" situation.

Though actually completed in 2003, I'm including this title because it had not been widely screened or available on DVD until 2004. Shortly after the release of the excellent documentary about the 2000 election, Unprecedented, producer Robert Greenwald quickly went on to produce and direct a film about the invasion of Iraq. The finished product, Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War is a particularly powerful anti-war document because of it's sense of immediacy and numerous interviews with ex-government officials. Among the many speaking out against the war are former ambassador Joe Wilson, former weapons inspectors Scott Ritter and David Albright, former Director of the CIA Stansfield Turner and former CIA operatives Robert Baer and Milt Bearden, among many others. If even ex-CIA agents are against the war, you know it's really bad. Greenwald is reportedly now working on Unconstitutional (about post 9/11 attacks on civil liberties) which is scheduled for a late 2004 release.

Liberty Bound and Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire are two more films that just recently came out. I have not had a chance to see either of them yet, but judging from their respective websites, both sound like they have much to offer for those who love independant documentaries and/or those seeking the truth. There's a famous quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson, "An informed citizenry is the bulwark of a democracy". With the help of many independant filmmakers, journalists, activists and others, in 2004 we all have a much needed opportunity to reinforce the bulwark.

Rmcz3k

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech