Documentaries

A documentary that examines the scale and underlying dynamics of multinational corporate expansion, and shows the deleterious social and economic effects of the multinationals' power in both the U.S. and the Third World. Includes interviews with several corporate executives and with workers in a small New England city faced with the threat of a runaway shop. Investigates the role of the multinationals in influencing U.S. government policy in underdeveloped nations.

This is followed by a discussion with a research scientist, John Valentine, with "Science for the People", who recounts his experiences and analyzes how private industry and universities collaborate in a preoccupation with profits at the expense of people.

This is an incredibly rare documentary that's sadly been forgotten to the ravages of time. This VHS copy was recorded from the 'Alternative Views' TV program, which broadcast the documentary in 1980, allowing it to be saved from obscurity.

If you'd like to rent or obtain a copy of this film in HD quality, California Newsreel still sells it on their website: http://newsreel.org/video/CONTROLLING...

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/22826213

One of (if not the best) documentary I've ever watched. If I could make everyone watch something - it would be this.

The modern day Four Horsemen continue to ride roughshod over the people who can least afford it. Crises are converging when governments, religion and mainstream economists have stalled. 23 international thinkers come together and break their silence about how the world really works and why there is still hope in re-establishing a moral and just society. Four Horsemen is free from mainstream media propaganda, doesn't bash bankers, criticize politicians or get involved in conspiracy theories. The film ignites the debate about how we usher a new economic paradigm into the world which, globally, would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions. - Anonymous

When the mural by Jack Hastings at Marx House in Clerkenwell Green in London was rediscovered in 1991 behind its library's bookshelves, a film was made about the artist, his work with Diego Rivera in the United States, and how the mural came to be painted at Marx House in 1934.

More context here: https://electronicintifada.net/content/watch-film-israel-lobby-didnt-want-you-see/25876

The Electronic Intifada has obtained a complete copy of The Lobby – USA, a four-part undercover investigation by Al Jazeera into Israel’s covert influence campaign in the United States.

We are releasing the leaked film simultaneously with France’s Orient XXI and Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar, which have respectively subtitled the episodes in French and Arabic.

The film was made by Al Jazeera during 2016 and was completed in October 2017.

But it was censored after Qatar, the gas-rich Gulf emirate that funds Al Jazeera, came under intense Israel lobby pressure not to air the film.

Now The Electronic Intifada can reveal for the first time that it has obtained all four parts of the film.

To get unprecedented access to the Israel lobby’s inner workings, undercover reporter “Tony” posed as a pro-Israel volunteer in Washington.

The resulting film exposes the efforts of Israel and its lobbyists to spy on, smear and intimidate US citizens who support Palestinian human rights, especially BDS – the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

Just saw this uploaded to the CGTN Documentaries channel. Unfortunately probably next-to-useless for showing liberals since they'll immediately write it off as "CCP propaganda." Anyone see any issues with the content of this one?

"In the spring of 1992 documentary filmmaker Dong-won Kim met Cho Chang-son and Kim Seak-hyoung, two North Koreans arrested by South Korean authorities years before. Convicted of spying for the North, they were incarcerated and spent thirty years as political prisoners. These men, and many others like them, underwent conversion schemes in prison that involved torture: those who renounced their communist beliefs were released from prison early. The others, known as "the unconverted," served their full terms. None could return home to the North, however, until the turn of this century, when tensions between North and South eased significantly. Director Dong-won Kim followed these men for ten years, documenting how they survived — both physically and psychologically — the dehumanizing time spent in prison, and their quest, once released, to finally go home."

1993 documentary about the ANM or Australian Nationalist Movement, a terrorist group in western Australia.

A documentary on life, work and art in the early Soviet Union.

PLASTIC DEFENCE is a documentary about illegal 3D printed firearms in Europe and the decentralised network behind them. These guns are robust, they don't blow up in your hands, and they're untraceable. What's more, they're being made in people's bedrooms.

Germany also manufactured large amounts of chemical weapons for World War II. The population was prepared for a gas war. Mustard gas—sometimes called ‘Deadly Lost’ in German—had already been used in the First World War. The dangerous agent played an important rôle in the second as well.

‘After the [Fascists] came to power, they began with [further] rearmament. One aspect of that was making warfare agents for Germany. They built factories to manufacture the toxins, which then had to be filled into munitions. In total, there were seven munition‐filling centres built that worked with mustard gas.’

German chemists were behind some of the most gruesome discoveries in modern warfare. A 1938 propaganda film showcased the power of the nerve agents tabun and sarin:

‘After just a few seconds, the motor neural stem cells are paralysed, and breathing ceases. Severe asphyxiation cramps follow. Breathing is stopped while a heartbeat can still be detected.’

In the end, even the [Third Reich] backed away from using these weapons of horror.

There is also a theme that recurs throughout this documentary:

The costs are an obstacle. Germany’s most toxic hole, Dethlinger Pond in Lower Saxony, could easily become the world’s most costly one. The clean up comes with an estimated €15,000,000 price tag.

[…]

Now the authorities say it’s up to the new owners to clean up any old ordnance. But the investor doesn’t want to pay for it, because that would mean passing on the cost of his toxic legacy to buyers and tenants.

[…]

Other studies have shown that public areas are also contaminated with arsenic, an uncomfortable truth for the City of Berlin. After decades of [ignoring it], authorities have to face up to this toxic wartime legacy, and it’s likely to cost them a lot.

(ETA: orthography.)