home | Show Times - Current Season Fall '04 - Spring '03 - Fall '02 - Spring '02
Show Schedule Fall 2004
All shows locat ed in the Plaster Student Union Theater on the SMSU campus
Tuesday, October 5 - 5:00 pm
Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror: A Special Report by John Pilger
Running Time: 52 min, Year: 2003
Award-winning journalist John Pilger investigates the discrepancies between American and British claims for the 'war on terror' and the facts on the ground as he finds them in Afghanistan and Washington, DC.
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 regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing 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, says one woman, "in many ways worse than the Taliban".
In Washington, Pilger conducts a series of remarkable interviews with William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and leading Administration officials such as Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. These people, and the other architects of the Project for the New American Century, were dismissed as 'the crazies' by the first Bush Administration in the early 90s when they first presented their ideas for pre-emptive strikes and world domination.
Pilger also interviews presidential candidate General Wesley Clark, and former intelligence officers, all the while raising searching questions about the real motives for the 'war on terror'.
While President Bush refers to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq as two 'great victories', Pilger asks the question - victories over whom, and for what purpose? Pilger describes Afghanistan as a country "more devastated than anything I have seen since Pol Pot's Cambodia". He finds that Al-Qaida has not been defeated and that the Taliban is re-emerging. And of the "victory" in Iraq, he asks: "Is this Bush's Vietnam?"
Directed by Steve Connelly and John Pilger
Produced by Christopher Martin
Executive Producer: Richard Clemmow
Written and Presented by John Pilger
Awards:
Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival
Freedom Cinema Festival
Reviews:
"Astonishing...should be required viewing in every home, school and office. With facts bristling from his fingertips, Pilger revised the Bush/Blair version of events leading up to the conquest of Iraq to reveal an agenda of unprovoked aggression, excused and obscured by ruthless manipulation of September 11." The Guardian (UK)
"Breaking the Silence is a film with enormous emotional power, bringing us the human consequences of our military attacks on Middle East countries. It also provides us with important insights into the reasons for these cruelties, exposing the emptiness and hypocrisy of the claims made by the Bush administration that it is fighting "terrorism" and promoting "freedom". I wish this film could be shown in every classroom in the United States, to guard young people against the lies they will hear from on high, and to prepare them to be active citizens in the struggle for a peaceful world." Howard Zinn, Author, A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present, Terrorism and War
"In 52 minutes, John Pilger succeeds brilliantly where the U.S. mass media have failed miserably -- to examine the "war on terror" with tough-minded humanism and uncompromising journalism. The result of Pilger's efforts is a powerful expose that demolishes the pretensions of George W. Bush and Tony Blair. In 2004, we need Pilger's documentary Breaking the Silence more than ever. From Afghanistan and Iraq to New York City and the insulated bastions of power in Washington, this film jolts us to consider the real human costs of flagrant lies still being told in high places. Whether you live in the United States, Britain or anywhere else on the planet, Breaking the Silence shatters some key myths that often prevent us from developing news media and political priorities to protect human life instead of destroying it." Norman Solomon, Executive Director, Institute for Public Accuracy
"Provides a frighteningly lucid account of President George W. Bush's potentially never-ending war on terror." The Sunday Times
"This Special Report by John Pilger is as welcome as it is contentious." The Daily Mail
"Another inspirational hour from John Pilger, which feels like hitting an air pocket after drowning for years in the deluge of 'with us or against us' on-message, embedded reporting." The Guardian
"Raises crucial questions about the real motives behind the violence...Pilger [makes] a very valid point about the terrible distance between the public statements of the American and British Governments and the actual actions they have taken." Antiwar.com
"Recommended" Educational Media Reviews Online
"A compelling documentary, almost haunting at times, which takes one of the biggest political bones...and chews it to pieces...[Breaking the Silence] is as disturbing as it is compelling and, undoubtedly, some of its claims will sound long and loud after this hour ends." Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday, October 28 - 5:00
Running Time: 77 min, Year: 2004 - See Clip
"Outfoxed" examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know.
The film explores Murdoch's burgeoning kingdom and the impact on society when a broad swath of media is controlled by one person.
Media experts, including Walter Cronkite, Jeff Cohen (FAIR) Bob McChesney (Free Press), Chellie Pingree (Common Cause), Jeff Chester (Center for Digital Democracy) and David Brock (Media Matters) provide context and guidance for the story of Fox News and its effect on society.
This documentary also reveals the secrets of Former Fox news producers, reporters, bookers and writers who expose what it's like to work for Fox News. These former Fox employees talk about how they were forced to push a "right-wing" point of view or risk their jobs. Some have even chosen to remain anonymous in order to protect their current livelihoods. As one employee said "There's no sense of integrity as far as having a line that can't be crossed."
Director/Producer: Robert Greenwald
Tuesday, November 16 - 5:00 pm
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
Running Time: 167 min, Year: 1993
Funny, provocative and surprisingly accessible, Manufacturing Consent explores the political life and ideas of Noam Chomsky, world-renowned linguist, intellectual and political activist. In a dynamic collage of new and original footage, biography, archival gems, imaginative graphics and outrageous illustrations, the film highlights Chomsky’s probing analysis of mass media. A mammoth two-part project, Manufacturing Consent is nonetheless light on its feet, favoring a style that encourages viewers to question its own workings, as Chomsky himself encourages his listeners to extricate themselves from the “web of deceit” by undertaking a course of “intellectual self-defense.” Appearing in the film are major journalists and critics, including Bill Moyers, William F. Buckley, Jr., Tom Wolfe, Peter Jennings, Jeff Greenfield, philosopher Michel Foucault, White House reporter Sarah McClendon, New York Times editorial writer Karl E. Meyer
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media has been honoured with 22 awards and distinctions, screened theatrically in 300 cities and aired on 30 national TV networks. This 2 hour-45 minute epic is the top-grossing feature documentary in Canadian history.
Filmmakers: Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick
“An invigorating introduction to one of the least soporific of American minds.”
- NEW YORK TIMES
“Eye-opening, mind-expanding entertainment at its finest. A major achievement.”
- HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
“Watch out for this film... it can make you think!”
- Ralph Nader
“Memorable... invaluable” -THE NATION
“An immensely accomplished, entertaining examination of the man and his ideas”
-THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
Thursday, December 2 - 5:00 pm
Running Time: 1:08:00 , Year: 1997
Buckle up for DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, the acclaimed hijacking documentary that eerily foreshadowed 9-11. We meet the romantic skyjackers who fought their revolutions and won airtime on the passenger planes of the 1960's and 1970Õs. By the 1990's, such characters were apparently no more, replaced on our TV screens by stories of anonymous bombs in suitcases.
Director Johan Grimonprez investigates the politics behind this change, at the same time unwrapping our own complicity in the urge for ultimate disaster. Playing on Don DeLillo's riff in his novel Mao II: "what terrorists gain, novelists lose" and "home is a failed idea", he blends archival footage of hijackings with surreal and banal themes, including fast food, pet statistics, disco, and his quirky home movies. David Shea composed the superb soundtrack to this free fall through history, best described in the words of one hijacked Pepsi executive as "running the gamut of many emotions, from surprise to shock to fear, to joy, to laughter, and then again, fear."
Filmmaker: Johan Grimonprez
"Exceptional for its juice, its jazzy compelling fusion of social and aesthetic issues, and its stomach-churning power."
- The New York Times
"A sense of urgency and a wrenching emotional attack."
- The Times (London)
"Each cut turns a screw deeper until your mind hurts."
- San Francisco Bay Guardian
"An eccentric, roller coaster ride through history."
- Time Out