No End in Sight

In honor (if that's the right word) of the third war Gitmo Nation just recently started with Libya, it seemed like a good time to go back and check out this gem from the director of Inside Job.  No End in Sight chronicles America's initial invasion and occupation in Iraq.  There are dozens of people interviewed (many of them supporters of George W. Bush), a good number of them worked for the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) and ended up thoroughly convinced that one of two things happened: 1) The Bush administration had no idea what they were doing and were totally incompetent or 2) The Bush administration wanted chaos in Iraq so that no one could get to their vast oil reserves.  Let's hope that this path is not taken with Libya.



Brought to you by The World of Cinema

NA 288 Film

Adam and John were split on the film Team America:World Police.  I find it to be absolutely hilarious because even when it's a tad dull and unfunny, it's still friggin puppets!
Trailer:




Adam went into detail on a documentary from Iceland that is currently making the rounds at film festivals worldwide called Feathered Cocaine.  Check film festivals in your area at the films website because I just checked the one here by me in Cleveland and it is showing for two days next week.
Trailer:

Brought to you by The World of Cinema

NA 287 Film

Pedobear is back!  Well pedobear is always with us, but he popped up on NA again.  Adam and John referenced this quite insightful (and supposedly never aired) documentary that is up on Google.
Conspiracy of Silence (referred to as Boy's Town on NA) from 1994:

Brought to you by The World of Cinema

NA 286 Film

Adam mentioned Lifting the Veil on Sunday's show as a MUST watch documentary.
Feature Film:

Lifting the Veil from S DN on Vimeo.
Brought to you by The World of Cinema

Control Room

The mentions by Hilary Clinton and others about the news channel Al Jezeera have come up on No Agenda several times in the last month, so this week's Monday Movie is a documentary from 2004 that takes a look at the founding of the channel and its subsequent roll in the reporting of the American invasion of Iraq as well as the occupation.  Control Room was one of my personal favorite films of 2004 and was nominated and won several film festival prizes and critics awards. 

I re-watched the film about a week ago just to refresh myself and it really is quite balanced.  The filmmaker, Jehane Noujaim, solicited interviews from and includes footage of people/pundits from all sides.  I think the most telling comment comes from a senior news editor at Al Jezeera.  I'm paraphrasing, but he essentially says that they watch a lot of Fox News in their offices, because that is the style that Al Jezeera wants to emulate.  Fantastic!

Trailer:

Brought to you by The World of Cinema

NA 284 Film

John mentioned having just watched Broadcast News on Sunday's show.
Trailer:




Brought to you by The World of Cinema

The Century of the Self - Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

This is the final episode in the great documentary series by Adam Curtis.  This one really ties together the entire series.  Here is the description from the BBC:   

"This episode explains how politicians on the left, in both Britain and America, turned to the techniques developed by business to read and fulfil the inner desires of the self. 

Both New Labour, under Tony Blair, and the Democrats, led by Bill Clinton, used the focus group, which had been invented by psychoanalysts, in order to regain power. They set out to mould their policies to people's inner desires and feelings, just as capitalism had learnt to do with products. 

Out of this grew a new culture of public relations and marketing in politics, business and journalism. One of its stars in Britain was Matthew Freud who followed in the footsteps of his relation, Edward Bernays, the inventor of public relations in the 1920s. 

The politicians believed they were creating a new and better form of democracy, one that truly responded to the inner feelings of individual. But what they didn't realise was that the aim of those who had originally created these techniques had not been to liberate the people but to develop a new way of controlling them."


Here is a downloadable version from Archive.org.
Brought to you by The World of Cinema

NA 283 Film

John mentioned the highly interesting George Clooney film from 2002, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.  It's also worth noting that this film was not just another acting gig for Mr. Clooney, it was also his first time directing a film.





Brought to you by The World of Cinema