Adam and John mentioned that Google Video is now actively deleting files. Adam said that first up on the chopping block is surely the following two films, so listeners should download them immediately. Conspiracy of Silence (AKA Boy's Town)
After two weeks of some lighter election themes films, it's time to do what we do best here at No Agenda Films - dive into a sobering documentary that makes you want to scream "f*@k this!", throw your hands in the air, move out into the country and print you own money.
I first heard of Bev Harris on Coast to Coast AM where she was blowing the whistle on how easily "hackable" the touchscreen voting machines are. I proceeded to read as much as I could at her website, Black Box Voting and was hooked. She is a grandma and mother who found her cause, fair and accurate voting. The entire enterprise is user/citizen supported thru donations. After the 2004 elections, Simon Ardizzone and Russell Michaels followed around Ms. Harris and other voting activists working with her (including a few elected officials) and put together the documentary Hacking Democracy that eventually aired on HBO.
I guess this weeks film, Dave, is technically a classic. It's almost 20 years old and yet still quite relevant. If you don't remember this film, then read the following couple of paragraphs from Wikipedia.
"Mr. Kovic runs a temporary employment agency in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., and, as a side job, makes appearances impersonating President Bill Mitchell, whom he resembles, at events such as automobile dealerships and supermarket openings.
He is requested by a Secret Service agent to make an appearance as the President at a hotel where he is making a speech, but it is really to cover up Mitchell's extramarital affair with a White House staffer.
Mitchell suffers a severe stroke during the liaison, leaving him in a coma.
White House Chief of Staff Bob Alexander and Communications Director Alan Reed convince Mr. Kovic to continue impersonating the President. They tell him that Vice President Nance is mentally unbalanced, but in actuality Bob does not want the Vice President in power because it will prevent Bob from achieving his own agenda. Only Bob, Alan, the Secret Service, and the medical staff tending to Mitchell know of the switch.
First Lady Ellen Mitchell lives a mainly separate life, seeing little of the President.
The public is notified that Mitchell has had a "minor circulatory problem of the head." With Mr. Kovic established as president, Bob and Alan send Nance on a goodwill tour of Africa and implicate him in a savings and loan fraud that Bob and Mitchell perpetrated. Once Nance is forced to resign, Bob plans for Dave to nominate him as vice president, whereupon Mitchell will have a more serious stroke and Bob will ascend to the presidency."
AND THIS IS A COMEDY! From the director of Ghostbusters no less.
Anyone else here in Gitmo Nation sick of the (s)election season yet? My wife and I live in Ohio and were away from the house for two whole days last week and returned to 26 voice mail messages (yes, we still have a land line). 25 of those were political ads, aka robocalls. Our actual mailbox is getting an average of three pieces of election propaganda every day as well. Ah, the joy of living in a so called "swing state".
In an effort to maintain our sanity, we have queued up several political films to help us trudge through the next few weeks. The first of which is Man of the Year. This one might look kind of awesome (it is directed by Barry Levinson, the director behind Wag the Dog) just based on the trailer below, but rest assured, it is not. It is very watchable, but not all that good.
Robin Williams basically plays Jon Stewart if Jon Stewart hosted a show and also ran for president, and won. It's not a horrible idea for a comedy, but it's also very predictable. But then Laura Linney (a favorite of mine) comes into the story line and it gets really odd. She works for a company called "Delacroy". They make electronic voting machines and she uncovers a glitch in their software and tries to blow the whistle on the whole thing.
Again, it's not awful and it's not awesome. But it will definitely pass the time better than another f#@king debate.
John mentioned the classic film Chinatown in reference to the water wars experience in the Los Angeles area and the Owens Valley.
Trailer:
Adam also brought up a few films today too. First up was the National Geographic channel "fact based film" they are premiering from the Weinstein Company (notorious supporters of the Democrat Party) about the hunt for Osama/Usama bin Laden, Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden (also know as Code Name: Geronimo). It airs on November 6th, two whole days before the presidential election here in Gitmo Nation. It will be available on Netflix the following day for anyone without the National Geographic channel.
Then there is the theatrical release of Zero Dark Thirty that comes out in December (presumably with its eye on some industry awards and nominations). While on the subject of official propaganda surrounding a recent historical event here are few more Bin Laden "films" that have come out backing up the official story; CIA Confidential: Hunt for Bin Laden, The Hunt for Osama bin Laden and The Hunt for Bin Laden
Adam also talked about seeing the new documentary Escape Fire: The Fight to Save American Healthcare in a theatre while in Washington D.C. I happen to work at an art house theatre that is one of 12 in the country that is showing this film, and being in that position there are couple of corrections worth pointing out.
Adam mentioned that the company that released the film, Roadside Attractions, is owned by the Weinstein Company and therefore analogous to the release of the above mentioned Bin Laden film. Roadside Attractions is actually owned by Lionsgate, and they specialize in independent narrative and documentary films. Most of their documentary films deal with some sort of social issue and having worked at a theatre that has shown at least a dozen of their films, they always try and partner with local organizations to try and get asses in seats.
Adam also mentioned that a group in DC hosted a Q and A after the screening he attended. We also had a local progressive group host three Q and A's over the course of the weekend. I guess there might be some element of "selling out" and pushing the agenda of the Democratic party, but they are not selling out in a very effective way. The film played in 12 cities all weekend and made a $27,828. In comparison, the film 2016: Obama's America, a film that may as well have been produced by the Republican National Committee, has made just over $33,000,000 and is now the fourth highest grossing documentary of all time. Now THAT is selling out, or at least cashing in.
Full Disclosure: I'm married to a public high school math teacher.
There, I typed it. That is my bias for this particular week's NA Monday Movie double feature selection. We watch a lot of the live stream coverage of the Chicago Teachers Union strike a few weeks ago and since then I screened the Davis Guggenheim documentary Waiting for "Superman" for my wife. It is essentially an hour and a half add for how charter schools can save American education, which is a significant part of the conversation going on in Chicago right now.
Then we watched a documentary on YouTube called The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for "Superman", that was made by the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM). On their website there are 10 reforms that I ran by my wife and a few other teachers and almost all of the reforms got a thumbs up from them. GEM's goal is quality PUBLIC education for all, so it's directly counter to Waiting for "Superman".
Anyway, there you go. Just over three hours of propaganda about the compulsory public education system in Gitmo Nation. Enjoy! (Or skip and I'll see you next week)
Waiting for "Superman"
The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for "Superman" (full film 1:08:53):
Producer/Knight Sir Eponymous recommended the film Sleep Dealer. It is streaming on Netflix as of this typing for anyone in Gitmo Nation proper.
Added: Thanks to Producer Justin for catching a film I missed. Adam went into detail about the film Flowers of War, staring Christian Bale, and it's possible influence on the recent Chinese protests against Japan.
As Adam has documented on the show for years, "non-profit" foundations are not always what they seem to be. The frequently reoccurring poster child for this is the Clinton/Bush Haiti relief campaign, "just send your cash". This weeks NA Films Monday Movie, Pink Ribbons Inc., approaches the Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer campaign with the same critical, but very fair, point of view. Since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, please arm yourselves with the information in this documentary before you buy anything that is pink or has a picture of a ribbon on the packaging.
From Wikipedia: "The film documents how some companies use pink ribbon-related marketing to increase sales while contributing only a small fraction of proceeds to the cause, or use "pinkwashing" to improve their public image while manufacturing products that may be carcinogenic. For the millions that are raised for breast cancer research by the campaign, the film argues that not enough money goes to prevention or exploring possible environmental factors. Pink Ribbons, Inc. features interviews with critics of the pink ribbon campaign, researchers and cancer patients as well as cancer fundraisers such as Nancy Brinker, head of Susan G. Komen for the Cure."
A great example of marketing the ribbon is the campaign by Yoplait. They promise to donate $.10 (yes, 10 cents) per pink lid that is mailed back to them during the run of their campaign. So eating three of their yogurts every day (yogurt that is made with milk from cows fed rGbH) for the entirety of the campaign, they donate about $30 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. So, they not only use the pink ribbon campaign to hype their product and get people all over the country to buy something instead of doing something, they sell a product that is bad for you as well.
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