Commanding Heights Part 1 – The Battle of Ideas

“A global economy, energized by technological change and unprecedented flows of people and money, collapses in the wake of a terrorist attack …. The year is 1914.

Worldwide war results, exhausting the resources of the great powers and convincing many that the economic system itself is to blame. From the ashes of the catastrophe, an intellectual and political struggle ignites between the powers of government and the forces of the marketplace, each determined to reinvent the world’s economic order.

Two individuals emerge whose ideas, shaped by very different experiences, will inform this debate and carry it forward. One is a brilliant, unconventional Englishman named John Maynard Keynes. The other is an outspoken émigré from ravaged Austria, Friedrich von Hayek.

But a worldwide depression holds the capitalist nations in its grip. In opposition to both Keynes and Hayek stand not only Hitler’s Third Reich but Stalin’s Soviet Union, schooled in the communist ideologies of Marx and Lenin and bent on obliterating the capitalist system altogether.

For more than half a century the battle of ideas will rage. From the totalitarian socialist systems to the fascist states, from the independent nations of the developing world to the mixed economies of Europe and the regulated capitalism of the United States, government planning will gradually take over the commanding heights.

But in the 1970s, with Keynesian theory at its height and communism fully entrenched, economic stagnation sets in on all sides. When a British grocer’s daughter and a former Hollywood actor become heads of state, they join forces around the ideas of Hayek, and new political and economic policies begin to transform the world.”

Surplus – Terrorized Into Being Consumers

A great, very Swedish documentary about consumerism and globalization based on the ideas of John Zerzan. Zerzan is an interesting fellow, on the one-hand arguing for property damage, but on the other, nearly admitting that his ideas are nearly impossible to implement. From the description:

Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers is a 2003 Swedish documentary film on consumerism and globalization, created by director Erik Gandini and editor Johan Söderberg. It opens with footage of the protests at the 27th G8 summit in Genoa and prominently features the views of anarcho-primitivist John Zerzan.

How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

Peak oil is an interesting and often-ignored fact that will occur in our lifetimes, it’s interesting how the day-to-day politiking usually loses sights of these large challenges. This documentary explores Cuba in 1991 after the “peak-oil crisis” that occured because of the breakup of the Soviet Union. From the description:

In 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba experienced an ‘energy famine.’ Transportation and agriculture virtually came to a stop due to lack of diesel fuel and fertilizer shortages. This film explores what changes were put in place. The makers of the film “The End Of Suburbia” went to Cuba to explore it as a test case for what the conditions after Peak Oil would look like. This is that story.

Mao’s Bloody Revolution

via popperslist documentaries

From the description:

Revealed Series: Mao’s Bloody Revolution – Section 1 of 4 A documentary offering a portrait of Mao Tse-Tung, one of the 20th century’s most controversial leaders. Author and former BBC correspondent Philip Short looks at Mao’s life from his childhood and rise to power to his death in 1976. The programme examines the legacy of Mao’s rule of China and features exclusive interviews with some of Mao’s inner circle, as well as dramatic unseen footage from the period of the ‘cultural revolution‘.

Disbelief – 1999 Russia Bombings

From the description:

A fatal bomb blast in a Moscow apartment building ignites a fury of questions about terrorism, shadow politics, and post-Soviet intrigue in Disbelief; a film as much about the high art of political deception as it is about violence and human tragedy. The bombing on September 9, 1999, of a nine-story working-class apartment complex in Moscow was quickly blamed on Chechen terrorists. But was it their crime? Or did the Russian secret service deflect its own responsibility for the bombing on the Chechens to heighten national fear and hysteria and justify Russia’s subsequent military attack on the breakaway republic?

The Modern Racist Paradigm

From the description:

The documentary addresses many modern-day internalized racist psychological dispositions (subconscious forms of internalized racism) which are unknowingly passed down from generation to generation due to the globalization and pervasiveness of “Whiteness”; a cultural assimilation process of which, is directly derivative to historical European expansionism, colonialism, and imperialism.

I really like this anecdotal mash-up, although the focus of zionism seems a bit much. The effects that domestic and casual racism have in geopolitics (which is of course perpetuated by the media) is enormous because it lends itself to the views from two or three cultural sources remaining dominant.

Inner Trip – Reiyukai Buddhism

This documentary is an interesting event, especially when contrasted with the gunboat diplomacy of Matthew Perry and the Treaty of Kanagawa which allowed christianity to be spread in Japan, albeit pretty unsuccesfully.

The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis, by Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers on PBS before the fear of being labelled partisan in a polarized domestic American scene forced the most bland neutrality on productions was incredible. Here, he covers every aspect of Iran-Contra scandal under Ronald Reagan with concise and appropriate anger.

Death of a Nation – East Timor

From the description:

“As Pilger gets an Austrlian diplomat to admit, East Timor was considered “expendable.”

But no one watching the massacre in the Dili cemetery can excuse the geopolitical machinations that led to this genocide.”

Australia’s expansion into the region is a really interesting story, although not covered here in a fair perspective, I guess.

Anarchism in America

I’m really happy to have found this great documentary about anarchism in America. Underlying the entire movie is the lack of understanding of anarchism in the public as an ideology, i.e. “Ayatollah Homenin is an anarchist,” which still exists today.

AK Press has a copy on dvd

Manufacturing Consent – Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman

From the Google Video description:

The classic Canadian documentary Manufacturing Consent based on the Noam Chomsky/Edward Herman book by the same name. Explores the the propaganda model of the media.

The revolution will not be televised – Hugo Chavez

The film’s website, I think, obviously points out the bias in this Irish film, but it is an interesting documentary about the coup and, 48 hours later, the return of Chavez to power in April, 2002.

Africa Addio

Africa Addio is a controversial film shot in 1964 about the process of European decolonization in Africa. An edited version was released in the United States titled Africa Blood and Guts (sounds right), but a more direct translation is “Farewell Africa.” I personally feel that this Italian documentary is just as intriguing and well-shot as that other Italian documentary from the 1960’s, the Battle of Algiers.

Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada’s Genocide