Unreported World – Zimbabwe

More from the BBC’s Unreported World series, this time focusing on Mugabe. Of course, I’d be wary watching a show produced in England about Zimbabwe, but the on-the-ground interviews are solid. From the description:

Reporter Evan Williams and Director Siobhan Sinnerton reveal startling claims that the Mugabe Government is using the supply of AIDS drugs and food aid to gerrymander upcoming elections

Parts two and three when you click the video.

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.

Black Power – Pandora’s Box

With a fairly interesting premise for an educational show, this episode of Pandora’s Box focuses on Kwame Nkrumah’s plans for Ghana after colonialism. From the description:

A look at how former Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah set Africa ablaze with his vision of a new industrial and scientific age. At the heart of his dream was to be the huge Volta dam, generating enough power to transform West Africa into an advanced utopia. But as his grand experiment took shape, it brought with it dangerous forces Nkrumah couldn’t control, and he slowly watched his metropolis of science sink into corruption and debt.”

I especially enjoyed the hindsight from active participants of both sides; the businessmen from the West betray profit-motivated decisions, i.e. importing raw materials for the Akosombo Dam instead of building the infrastructure for fear of nationalization, and the former government officials provide a glimpse into the dissapointment of not realizing a quick African rising.

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.

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.