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ARTE - Philip Short's - Mao, A Life

Category: Documentary
Description:
The video counterpart to Philip Short’s monumental book Mao: A Life, this four-part series guides viewers through the dynamic, innovative, and brutal accomplishments of the revolutionary Chinese leader. Short—a BBC and Times of London foreign correspondent assigned to China immediately after Mao Zedong’s death in 1976—serves as the series’ writer and narrator, providing the same rigor and panoramic scope that enriches his biography. But these programs go where no book can: into a trove of film and video materials kept secret for decades by Chinese authorities, and—through interviews granted exclusively to the filmmakers—into face-to-face meetings with the last surviving members of Mao’s inner circle. Viewers will encounter a spellbinding view of 20th-century Chinese history, as well as a glimpse of the country’s future. Members of Mao’s family, including his daughter-in-law and granddaughter, describe life in the Chairman’s home, while Sidney Rittenberg, an American scholar who worked alongside Mao, reflects on his harrowing experiences. Mao’s chief bodyguard, his doctor, and two former Politburo officials who took part in the Long March of 1934-35 share their wealth of knowledge and observations. Other staff members attached to Mao’s private office illuminate the Chairman’s cloistered but momentous twilight years. For students of Mao’s era, this series may well represent the most powerful learning tool available. Its four-part structure is organized around major phases of the leader’s life and career, with generous attention given to Mao’s influence on today’s China. Not available in French-speaking Canada. 4-part series, 60 minutes each.
Seeders: 0
Leeches: 0

Democracy NOW! Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Category: News & Current Affairs
Description:
Harry Reid: Senate Bill Will Include Public Option Plan Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced the Senate healthcare reform bill will include a public health insurance plan that states can choose to opt out of. Sen. Harry Reid: “As we’ve gone through this process, I’ve concluded—with the support of the White House, Senators Dodd and Baucus—that the best way to move forward is to include a public option with the opt-out provision for states. Under this concept, states will be able to determine whether the public option works well for them and will have the ability to opt out, if they so choose. I believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system. It will protect consumers, keep insurers honest, and ensure competition. And that’s why we intend to include it in the bill that we submitted—that will be submitted to the Senate.” The Washington Post reports the opt-out provision was engineered by New York Senator Charles Schumer as a compromise between moderates who want a smaller government role and liberals who prefer a single-payer system. The Democratic leadership must now scramble to secure the sixty votes needed to pass the measure. While details of how states could opt out of the system are unclear, it likely means that millions of Americans may never have a chance to enroll in a government-run health insurance plan because of Republican opposition. A combined total of 154 million people, or 51 percent of the population, live in states where Republicans control the governor’s mansion or the state legislature. Massey Energy Begins Blasting Coal River Mountain In West Virginia, Massey Energy has begun blasting operations on Coal River Mountain despite deep opposition from environmental groups and critics of mountaintop removal mining. Coal River Mountain is the last intact mountain on the historic Coal River Mountain range. All of the other mountains have been blown up by coal companies. Jeff Biggers, author of the book The United States of Appalachia: “Residents in the Coal River Valley in West Virginia were shocked last Friday to hear the rattle of explosives and see plumes of smoke rise above Coal River Mountain. According to news reports on Monday, Massey Energy has clearcut the lush forest and blasted part of the historic ridge in the first leg of a 6,000-acre mountaintop removal mine. For advocates across Appalachia and citizens group across the nation, the impending mountaintop removal operation on Coal River Mountain amounts to a final showdown between out-of-state coal companies and the state of coalfield residents.” Activists had proposed to save the mountaintop and turn it into a wind farm, a proposal which was seen by many as a model for sustainable green economic development. Anti-mountaintop removal activists are now calling on President Obama to halt the mining operation and save Coal River Mountain. US Official Resigns over War in Afghanistan The former top American civilian working in the Zabul province of Afghanistan has resigned from the Foreign Service to protest the Afghan war. Matthew Hoh said he quit because he had come to believe the war was simply fueling the insurgency and that the United States is asking its troops to die for what is essentially a far-off civil war. In his resignation letter, Hoh wrote, “I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.” Hoh is a thirty-six-year-old former Marine who fought in the Iraq war. He is the first US official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war. Monday Marked Deadliest Day for US in Afghanistan in Four Years Meanwhile, President Obama said Monday he will not rush his decision about whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, where fourteen Americans died yesterday in the deadliest day for US forces in more than four years. Ex-AIG CEO Is Back with New Insurance Venture The New York Times reports that former AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg is quietly building up a family of insurance companies that could compete with his former company. To fill the ranks of his venture, C.V. Starr & Company, Greenberg has been hiring some people he once employed. One insurance executive said, “Basically, he’s just starting ‘A.I.G. Two’ and raiding people out of ‘A.I.G. One.‘” People who work in the industry said Greenberg may soon be siphoning off AIG’s business and, therefore, its means to repay its debt to the government. AIG was the recipient of the biggest taxpayer bailout in history. Showdown in Chicago Continues Outside Bankers Meeting In other financial news, protests are continuing in Chicago outside the American Bankers Association convention. Sheila Bair, the chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, spoke to both the protesters and bankers on Monday. At a rally before thousands of activists, Bair voiced support for the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Sheila Bair: “By regulating the non-bank shadow sector for the first time, this new agency can help prevent future abuses. I hope we see other measures taken that will create a more resilient, transparent and better regulated financial system, including an end to the ‘too big to fail’ doctrine. Yes, no more bailouts. No more bailouts." UN Urges US Engagement in Climate Change Deal During a stop in Seattle, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the US Senate to pass a bill limiting carbon emissions. Moon said such a bill will encourage other nations to act to fight climate change. Janos Pasztor, the director of the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team: “There are reports of a new poll in the United States that indicates that interest and support for action on climate change may actually be declining. The Secretary-General sees US engagement as vital for a climate change deal, a point he made in an op-ed today and in interviews since Seattle. He stated that we cannot afford another period where the US stands on the sidelines.” Canadian Climate Activists Disrupt House of Commons In Canada, about 200 young people staged a protest inside the House of Commons Monday forcing lawmakers to shut down the question period. The activists were calling on the Canadian Parliament to pass a bill setting out deep cuts in carbon emissions. Six people were reportedly detained, and the police beat at least one protester. Amnesty: Israel Denies Palestinians Access to Water Amnesty International has accused the Israeli government of preventing Palestinians from receiving enough water in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel controls much of the West Bank’s water supplies, pumping from an aquifer that bridges Israel and the territory. Amnesty International’s Donatella Rovera called on Israel to distribute the region’s water resources in a fair manner. Donatella Rovera: “Palestinians are having access to four times less water than Israelis, and for some Palestinian communities it’s ten times less water for the Palestinians than the Israelis. To put an end to the situation where Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, which are unlawful under international law, have swimming pools and green lawns and irrigated fields, and the Palestinians do not have enough water even for drinking and for basic domestic needs.” US Officials to Travel to Honduras Senior US officials will travel to Honduras this week to press ousted President Manuel Zelaya and the country’s coup leaders to break a stalemate in a four-month-old political crisis. This marks the first time since the coup that the Obama administration has taken a leading role in pressuring the leaders of the de facto government to restore democratic order in Honduras. On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with both Zelaya and Honduras’s de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti. Officials said Clinton told the two leaders that there was “increasing frustration” over the deteriorating situation in Honduras. Clinton is said to have reserved her toughest comments for Micheletti, because the United States believes he has been “the most difficult.” Fidel Castro’s Sister Admits She Spied for CIA In other news from the region, Fidel and Raul Castro’s sister has admitted she spied on her brothers for the CIA in the 1960s. Juanita Castro disclosed her role as a spy in a new memoir. Juanita initially hailed the Cuban revolution but later became disillusioned by the actions of her brothers. Chamber of Commerce Sues Yes Men for Prank The US Chamber of Commerce has sued the Yes Men, after the political pranksters impersonated the organization. The Yes Men staged a fake press conference at the National Press Club last week to announce that the Chamber was changing its stance on climate change and supporting capping greenhouse gas emissions. Several news outlets, including Reuters, CNBC and Fox Business Channel, reported the policy change as fact before issuing corrections. The Chamber is suing the Yes Men for misappropriating its logo and violating a host of related copyrights. Activists Protest Mercenary Trade Association Meeting And the International Peace Operations Association is holding its annual conference in Washington this week. The trade association represents mercenary groups and private military contractors, including DynCorp and Triple Canopy. A coalition of activist groups, including CODEPINK, Africa Action and the Hip Hop Caucus, are planning to hold a protest and forum today to counter the mercenary conference. Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill: “While these merchants of death are meeting in Washington, DC, human rights activists and other concerned people are going to be gathering to protest these mercenaries. And we’re not only going to be addressing the use of mercenaries in Afghanistan and Iraq, which we know well is continuing unabated, but also the use of mercenary forces on the African continent, which is a story that basically never makes it into the corporate media. There are mercenaries that, once again, are operating in the Congo, in Somalia, in the conflict in Ethiopia and Eritrea. And so, we’re gathering to try to shut down this whole privatized war apparatus and to raise awareness of this Bush administration policy that the Obama administration is continuing and escalating.”
Seeders: 84
Leeches: 16

HBO - Dope Sick Love (2005)

Category: Documentary
Description:
HBO - Dope Sick Love (2005) The America Undercover documentary exclusively on HBO Tracey getting her needle ready to shoot up Where are the characters now? They say love conquers all, but can love survive on the streets of New York City? For drug-addicted couples like Matt and Tracy, and Sebastian and Michelle, the dream of romance must endure the reality of a desperate unending cycle of fixes, withdrawals, brawls and hustles. The America Undercover documentary DOPE SICK LOVE tells the stories of these two couples. Cinematographers, Brent and Craig Renaud spent 18 months on the streets to capture the raw reality in a frightening and compelling you-are-there style. The special is executive produced by 11-time Emmy® winner Jon Alpert (HBO’s “High on Crack Street: Lost Lives of Lowell”). Michelle and Sebastian after an intense fight on the subway “Dope Sick“ is the street term for the excruciating illness and pain that occur when an addict can’t get a fix. According to the government website, there are one million heroin addicts and eight million people who have used crack in the U.S. Presented without music, effects, or narration, DOPE SICK LOVE is pure cinema verité, shot on the streets of lower Manhattan over a period of 18 months. It is stark and unrelenting. The camera follows the two couples into the corridors of apartment buildings where they shoot up; into the homes of the johns who pay for their services; and back out onto the streets as they chase their next fix. “We didn’t want to make just another drug film,” says Craig Renaud. “Most films about drug addicts don’t adequately portray the horrors of addiction. Drug addiction controls every aspect of a user’s life. It reduces family, work, hobbies and friendships to distant memories. In order to capture this dark reality, we had to ‘embed’ ourselves into this life. When you watch DOPE SICK LOVE you won’t just see what its like to live this kind of life, you will feel it.” Matt kisses a client goodbye The documentary takes place in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood of beautiful, historic brownstone houses and tree-lined streets. It’s also the place where Matt and Tracy score their drugs, and break into buildings to shoot heroin and smoke crack. Tracey was a 17-year-old in private school when she started experimenting with drugs. Matt, who has been on the streets since he was 14, prostitutes himself to gay men to support his habit. His mother would like to help him fight his drug addiction, but has lost hope, observing, “Matt was a good kid and then he grew up. I can’t deal with his lifestyle any longer.” Tracey’s long-suffering father won’t give up on his daughter. The weekly checks he sends her go entirely to support the couples’ drug habits. To get them off the streets, Tracey’s father finally decides that he has no choice but to rent an apartment for them in Brooklyn. This is a happy ending of sorts, but one that feels fragile, because Tracy and Matt continue to do drugs. Without the financial support of family, Sebastian and Michelle have a tougher time. Sebastian engages in gay prostitution when the couple is desperate for money, but he doesn’t want his girl Michelle engaging in sex for money. Michelle is a master of the scam, luring prospective sex clients into compromising situations. Then, posing as a cop, she pulls out a fake badge and extorts cash from the johns in exchange for their “freedom.” Sebastian and Michelle’s hand-to-mouth existence strains their relationship. As the high wears off they get into violent street fights. Eventually, the desire for drugs is stronger than their love for each other. They part ways and end up on the streets -- alone. “Let this film be a warning to anyone who thinks that drugs will bring anything but degradation and desperation,” says Brent Renaud. “Even though DOPE SICK LOVE deals with two romances, nothing is romanticized in this documentary. There is nothing constructive about crack. There is nothing heroic about heroin. We wanted to bring the viewer close enough to the life of a drug addict to show the inevitable result.” CREDITS Directed by Felice Conte, and Brent and Craig Renaud; Cinematographers/Editors, Brent and Craig Renaud; Supervising Editor, John Custodio; Executive Producer, Jon Alpert; Co-Executive Producers Felice Conte and Jonathan Stack. For HBO: Senior Producer, Lisa Heller; Executive Producer, Sheila Nevins. Festivals & Awards: WINNER: Hugo Award, 2005 WINNER: Cine Golden Eagle Award, 2005 WINNER: Telly Award, 2005 WINNER: Best Documentary- Big MiniDV Festival, 2005 WINNER: Best Feature Documentary, Syracuse International Film and Video Festival, 2006 NOMINATED: Emmy Award for Best Documentary, 2006
Seeders: 0
Leeches: 0

TVO - The Agenda with Steve Paikin, May 15, 2009: W(h)ither the United States?

Category: News & Current Affairs
Description:
TVO - The Agenda with Steve Paikin, May 15, 2009: W(h)ither the United States? The Debate: W(h)ither the United States? The Obama administration's emerging foreign policy: mea culpa or managing the relative decline of American power? Guests: Andrew Bacevich is professor of international relations at Boston University, and author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. Peter Beinart is a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, and a columnist for the Washington Post. Wenran Jiang is an associate professor of political science and Mactaggart research chair of the China Institute at the University of Alberta. He is a senior fellow with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, and an online columnist for Business Week. Sergei Plekhanov is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at York University. Janice Stein is TVO's international affairs analyst, the Belzberg professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science and the director of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto. For more information on this episode, including information on the guests and various other resources and links, visit the episode webpage ----- Note: This is an iPod video podcast that is available for free download from the website.Quality is good. Audio podcasts (mp3 format) are also available for free download for the individual segments. Type: mp4 file Size: 114MB Runtime: 00:54:27 Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 320x240 Audio: AAC 32000Hz mono 48Kbps Download this episode using the attached torrent file or download it directly using this link: http://feeds.tvo.org/~r/tvo/TxZN/~5/M9G96kY7weU/TAWSP_Dbt_20090515_779513_0_320x240_304k.mp4 You can also watch a flash video of this episode through your web-browser here: http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda/index.cfm?page_id=7&bpn=779513&ts=2009-05-15%2020:00:35.0 ----- Andrew Bacevich is that rare breed in American political discourse: a principled conservative who stands out in stark contrast to the grotesque monstrosity and demonstrably incoherent, unprincipled ideology that is American conservatism, sometimes labelled libertarianism, of the Reagan revolution and Republican party variety, which is mostly a racist, "God Bless America and kill the darkies abroad!!" screeching, anti-government, anti-tax, corporate-and-private-power-worshipping philosophy. It is an ideology that hypocritically preaches incessantly about "limited government" but which is anti-government and anti-state only when it comes to social programs for the poor, the weak, the powerless and minorities, and whose criticisms of expansive government, coercive state-power, and executive and federal power overreach are notably absent when it comes to the expansion of the domestic police state and of the grotesque, weapons-of-mass-destruction-producing and mass-murdering apparatus that is the expansive American military establishment, American imperial power-structure and the National Security State. It is quite revealing to see a principled conservative like Andrew Bacevich arriving to very similar conclusions about American power, imperialism and foreign policy as someone from the left, such as Noam Chomsky. Resources and links to related material 1) Farewell to the American Century by Andrew Bacevich: Americans have perpetuated a mythic version of the past that never even approximated reality and today has become downright malignant. 2) Andrew Bacevich on PBS Bill Moyer's Journal: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08152008/watch.html 3) Glenn Greenwald - The looming political war over Afghanistan 4) Glenn Greenwald - Our war-loving Foreign Policy Community hasn't gone anywhere 5) Chris Floyd - Beyond Here Lies Nothing: Surging Further Into the Abyss 6) Cheney/Obama ----- TVO - The Agenda with Steve Paikin The Agenda with Steve Paikin is TVO's flagship current affairs program - devoted to exploring the social, political, cultural and economic issues that are changing our world, at home and abroad. The Agenda airs weeknights at 8:00 PM EST on TVO - Canada's largest educational broadcaster. TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin website: http://www.tvo.org/agenda/
Seeders: 0
Leeches: 0

Aljazeera - People And Power - Venezuela - 18-09-09

Category: Documentary
Description:
Hugo Chavez has celebrated 10 years of power in Venezuela. But with slumping oil prices shaking the foundations of his socialist revolution Eric Campbell finds that a crumbling private sector and disaffected middle class means the president faces a tricky future.
Seeders: 0
Leeches: 0

The Great Depression (1993) [cpdl]

Category: Documentary
Description:
Copy Paste title: The Great Depression Digital |> directer: Jon Else, Lyn Goldfarb, Librarian | `> Eric Neudel, Stephen Stept _______| `____________ year: 1993 || | | | runtime: 420 min total, 60 min each ||infor-| |control + a|| format: avi ||mation| | || version: 1 ||wants | |control + c|| ||to be > | || CPDL ||free `> |control + v|| release no.: 00007 ||__________`|___________|| |___________><____________| _______________________________________________________ The Great Depression 1993 (339 min.) This 7-part series on the Great Depression uses newsreels, archival photographs and footage, Hollywood films, and eyewitness accounts to re-create the time, from the end of the Roaring Twenties to the outbreak of the Second World War, when economic forces, political change, and social turmoil transformed the nation. A Job at Ford's episode 1 (60 min.) Just before the advent of the Great Depression, Henry Ford controlled the most important company in the most important industry in the booming American economy. His offer of high wages in exchange for hard work attracted workers to Detroit, but it began to come apart when Ford hired a private police force to speed up production and spy on employees. After the depression hit in 1929, these workers faced a new, grim reality as unemployment skyrocketed. The Road to rock bottom episode 2 (60 min.) As the Great Depression progressed economic collapse took its toll on rural America. Crops went unsold, farm mortgages were called in by banks, hungry farmers protested, and robberies increased dramatically. The U.S. Army was called in to defend the nation's capital from veterans who were demanding that President Hoover and Congress pay a bonus for their services in World War I. The film ends with Franklin Roosevelt's landslide election to the presidency. New Deal/New York episode 3 (60 min.) In his first one hundred days in office, in a effort to stem the effects of the Great Depression, President Roosevelt created many new federal agencies giving jobs and relief to people and transforming the American landscape with public works projects. Nowhere was this transformation more apparent than in Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's New York City. Together Roosevelt and La Guardia expanded and redefined the role of government in the lives of the American people. We have a plan episode 4 (60 min.) By 1934 challenges to the New Deal came from both sides of the political spectrum. In California Socialist Upton Sinclair ran for Governor promising to turn idle land and factories into self-governing cooperatives. Sinclair's campaign ended in defeat, but one year later President Roosevelt's signing of the Social Security Act signaled America's emergence as a modern welfare state. Mean things happening episode 5 (60 min.) In the American democracy of the 1930s two visions of liberty collided as working men and women battled landowners and factory managers for the right to join a union. On the tenant farms and in the steel factories working people asserted their citizenship in the midst of great economic turmoil and a tide of government reform. To be somebody episode 6 (60 min.) Many Americans, struggling to survive the Great Depression, were determined to help build a better America through direct action in the courts, in the Congress and in everyday life. At a time when lynchings, segregation, and anti-semitism were commonplace, black heavy-weight champion, Joe Louis became a symbol of national strength. In very different ways Louis and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt challenged America to live up to its promise of justice and opportunity for people of every race and faith. Arsenal of democracy episode 7 (60 min.) By 1939 Americans were still struggling to end the Great Depression. Their dreams of peace and prosperity were celebrated at World's Fairs in New York and San Francisco, but prosperity did not come in peacetime. Millions fled the "dust bowl" states to finally find work in new defense industries. While the New Deal changed America forever, it was war that ended the Great Depression.
Seeders: 5
Leeches: 2

Democracy Now! Friday, August 28, 2009

Category: News & Current Affairs
Description:
Today's Headlines 20,000 Pay Respects to Sen. Kennedy Mohamed Jawad to Sue US Government over Gitmo Detention US Criticized for Bombing Afghan Medical Clinic Holbrooke Holds “Explosive” Meeting with Hamid Karzai South American Summit to Focus on US-Colombian Military Pact Staff at State Dept Recommends Cutting Off Aid to Honduras Banks at Risk of Failure Has Reached 15-Year High Carter: All Israeli Settlements Should Be Removed FCC to Probe Cell Phone Industry Man Arrested for Threatening to Kill Abortion Provider GOP Candidate Jokes About Hunting President Obama Arkansas Decertifies Green Party Cindy Sheehan Protests Obama’s War Polices Immigrants' Champion: Juan Gonzalez on Ted Kennedy's Support for Cesar Chavez and Migrant Workers Juan Gonzalez discusses the late Senator Edward Kennedy’s longtime advocacy of union leader Cesar Chavez and migrant workers across the country. “From the Imperial Valley of California to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, from the apple orchards of Washington to the cane fields of Florida—in all those places where invisible immigrant hands still pick America’s food—[Ted Kennedy] will be sorely missed,” writes Gonzalez in the New York Daily News. [includes rush transcript] Pentagon Hires Rendon Group to Profile and Rate Journalists Covering Afghanistan War The US Army in Afghanistan has admitted it pays a private company to produce background profiles on journalists covering the war. The Pentagon has been on the defensive ever since the Army newspaper Stars and Stripes revealed this week that journalists were being screened by the Washington-based public relations firm, the Rendon Group, under a $1.5 million contract with the military. Documents obtained by the paper reveal journalists were evaluated with pie charts breaking down their coverage into percentages of “positive,” “neutral” or “negative.” [includes rush transcript] Report: Taxpayers to Pay Subprime Players Billions to Fix Loan Mess A new report by the Center for Public Integrity has found that any of the lenders that helped fuel the housing crisis by issuing risky subprime loans are now lining up to receive more than $21 billion in taxpayer money intended to help bail out borrowers. At least twenty-one out of the top twenty-five participants in the Making Home Affordable program specialized in servicing or originating subprime loans. Former Wells Fargo Subprime Loan Officer: Bank Targeted Black Churches as Part of Predatory Subprime Lending Scheme Up until two years ago, Elizabeth Jacobson was the top producing loan officer in the subprime division at Wells Fargo. Today she is speaking out against the practices of her former company. Earlier this summer, she filed a sworn affidavit with a federal court in support of the city of Baltimore’s lawsuit against Wells Fargo for pushing high-interest, subprime loans onto African Americans in Baltimore and the Maryland suburbs, leading hundreds into foreclosure. "From Recession to Depression: The Destruction of the Black Middle Class" We speak with Dedrick Muhammad of the Institute for Policy Studies about his latest article with Barbara Ehrenreich called “The Destruction of the Black Middle Class.” They write, “For African Americans—and to a large extent, Latinos—the recession is over. It occurred between 2000 and 2007…What’s happening now is a depression.”
Seeders: 77
Leeches: 16

Letter To Anna (Politkovskaja)

Category: Documentary
Description:
The 2006 murder of crusading Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya gets a cool-headed, quietly insistent analysis in "Letter to Anna." Swiss-based documaker Eric Bergkraut, who'd come to know Politkovskaya while making "Coca: The Dove From Chechnya," mixes leftover footage from that docu with interviews conducted after the journo's death, resulting in a film that's part personal tribute, part sociopolitical essay. Very much in the liberal-humanist tradition of Euro docus, rather than harder-nosed investigative journalism, pic will fit comfortably into fest and upscale tube skeds. After being strangely turned down by the Berlin fest's Forum section (in which "Coca" had played in 2005), docu was privately shown to an invited audience on Feb. 10, during (but separate from) the Berlinale. A 50-minute version was broadcast on German TV later that month. Feature-length version will officially world-preem at Toronto's Hot Docs fest in April. Bergkraut puts his creepiest material right up front, starting with a reconstruction of the fateful afternoon of Oct. 7, when Politkovskaya was shot by an unknown assassin by the elevator in her apartment building. CCTV screen caps show Politkovskaya entering the building seconds before her death and also her killer, his face obscured by a baseball hat. Helmer had several hours of unused footage of Politkovskaya walking and talking during 2003-04 from his docu on Chechnya, a subject on which the journalist had taken a fierce stand, branding the Russian government's policy "genocide." Three other journalists for Novaya Gazyeta -- one of the last independent newspapers in Russia -- had already met with untimely deaths, so Politkovskaya knew exactly the high-stakes game she was playing. As her editor Dmitri Muratov says, "Her only protection was her name." Politkovskaya always claimed she was against the policies of Putin rather than the president himself, though no one interviewed is in any doubt that the order to kill her must have come from very high up in the Russian government. In a supreme irony, Politkovskaya died on Putin's own birthday (she was 48; he was 54). Docu's weirdest aspect is the sight of a woman talking about her probable fate some two years before it actually transpired. Very calmly, and very rationally, Politkovskaya makes it clear her death is likely, and that she has always prepared herself for it, like a soldier. In 2004, she had barely survived being poisoned on a plane en route to covering the Beslan school hostage crisis. Though all interviewees -- from colorful businessman Boris Berezovsky to opposition leader (and former chessmeister) Garry Kasparov -- paint contempo Russia as a lawless dictatorship, Politkovskaya herself comes across as an elegant, soft-spoken but stubborn woman for whom the situation was just a fact of life. But as members of her family -- including ex-husband Alexander Politkovsky and daughter Vera -- repeatedly hint, there was more to her than Bergkraut's camera actually captures. Pic could do with some tightening in its repetitious second half, which has too many shots of Politkovskaya walking around Moscow. But HD tech credits are of high quality throughout, and English narration by Susan Sarandon matches Bergkraut's approach in its non-hectoring tone.
Seeders: 10
Leeches: 3

America & the Holocaust, Deceit & Indifference (PBS)

Category: Documentary
Description:
Video Codec..........: XviD ISO MPEG-4 Video Bitrate........: 1025kbps Duration.............: 1:25:04 Resolution...........: 528*400 Framerate............: 29.970 Audio Codec..........: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3 Audio Bitrate........: 110 kbps VBR Audio Channels.......: 2 Filename.............: America and the Holocaust.avi Filesize.............: 733,464,576 No Subtitles http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195518/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/ In 1937, a 17-year-old German Jew named Kurt Klein emigrated to the US to escape the growing discrimination against Jews that had become a terrible fact of life following Hitler's rise in 1933. Together with his brother and sister, who had emigrated previously, Klein worked to establish himself so that he could obtain safe passage for his parents out of Germany. America and the Holocaust uses the moving tale of Klein's struggles against a wall of bureaucracy to free his parents to explore the complex social and political factors that led the American government to turn its back on the plight of the Jews. The film is produced by Martin Ostrow. Hal Linden narrates. In 1938, American society had its own political, social, and economic problems, including a long-standing--and rising--anti-Semitism. Despite stories coming from Europe about a campaign to force Jews out of Germany and about the horrors of Kristallnacht ("the night of broken glass"), the majority of Americans were fearful that an influx of immigrants would only aggravate the serious unemployment problem brought on by the Depression. More than 100 anti-Semitic organizations blanketed the US with propaganda blaming Jews for all America's ills. Businesses discriminated against Jews, refusing them jobs. Signs at private beaches bore the words "No Jews or Dogs allowed" and certain hotels and housing developments proudly proclaimed themselves "Restricted." Even the government was not immune from anti-Semitic sentiments. While the Kleins were struggling to obtain visas from the American consulate, the State Department ordered its consuls to stall the process. "Even though we continued our attempts to get our parents out--because we knew that they were in the unoccupied part of France which was still not totally under German control--everything we did for them turned into nothing," recalls Kurt Klein. "The State Department probably had a greater degree of anti-Semitism than others, particularly in the immigration section," says former Treasury Department employee Edward Bernstein. "Their attitude was, `If we're patient, we find that the problems of the Jews in Germany are not really life-threatening." But for Kurt Klein and other German-American Jews with relatives overseas, patience was a commodity they couldn't afford. By the end of 1941, the Nazis had murdered half a million Jews. Although trains regularly headed to fully operational killing centers by the spring of 1942, the "final solution" was still a well-guarded secret. That summer the State Department was advised by Gerhart Reigner, the representative of a Jewish organization in Geneva, of Nazi plans to exterminate all the Jews in Europe. Their response was to dismiss the information, calling it "a wild rumor inspired by Jewish fears." "The State Department was actively blocking information about the genocide, " says historian David Wyman. "Roosevelt refused to focus on the issue. The American churches were largely silent...and the press had little to say--and buried that little on the inner pages. So it fell to Jewish activists to bring the information to the American public." It took protests and petitions from Jewish organizations and finally the Treasury Department, headed by Henry Morgenthau, to uncover the State Department's deliberate obstruction of rescue. "Secretary Morgenthau, who valued above all else his relationship with the president, nevertheless felt he had to put himself on the line and be the spokesman on this issue," recalls John Pehle of the Treasury Department. At last, on January 16, 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt met with Morgenthau in the Oval Office. Six days later, Roosevelt officially reversed the government's policy of obstruction. He signed Executive Order 9417, creating the War Refugee Board, which was instructed to "take all measures to rescue victims of enemy oppression in imminent danger of death." "In the end, the War Refugee Board played a vital role in saving the lives of 200,000 Jews," says Wyman, "a very valuable contribution, to be sure. But the number is terribly small compared to the total of six million killed. The Board did prove that a few good people--Christians and Jews--could finally break through the walls of indifference. The great shame is that if Roosevelt had created the board a year earlier [it] could have saved tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands more--and in the process, have rescued the conscience of the nation."
Seeders: 35
Leeches: 13

Democracy Now! Wednesday, July 22, 2009 :: Cornel West

Category: News & Current Affairs
Description:
Today's Headlines UN Reports $4.8B Shortfall in Meeting Humanitarian Needs Pakistan Opposes Expanded US Attacks in Afghanistan 16 Killed in Iraq; Maliki, Obama to Hold Talks Coup Regime Rejects Own Negotiator’s Proposal on Zelaya Return Venezuela to “Revise” Colombia Ties over US Bases Israeli Settlers Attack Palestinian Land Amnesty Criticizes Saudi Arabia on Crackdowns Admin Shuns Request to Disclose Health Exec Visits Execs, Top Earners Account for More than Third of All US Wages House Advances Measure Reducing Private Role in Student Loans Study: Teen Pregnancies, STDs Rose under Bush Cambridge Police Drop Charge Against Henry Louis Gates President Obama's Longtime Physician Opposes White House Health Plan, Advocates Single Payer Dr. David Scheiner was President Obama’s doctor from 1987 until he entered the White House. Today Dr. Scheiner is publicly opposing Obama’s health plan and is calling for a single-payer system. [includes rush transcript] Uninsured Travel from Across US for Free Healthcare from Relief Group Remote Area Medical As debate continues in Washington over healthcare reform, thousands of Americans in neighboring Virginia are preparing to line up this weekend to receive free healthcare provided by a relief organization called Remote Area Medical. We speak to the group’s founder, Stan Brock. Cornel West and Carl Dix on Race and Politics in the Age of Obama One week after the NAACP’s 100th anniversary celebrations, we speak to Princeton University professor Cornel West and Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party about the current state of Black America. West is a professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton University and the author of numerous books on race. Dix is a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party and was one of six GIs in 1970 who refused orders to go to Vietnam and served two years in prison for his stance.
Seeders: 54
Leeches: 43