Money as Debt

"Money as Debt" and "Money as Debt II: Promises Unleashed" are two animated documentaries by Paul Grignon about the monetary systems practised through modern banking. The films visually demonstrate the process of money creation by private corporations known as "banks", illustrate the historical background of this system and warn of its subsequent unsustainability. They explain in simple and straight forward language the true nature of money and the dysfunctional and undemocratic nature of the global banking system. Brilliant and entertaining!

Official Website

Money as Debt (for greek subtitles go here):


Money as Debt II: Promises Unleashed

Walled Horizons

Twenty years since the Berlin Wall came down, there are many places in the world where walls and barriers are still standing (excellent report by the BBC).

Today's post is a short film/documentary about the shameful wall built by the Israeli government at the West Bank, which created a huge prison in Gaza. Walled Horizons is narrated by and features Roger Waters, who visits the Wall in the Palestinian territories and comments on his observations as a musician and a songwriter who has written on walls. The film explores how Palestinians in urban and rural areas have been impacted by the Walls construction since the International Court of Justices Advisory Opinion in 2004, which declared the Wall's route in the West Bank illegal. Several senior Israeli security officials are interviewed in the film, two of whom were directly responsible for planning the Wall route and who explain the Israeli position for constructing it. The film was made by the United Nations Jerusalem.

Part 1:


Part 2:

Gaza, We Are Coming

In August 2008, two small Greek fishing boats with 44 activists from 17 different countries broke the naval siege, illegally laid by the state of Israel on Gaza, for the first time after 41 years. The mission was the brainchild of the Free Gaza Movement, founded in 2006, who realised that the only realistic way of breaking through the blockade was via the sea. Gaza, We Are Coming, is a special documentary that charts the history of the project to break the blockade of Gaza by sea.

The film was directed by filmmakers Yorgos Avgeropoulos and Yiannis Karipidis and produced by Small Planet. Full list of credits here.

More info:
The Free Gaza Movement (Wikipedia)
Small Planet documentary production company (YouTube)
Al Jazeera English
TVXS.gr (Greek)

Watch:

Errant Home

Errant Home is a film about exile and longing for home. It is an impressionist portrait of Iraq through the eyes of four well-known Iraqi artists and intellectuals: an Iraq of culture, art, diversity, tolerance, daily pleasures, perfumes and food. An Iraq lost for the time being, but not forever. Forced into exile, the protagonists - the sculptor Mohamad Ghani Hekmat, the artist Balasem Mohamad, the journalist Maysoon Al-Mousawi and Amal Al-Khodairy patron of the arts - talk, remember and dream of return.
A great short film directed by Nada Doumani.

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Watch with greek subtitles at TVXS.gr

SiCKO (2007)

SiCKO is probably the best documentary directed by Michael Moore. The film investigates the American health care system, focusing on its health insurance and pharmaceutical industry. It compares the for-profit, non-universal U.S. system with the non-profit universal health care systems of Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Cuba.

This film is not about the 47 million Americans who don't have health insurance, it's about some of the 250 million who have/had health insurance and in spite of this their lives were ruined.

A softer, less angry Moore taking a good hard look at the current state of the American private health care system and dispels a lot of the myths espoused by some in America such as long waiting lines, higher taxes and the doctors being paid close to nothing. Michael Moore allows a lot of space for people's stories to be told.

A documentary with optimism and hope despite being gripping sometimes. A must-see for everyone!

More info:
Official Website
Wikipedia
IMDb
Rotten Tomatoes

Trailer:

Home (2009)

Home is a 2009 documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The film is almost entirely composed of aerial shots of various places on Earth. It shows the diversity of life on Earth and how humanity is threatening the ecological balance of the planet.

The aerial shots are really stunning and the music is simply brilliant! And, of course, the message is clear! Everyone must watch this documentary!

The film can be watched for free in its entirety on YouTube. It has no copyright; it can be downloaded, distributed, copied, uploaded without restrictions.
Watch

More Info:
Official Website
YouTube Channel
LegalTorrents download
Wikipedia
IMDb
GoodPlanet.org

Trailer:

Sex crimes and the Vatican

Earlier this week, a report about child abuse in Irish Catholic church was published. The report, nine years in the making and covering a period of six decades, found thousands of boys and girls were abused by priests and nuns. Church leaders knew about the sexual abuses.
More info@BBC: [1], [2], [3], [4]

Having this in mind, today I post a great documentary entitled "Sex crimes and the Vatican", by Colm O'Gorman, who was raped by a Catholic priest in Ireland when he was 14 years old. It was filmed for the BBC Panorama Documentary Series and shows that the Vatican used a secret document, Crimen sollicitationis, to silence allegations of sexual abuse by priests and that it was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope.



More info:
BBC Panorama
Wikipedia
TVXS (Greek subtitles)

Ilha das Flores - Isle of Flowers

A classic 1989 short movie/documentary by Jorge Furtado. It tracks the path of a tomato from garden to dump with the help of a monotone voiceover and a collection of bizarre images. While a very humorous film, the message it delivers about how human beings treat each other is anything but such. With sincere irony, Furtado shows freedom is the problem of many people in a world in which only money and property count. One of the most important short movies ever made!

Ilha das Flores-sub Eng
Uploaded by Simud - News videos hot off the press.

More info:
Wikipedia
IMDb
TVXS (greek subtitles)

Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance

"It is up for the viewer to take for himself/herself what Koyaanisqatsi means. For some people it's an environmental film, for some people it's an ode to technology, for some people it's a piece of shit, for other people it moves them deeply. It depends on who you ask" - Godfrey Reggio (director)

Koyaanisqatsi is one of the most important films ever made! A cult film, boring junk to some, an involving masterpiece to others! In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living, and the film implies that modern humanity is living in such a way. Koyaanisqatsi (1982) is the first in the Qatsi trilogy of films: it is followed by Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002). The trilogy depicts different aspects of the relationship between humans, nature, and technology.

Created between 1975 and 1982, the film is an apocalyptic vision of the collision of two different worlds - urban life and technology versus the environment. There is neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and music. Minimalist composer Philip Glass was optioned to compose the score, and the result was, quite simply, astounding. A work of pure genious!

Everyone must see this film once! Download a good quality video, or watch it on the big screen. Otherwise, here is a (bad quality) video.



More Info:
Official website of Qatsi trilogy
Wikipedia
IMDB

Who Killed the Electric Car?

"Who Killed the Electric Car?" is a 2006 documentary by Chris Paine that explores the creation, limited commercialization, and subsequent destruction of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the General Motors EV1 of the 1990s. The film explores the roles of automobile manufacturers, the oil industry, the US government, the Californian government, batteries, hydrogen vehicles, and consumers in limiting the development and adoption of this technology. Excellent documentary! Watch it here in two parts:

Part 1:


Part 2:


More Info:
Official Website
IMDb
Wikipedia
PBS

Μαθήματα Κυπριακής Ιστορίας - Lessons in Cypriot History

Lessons in Cypriot history - Mathimata kipriakis istorias from slowriot on Vimeo.

Οι Νέοι Φακελοι (The New Files)
No English subtitles. Sorry!

Playing for Change: Peace Through Music

"Playing for Change: Peace Through Music" is a documentary by Mark Johnson about the simple but transformative power of music. The film brings together musicians from around the world — blues singers in a waterlogged New Orleans, chamber groups in Moscow, a South African choir — to collaborate on songs familiar and new, in the effort to foster a new, greater understanding of our commonality. The Playing For Change Foundation is dedicated to connecting the world through music by providing resources (facilities, supplies, educational programs, etc) to musicians and their communities around the world.
Please support this effort! The film soundtrack and DVD will be in stores on 28.4.2009.

Stand By Me (Ben E.King)


One Love (Bob Marley)


Don't Worry (Pierre Minetti)

A Class Divided

A classic documentary about the famous "blue-eyed/brown-eyed" exercise, created by the American teacher and anti-racism activist Jane Elliott in the 1960s. Elliott divided her class by eye color - those with blue eyes and those with brown. On the first day, the blue-eyed children were told they were smarter, nicer, neater, and better than those with brown eyes. Throughout the day, Elliott praised them and allowed them privileges such as a taking a longer recess and being first in the lunch line. In contrast, the brown-eyed children had to wear collars around their necks and their behavior and performance were criticized and ridiculed by Elliott. On the second day, the roles were reversed and the blue-eyed children were made to feel inferior while the brown eyes were designated the dominant group.

A great documentary, a daring lesson in the meaning of discrimination!

More info:
Jane Elliott (and wikipedia)
Watch@PBS website here.
With Greek subtitles: here (kudos to TVXS)

The War On Democracy

The War on Democracy is a 2007 award-winning documentary film directed by Christopher Martin and John Pilger which focuses on the historic and current relationship of USA with Latin American countries. As Pilger says, the film "...tells a universal story... analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". The film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow". Fantastic documentary!



More Info:
John Pilger (and here)
IMDb
Wikipedia

The Story Of Stuff

Extraction -Production - Distribution - Consumption - Disposal

Very nice interactive official website (and better video quality)
Download (.mov, 50MB)

Nuit et brouillard - Night and Fog

Nuit et brouillard is a classic documentary about the Nazi concentration camps released in 1955. It was directed by Alain Resnais and was based on a poem written by Jean Cayrol. A powerful film!

IMDb
Wikipedia
Allmovie

Η «περιρρέουσα ατμόσφαιρα» - The case of the «Ambient Atmosphere»

By Makarios Drousiotis



More info here and here (pdf)

English version (subtitles) and pdf

The Corporation

A fantastic documentary by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. You can watch it here in two parts.

Part 1:


Part 2:


More Information: Official Website, IMDb, Wikipedia, Allmovie, Rotten Tomatoes

Downloads: archive.org, torrent, direct(.avi), soundtrack

Trailer:

Το Δηλητήριο - The Poison

By Makarios Drousiotis

Greek:



English (with subtitles):

Voice of Blood (part 2)