Adam Curtis documentaries -- The Power of Nightmares, etc.

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Adam Curtis documentaries -- The Power of Nightmares, etc.

Postby manxkat » Wed Nov 16, 2005 10:56 pm

I'm working my way backwards in discovering the amazing documentaries of <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0193231/" target="top">Adam Curtis</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->. The first one I saw was his most recent, <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/3755686.stm" target="top">"The Power of Nightmares"</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->, which was aired on the BBC a year ago. That film was later edited down to film-length (about 2 hours -- the original was in 3 parts, about 3 hours) and was featured at the most recent Cannes Film Festival.<br><br>I just finished watching <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/century_of_the_self.shtml" target="top">"The Century of the Self"</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> -- a 4 part series, and am now getting into <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora%27s_Box_%28documentary_film%29" target="top">"Pandora's Box"</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> -- a 6 part series.<br><br>I find his work fascinating, and I'm not even a history buff (although I feel like I'm becoming one). "The Power of Nightmares" in particular was startling in its expose of the lie that Al Qaeda consists of a vast terrorist network spanning the globe, with "sleeper cells" in 60 countries. Curtis documents how this is completely untrue and even though he never comes right out and says that Al Qaeda couldn't have been behind 9/11, there's really no other rational conclusion after you watch this, in my view.<br><br>His documentaries aren't available for purchase as far as I am aware. But, I have downloaded them from a great web site in England called <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.uknova.com/" target="top">UKNova.com</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> using Bittorrent (I use <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.bitlord.com/" target="top">Bitlord</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> -- it's free). UKNova is free too, but you need to join in order to download files.<br><br>There were rave reviews of "The Power of Nightmares" earlier this year by <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0111-31.htm" target="top">Robert Scheer</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> in the LA Times, as well as <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1207-26.htm" target="top">Thom Hartmann</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->.<br><br>I'd be interested in hearing if others on this board have watched any of Adam Curtis' work. It's really quite mind blowing stuff.... but maybe that's because he consistently challenges what we've been taught in so many areas of our history. <br><br>EDIT: I just discovered that "The Power of Nightmares" can easily be streamed on-line now. Google has a video feature now with lots of stuff available -- pretty impressive. No hassles with Bittorrent or having to sign up anywhere.<br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=the+power+of+nightmares&btnG=Search+Video" target="top">The Power of Nightmares</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>There are other conspiracy videos available there as well -- put in the word "conspiracy" in the Google search window for videos. I saw Barry Zwicker's The Great Conspiracy, and some Alex Jones videos as well.<br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=manxkat@rigorousintuition>manxkat</A> at: 11/21/05 8:44 pm<br></i>
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Re: Adam Curtis documentaries -- The Power of Nightmares, et

Postby marykmusic » Thu Nov 17, 2005 7:12 pm

I wish this were moved to the regular discussion group, so more people would look at it. --MaryK <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Adam Curtis documentaries -- The Power of Nightmares, et

Postby manxkat » Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:30 pm

Thanks for the suggestion MaryK -- I've copied it into the main discussion area.... <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Adam Curtis documentaries -- The Power of Nightmares, et

Postby InfraGard » Sun May 17, 2015 2:48 pm

A Movie Recommendation And Open Thread

Adam Curtis' new masterpiece, Bitter Lake, was unfortunately only released for the iPlayer platform. But there are now some free sources available online.

The movie, again with fantastic music and pictures, tells the grant political story of the last seventy or so years using historic and current footage. The (non-)development of our world is investigated using the example of Afghanistan and the outer forces involved in it.

From Curtis' own description:

It tells a big historical narrative that interweaves America, Britain, Russia and Saudi Arabia. It shows how politicians in the west lost confidence - and began to simplify the stories they told. It explains why this happened - because they increasingly gave their power away to other forces, above all global finance.
...
[I]t is important to try and understand what happened. And the way to do that is to try and tell a new kind of story. One that doesn’t deny the complexity and reduce it to a meaningless fable of good battling evil - but instead really tries to makes sense of it.

The movie is quite long, some 140 minutes, but highly recommended.

Part 1, 2 and 3.

Use as open thread.

Posted by b on May 17, 2015 at 02:42 PM

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/05/a- ... hread.html
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Re: Adam Curtis documentaries -- The Power of Nightmares, et

Postby 82_28 » Fri Apr 08, 2016 4:20 pm

Uh yeah, CNN. Already been done in the Power of Nightmares. The link to CNN's website for the show has yet to be activated so I'll just post it from where I read about it:

http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/2016 ... ley/24405/

The origins of violent jihadism can be traced to Greeley, Colo., of all places. That’s according to a new CNN documentary by Fareed Zakaria.

“Why They Hate Us,” a one-hour special airing April 11, locally at 7 p.m., is Zakaria’s effort to answer the question first posed after 9/11. He returns to the topic 15 years later, in the wake of terrorist attacks in Boston, Brussels, Beirut, Paris, Mumbai, Ft. Hood, and San Bernardino.

According to the documentary, the global movement based on anti-Western hatred traces to Greeley in 1949 and a church dance where “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” happened to be playing. Sayyid Qutb, a puritanical, conservative Muslim was so horrified by what he saw there (males and females touching, dancing), that he returned to Egypt to advocate a return to Sharia law by Arab nations, the rejection of modernization and democracy – and violent retaliation against America and the West for ‘corrupting’ the Arab World.

A vintage phonograph record player and black-and-white pictures of a dance hall purport to represent this dramatic turning point in Greeley.

With less dramatic fanfare, intelligence experts, policy influencers, religious scholars and others weigh in on the root causes, whether Islam is an inherently violent religion, what misinterpretations and bad translations have wrought, and what can be done to avoid further bloodshed.


I guess I'll have to watch it to see how inferior their hour long special is to Adam Curtis' masterpiece.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
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