Anastasia Trofimova gains unprecedented access to follow a Russian Army battalion in Ukraine. Without any official clearance or permits, she earns the trust of foot soldiers and over seven months embeds herself with the battalion as it makes its way across the frontlines.
What she discovers is far from the narratives propagated by the East or West: a war cutting through family and historical ties, soldiers disillusioned and often struggling to understand what they are fighting for.
Eminent Monsters traces the roots of western governments love affair with torture.
In 1950s Montreal Scottish born psychiatrist Dr. Ewen Cameron experimented on his patients, using sensory deprivation, forced comas and LSD injections. Covertly funded by the Canadian government and the CIA, his techniques have been used in Northern Ireland, Guantánamo and 27 countries around the world.
Including extraordinary first hand testimony from Guantanamo survivors, the Hooded Men from Northern Ireland and senior American psychologists and military personnel, Eminent Monsters shows how the collusion of doctors to aid and abet torture began in the 1950s and continues to this day.
“They are gone.” These are the words that propelled photojournalist Nicole Tung into a daunting situation which nothing could have prepared her for. Masked men wielding Kalashnikovs had abducted her friends John Cantlie and James Foley while they were en route from Syria back into Turkey. Nicole had been nervously waiting for their arrival at the border. Instantly, their fate rested upon her ability to find out who captured her friends and how to get them back alive.
The abductions of John Cantlie and James Foley were the beginning of a hostage taking frenzy which impacted the foreign policy of many countries. Because of media blackouts surrounding the kidnappings, many others unwittingly ventured forth into hostile ISIS territory. Fixers were targeted, causing people who thought they were safe to be captured. These unsuspecting journalists and aid workers were thrown into a dark and desperate situation that ended horribly for those whose countries didn’t pay ransom. These crimes revealed what can happen when truths are obscured – causing negotiations and rescue missions to go horribly wrong.
End of Truth is an emotionally powerful investigation into the political and criminal enterprise of kidnappings as ISIS rose to power in war torn Syria. By intercutting exclusive footage with intimate interviews of negotiators, investigators, fixers and even a used car salesman who are caught up in the confusion, we examine the leads that led to lies revealing the terrible consequence of misinformation when lives are at stake.
The Coming War on China, from award winning journalist John Pilger, reveals what the news doesn’t – that the world’s greatest military power, the United States, and the world’s second economic power, China, both nuclear-armed, may well be on the road to war.
Nuclear war is not only imaginable, but planned. The greatest build-up of NATO military forces since the Second World War is under way on the western borders of Russia. On the other side of the world, the rise of China is viewed in Washington as a threat to American dominance.
To counter this, President Obama announced a ‘pivot to Asia’, which meant that almost two-thirds of all US naval forces would be transferred to Asia and the Pacific, their weapons aimed at China. A policy which has been taken up by his successor Donald Trump, who during his election campaign said “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country and that’s what they’re doing”.
Filmed on five possible front-lines across Asia and the Pacific over two years, the story is told in chapters that connect a secret and ‘forgotten’ past to the rapacious actions of great power today and to a resistance, of which little is known in the West.
Shot in secret, BAKUR: Inside the PKK is the worlds first documentary made with inside access to the Kurdish separatist group, who are considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and NATO. The result is an inside look at the undeclared war going on in Turkey for decades. This was the first time any film crew had ever accessed these camps.
To date, the PKK has lost over 30 thousand of its members in combat against the Turkish State. What is the PKK’s perception of the state, justice and authority? What constitutes the foundation of their relationship to the people? How did the Kurdish movement evolve over the years into a battle for freedom founded on the women’s rights movement? How do the guerrillas who have been living under wartime conditions for 40 years manage to survive all year-round in the harsh outdoor living conditions in the mountains?
In search for answers to all of these questions, BAKUR: Inside the PKK introduces the audience to men and women who have chosen to join the armed resistance in order to create a new future. We witness life in three guerrilla camps located in three different regions of Kurdish territory within the Turkish borders.
Beautifully shot over months, we follow the lives of guerrilla fighters including the training and graduation of new recruits, their justice system and the progressive philosophies that guide them.
BAKUR: Inside the PKK from Sideways Film on Vimeo.
Anyone who is not with us is the enemy and should be branded an infidel.
This seems to be the prevailing ideology of the extreme Takfiri terrorists known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Their aim is said to be the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate. Shias, Christians, Sunnis, Yazidies, and whoever dares to question them or raise the voice of dissent is persecuted under their distorted version of Islamic Sharia.
Gruesome beheadings, crucifixions and mass executions are openly carried out under their iconic black flag. At times, it seems like their victims are whoever is unlucky enough to be in their path during their killing sprees. And yet they know how to manipulate social media and have succeeded in brainwashing some to join them in their ‘fight for justice’.
To learn who these people are, what they are fighting for, and who funds them, we go deep into their camps and bring you face to face interviews and exclusive footage. Many of those who were initially infatuated by the group’s promise of justice seem to be horrified and utterly disillusioned today.
ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) has undoubtedly become a real, illusive threat to the whole of the Middle East. In spite of what we see on the surface, so many questions have arisen that give pause for reflection about the many factors involved in sustaining this terror group. Who are funding them? Who benefits most from the disorder and chaos across the region? Who are the major players behind the scenes?
This comprehensive documentary answers all of these questions. It takes us to the formation of ISIL explaining the process through which they have been funded, armed, and equipped by countries including the US, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and more, and explores how western interference in the region has led to the chaos in which ISIL are able to thrive.
Fatherland is a controversial coming-of-age documentary set in the remote South African bush. It follows a group of Afrikaner boys over 9 days at a military camp in the spirit of their fathers before them.
“You’ve got these millions and millions of blacks around you. Smothering you and killing you.”
However, what starts out as basic training, fitness and camaraderie soon intensifies as the true nature of the camp is revealed and the boys are forced to question their place in the ‘New South Africa’.
“One must look at the negro not as one’s equal but as a child. A black man has the intelligence level of a 14 year old white boy.”
These camps are designed to recreate a sense of Nationalism amongst the next generation of Afrikaaners, though as their training progresses darker ideological elements emerge revealing the stark realities of their training and indoctrination.
“We have the men. We just need to plant the will in you because you’ve been brain washed by old Mandela. Be proud of your race”
The film follows three particular boys and Col. Franz Jooste -an ex-SADF soldier that fought for his country pre 1994 – and focuses on the conflicting views developed by the boys. Under the strict leadership of their camp leader, they struggle to find their identity within their own communities and within their ‘rainbow’ nation at large. The children are forced to participate in a physically and mentally grueling process that tests their values, believes and identities on every level.
“The truth is that there will definitely be a war in this country. So I’m preparing myself for a war that’s coming.”
Following the horrors of World War II, there was a strong desire for a better world in which peace would be maintained and human rights respected – the U.N was born. Now, more than 60 years later, the image of the UN has become severely tarnished.
International peace and security is in a perilous state, and scores of stories are flying around demonstrating that the UN and its Security Council could have done more harm than good.
Documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz takes us on a brutal tour of a number of places where the UN has intervened. Through interviews with those involved — some of whom wish to remain anonymous — and archive footage, we uncover facts about abuses and scandals surrounding UN missions and personnel.
The ‘forgotten’ shooting in Côte d’Ivoire, during which UN soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, the “Oil for Food” program in Iraq, which resulted in the wrong people reaping the benefits and the harrowing case of the UN soldiers who stood by, powerless, during the genocide in Rwanda. These are just some of the stories uncovered in what the Los Angeles Times has called ‘a scathing take down of the United Nations’.
Who Rules America? takes a comprehensive look into the governing system of the United States of America and reveals the behind-the-scene powers that rule the nation. There are two Americas; one in which people have freedom in choosing their leaders within the framework of the constitution living in the land of the free, and another, wherein all is dedicated to the ruling 1% and within which a hidden network of power governs including the media, Wall Street , the Military and Corporations.
This new expose from Danny Schechter (In Debt We Trust, WMD: Weapons on Mass Deception) lifts the lid on the true decision makers behind the worlds self-proclaimed democratic role model.
For the first time in 42 years, a camera enters Southern Libya in what was forbidden territory under the Gaddafi regime.
Shortly after Gaddafi’s demise, we accompany members of the disgraced Tabu tribe along the road to their impoverished desert territory near the Algeria-Niger-Chad borders 1000 Km from Tripoli.
Electricity has been on again for barely two months, mobile phones haven’t worked for seven. Fuel is scarce and queues are endlessly long. Two widespread weapons are in use: sat phones and Kalashnikovs.
Closely guarded by rebel escorts for security reasons, we follow the illegal immigrants route all the way to the Niger border. We discover how Gaddafi challenged Europe at the beginning of the revolution by sending and financing flows of migrants. Rebels, smugglers and victims of the old regime tell their stories.
The desert’s well-preserved secrets now finally come to light.
Filmed primarily in Egypt in March of 2011, soon after the January revolution, this film introduces you to the Egyptians who lived under Mubarak and helped to bring him down.
Including interviews with revolutionaries from all walks of life fighting for a new start in Egypt, we get an inside glimpse at the sequence of events that led to what some are calling the first Facebook revolution. Ordinary people give their reasons for taking to the streets of Egypt to call for freedom and reforms, and what led them to demand Mubarak’s resignation.
This broad-ranging film gives the events of January 2010 both the context necessary to fully understand how a powerful regime could fall so suddenly, as well as on-the-ground testimonials that fill in important details that went unreported at the time.
From the brewing discontent that preceded the revolution, to the 18 days of often brutally suppressed protests when success seemed far from inevitable, this film puts us in the centre of the action. Finally, Egypt: The Story Behind the Revolution captures the peoples joy and relief when Mubarak steps down after thirty years in power.