Critical Docs Collection of documents, mainly documentary films, dealing with the past and present wolrd situation from a critical point of view. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 1 0 14 394

Articles from Critical Docs

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (2003) 2008-05-14 03:36:52 Chavez: Inside the Coup At midnight on May 27 of 2007 “Radio Caracas Television” (RCTV), Venezuela’s most influential private network and a declared opponent of Hugo Chávez, was shutdown. Its broadcast licence had run out and Hugo Chávez did not renew it. The international (western) press has sharply criticized this decision as a grave violation of freedom of expression in Venezuela. The impression given by the press was that Chavez was silencing the opposition - which in fact he was effectively doing by shutting down RCTV-, but almost no connection of the shutdown with the involvement of this network in the state coup against Chávez five years earlier was established. The documentary “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” shows that the coup against Chavez in April 2002 was strongly mediated by RCTV: by the the use of manipulated information and lies, presumably in corperation with the CIA. Two independent filmmakers were inside ...

No Logo (2000) 2008-05-12 08:02:19 Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies Naomi Klein In her book “No Logo” Naomi Klein addresses several issues related to branding, such as sweatshops in the Americas and Asia, culture jamming, corporate censorship, Reclaim the Streets, amongst others. She gives also a special attention to the poor and generally inhuman conditions under which workers manufacture products of multinational brand corporations in Third World countries, while the investment in brand advertising achieves billions of dollars. Although the book appeared in the year 2000, the subject is more actual than ever. A must! In the following movie Naomi Klein presents the content of her book: Download the book or read it online (a Spanish version can be found here and a Portuguese version here) About “No Logo” @ Wikipedia.com Naomi Klein: official web presence ...

God Grew Tired Of Us (2006) 2008-05-08 16:44:08 The Story of Lost Boys of Sudan Sudan has been living armed conflicts for more than half a century now. Since 2003 it is the War in Darfur (called the Darfur Genocide by the United States Government), that killed several hundred thousand person. However, the most deadly war happened in the two previous decades (between 1983 and 2003) in the south of the country. This so called Second Sudanese Civil War was one of the longest lasting and deadliest wars of the later 20th century. Roughly 1.9 million civilians were killed in southern Sudan, and more than 4 million have been forced to flee their homes at one time or another since the beginning of the war. Amongst them a group of some 27.000 children and young men had to flee to Ethiopia and subsequently to Kenya. The 12.000 who survived to this five year journey found safety in a refugee camp in northern Kenya. They became known as the “Lost Boys of Sudan“. (facts&numbers from Wikipedia) The documentary “God Gre ...

Hungry Planet (2005) 2008-05-07 17:40:11 What people eat around the world… A photography work of  Peter Menzel. 1 - Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07 2 - United States: The Revis family of North Carolina Food expenditure for one week $341.98 3 - Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11 4 - Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09 5 - Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27 6 - Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53 7 - Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo Food expenditure for one week: $31.55 8 - Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03 9 - Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23 The int ...

Workingman’s Death (2005) 2008-05-05 23:57:25 We live in a time where hard working men have been substituted by machines. Consequence: the dissapearence of the traditional working class. Or perhaps not?  Are workingmen just becoming invisible?  Where can you find them in the 21th century? The documentary “Workingman’s Death” shows five exemplary groups of workers across the world which have not directly benefited from the advances in technology: coal miners in Ukraine, sulfur miners in Indonesia, ship-breakers in Pakistan, workers of a slaughterhouse in Nigerian and workers of the steel industry in China. Five stories told through beautiful and at the same time shocking images. Download documentary Official site “Workingman’s Death” @ IMBd ...

Uncovered: The War on Iraq (2004) 2008-05-05 17:27:03 5 years after the invasion of Iraq  it is a known fact that, in contradiction to the statements of the Busch Administration before March 2003, there were no weapons of mass destruction in the country. So what went wrong? Robert Greenwald’s documentary “Uncovered: The war on Iraq” chronicles the determination of the Bush Administration to start a war against Sadam’s regime, following the events of September 11, 2001. Through interviews with U.S intelligence and defense officials, foreign service experts, and U.N. weapons inspectors, including a former CIA director, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and even President Bush’s Secretary of the Army, this documentary work is able to show that the the motives presented by the U.S. Administration to attack and invade Iraq are completely unfounded. Documentary download (Long version of 2004. An earlier shorter version of 2003 is also available) The official site “Uncovered: The War on Iraq” @ IMB ...

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006) 2008-05-05 09:09:26 The documentary “Why We Fight” presented here shows how in the past five decades the U.S. economy has been widely building on a military-industrial complex. It addresses the fact that war can be hold as a profitable business.  The Iraq war has become the best example of such a business. The documentary “Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers” reveals the actions of U.S. corporate contractors in the U.S.-Iraq war. Interviews with employees and former employees of such companies as Halliburton, CACI, and KBR suggest that government cronyism is behind apparent “sweetheart” deals that give such contractors enormous freedom to profit from supplying support and material to American troops while providing little oversight.  Former employees discuss the claim that the companies cared more for profit than for the welfare of their own workers, and soldiers indicate that the quality of services provided is well below standard and severely in contradiction to the ...

Al Gore: New thinking on the climate crisis (Feb. 2008) 2008-05-04 18:43:24 ...

Why We Fight (2005) 2008-05-04 08:14:11 War = business? “This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience…we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”  Dwight D. Eisenhower farewell speech as President, 17th of January  1961. One thousand billion dollars, that is the amount of money the US government will be spending directly or indirectly for the American military apparatus in the year 2008. That is the same amount of money spent in the year 2004 worldwide for military infrastructures and activities. (Article of Chalmers Johnson in Lettre International 2008/1) Why We Fight describes the rise and maintenance of the United States military-industrial complex and its involvement in the wars led by the United States during the last fifty years, and in particular in the 2003 Invas ...

The American Denial of Global Warming (a talk by Dr. Naomi Oreskes) (2007) 2008-05-02 11:02:48 Global Warming is a reality! In the last few decades global warming has scientifically been proven to be happening. So, if there is a consent about this matter in the scientific world, howcome do the mass media and consenquently the general public still continue to question this fact. Dr. Naomi Oreskes, Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego, shows that the general opinion about global warming is not founded on scientific results, but rather influenced by the media, which in turn are indirectly manipulated by governamental institutions. ...

Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (2008) 2008-04-30 11:54:05 «Keeping the [global economic] bubble from bursting will require an unprecedented degree of international cooperation to stabilize population, climate, water tables, and soils - and at wartime speed. Indeed, in both scale and urgency the effort required is comparable to the US mobilization during World War II.» Lester R. Brown, Plan B (2003) The new book from Lester R. Brown is out and can be downloaded here. «There are many things we do not know about the future. But one thing we do know is that business as usual will not continue for much longer. Massive change is inevitable. Will the change come because we move quickly to restructure the economy or because we fail to act and civilization begins to unravel?» Download the complete book or individual chapters here. About the author @ wikipedia Interview with Lester R. Brown Several other interviews (audio & video) can be found here. ...

The Corporation (2003) 2008-04-28 22:11:02 In a period where corporations possess more power than goverments and dictate the global economic, political and social playing rules, it is imperative to understand what corporations really are! The documentary “The Corporation” looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history up to its present-day dominance. Download Documentary (torrent) Offcial Movie Site The Corporation @ IMDb ...

The World According to Monsanto (2008) 2008-04-28 20:53:07 Monsanto is a leading global provider of agricultural products and systems sold to farming concerns. It is also by far the leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed, holding 70%–100% market share for various crops. The endless list of genetically modified seeds sold and controlled by Monsanto are putting at enormous risk age-old agricultural patterns under the presumptuous slogan of aiming at solving the huge problem of hunger in the world. It’s development and marketing of genetically engineered seed and bovine growth hormone, as well as its aggressive litigation and political lobbying practices, have made the company controversial around the world and a primary target of the anti-globalization movement and environmental activists. The documentary “The World According to Monsanto” produced by French journalist and film maker Marie-Monique Robin paints a grim picture of a company with a long track record of environmental crimes, health scandals. ...

Favela Rising (2005) 2008-04-28 13:57:59 “Favela Rising” is a documentary about the successful story of a group of young people that emerge from the violent slums of Rio de Janeiro to lead a nonviolent musical and cultural movement known as “Grupo Afro-reggae“, which rises as a meaningful and healthy alternative for the children and young men involved in the drug movement and other criminal activities. Torrent Link favelarising.com Favela Rising @ IMDb Official site of Grupo Afro Reggae Favela Rising Blog Afro Reggae in MySpace AfroReggae and Urban Connections - An Interview @ ar2com.de ...

Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006) 2008-04-22 22:48:46 Who Killed the Electric Car? is a 2006 documentary filmbattery 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, batteries, hydrogen vehicles, and consumers that explores the birth, limited commercialization, and subsequent death of the in limiting the development and adoption of this technology. text taken from here ...