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: 16 0 11 302

Articles from Critical Docs

Balseros (2002) 2008-05-31 14:56:41 The dream. The journey. The reality. Due to the increasing economic and social degradation of Cuba after the fall of communism in Russia, known as the Período Especial, Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro decides to open Cuba’s doors during the year of 1994, allowing 50.000 Cubans to leave the island on improvised rafts aiming Florida in search of a better life. Carlos Bosch and Josep Maria Domènech followed some of these Cubans in their adventurous journey to the US and kept contact with them in years following their arrival.  The first half of the documentary is filmed in Cuba and in Guantanamo Bay, where many “balseros” were kept in detention for several months by the US authorities. Some of the detainees were allowed to leave to the US because they were the winner of a local lottery carried out by the authorities. The second half of the film is about the lives of those who managed to get to the USA, how they were distributed over the cou ...

Memorias del Saqueo (2003) 2008-05-27 18:25:40 The Argentinian Social Genocide “After the fall of the military dictatorship in 1983, successive democratic governments launched a series of reforms purporting to turn Argentina into the world’s most liberal and prosperous economy. Less than twenty years later, the Argentinians have lost literally everything: major national companies have been sold well below value to foreign corporations; the proceeds of privatizations have been diverted into the pockets of corrupt officials; revised labour laws have taken away all rights from employees; in a country that is traditionally an important exporter of foodstuffs, malnutrition is widespread; millions of people are unemployed and sinking into poverty; and their savings have disappeared in a final banking collapse. The film highlights numerous political, financial, social and judicial aspects that mark out Argentina’s road to ruin.” (Written by Eduardo Casais) The following online version of the documentary is spoke ...

Our Daily Bread (2005) 2008-05-27 02:00:56 The world of industrial food production and high-tech farming. Following my post about the documentary “We Feed The World (2005)“, I would like to present another impressive documentary about the industrial food production,  “Our Daily Bread” directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter. The film depicts how modern food production companies employ technology to maximize efficiency, consumer safety and profit. It consist only of images and sounds, no narration or interviews are employed, allowing the viewers to form their own opinion on the subject based only on what is shown. “Despite this lack of narration, Our Daily Bread never fails to enthrall because of the impeccable eye — for composition, for color, for movement within the frame — of filmmaker Geyrhalter.” (Los Angeles Times) Watch the documentary online or use the link below to download it. Download the documentary “Our Daily Bread” @ IMDb “Our Daily Bread” @ ...

Surplus (2003) 2008-05-25 06:09:17 Terrorized into being consumers “Surplus” is a film I would not necessarily classify as a documentary, but more as a video clip (as we may now it from music TV channels), which tries to show that the arguments for capitalism and technology, such as greater efficiency, more time and less work, are not really being fulfilled. I personally found this film quite funny and ironical, but at the same time very critical about the subject. Watch the film online (German subtitles) or download it using the link below. Download the film (swedish subtitles) “Surplus” @ IMDb “Surplus” @ Wikipedia Official site ...

Suspect Nation (2006) 2008-05-24 07:03:27 The new Big Brother State in UK Since Tony Blair’s New Labour government came to power in 1997, the UK civil liberties landscape has changed dramatically. The right to remain silent is no longer universal. Our right to privacy, free from interception of communications has been severely curtailed. The ability to travel without surveillance (or those details of our journeys being retained) has disappeared. Indeed, as Henry Porter (the Observer journalist famous for his recent email clash with Tony Blair over the paring down of civil liberties) reveals in this unsettling film, our movements are being watched, and recorded, more than ever before (text taken from here) Download the documentary ” Suspect Nation” @ IMDb Official page ...

McLibel (2005) 2008-05-23 05:39:49 The story of two people who refused to say sorry to McDonalds. McDonald’s loved using the UK libel laws to suppress criticism. Major media organisations like the BBC and The Guardian crumbled and apologised. But then they sued gardener Helen Steel and postman Dave Morris. In the longest trial in English legal history, the “McLibel Two” represented themselves against McDonald’s £10 million legal team. (…)  Seven years later, in February 2005, the marathon legal battle finally concluded at the European Court of Human Rights. And the result took everyone by surprise - especially the British Government. McLibel is not just about hamburgers. It is about the importance of freedom of speech now that multinational corporations are more powerful than countries. Filmed over ten years by no-budget Director Franny Armstrong, McLibel is the David and Goliath story of two people who refused to say sorry. And in doing so, changed the world. Written by Lizzie Gill ...

The Take (2004) 2008-05-22 19:02:02 Occupy. Resist. Produce. In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - The Take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head. Another great work by Naomi Klein and her husban Avi Lewis. Watch the documentary online or use the links below to download it. Download the documentary [700MB] (spanish version can be downloaded here [700MB]) (torrent) “The Take” @ IMDb “The Take” @ Wikipedia The official homepage ...

Ilha das Flores (1989) 2008-05-22 05:19:17 Isle of Flowers Ilha das Flores is a short film that is a sort of social documentary with biting criticism of civilization’s hierarchical system (meritocracy out of control with no empathy) and capitalism sprinkled with irony. Though ostensibly about the journey of a tomato, it’s beautiful and devastatingly horrific and truthful. The film ends with an ironic reference to a poem by the Brazilian bourgeois poet Cecília Benevides Meireles, who is considered one of the most important poets of the second phase of the Brazilian Modernism: “Freedom” is a word that fires the dreams of human beings. No-one can explain what it means, and no-one understands it. (text stolen and slightly modified from here) Download the short-film (torrent) “Ilha das Flores” @ IMDb “Ilha das Flores” @ Wikipedia ...

The Panama Deception (1992) 2008-05-21 08:52:20 The (untold) story about the U.S. invasion of Panama A few years ago I met this guy from Panama (City). Eventually we became good friends and one day, while just sitting around, he began to tell me this story: - You know, I had to serve the army in Panama. Me and practically all my friends were in the same casern, we were all of the same age, you know. Friends with whom I grew up, from the same neighbourhood, with whom I went to school. It was 1989. And then I left the service. Few weeks later they bombed the casern! Everyone dead! Can you imagine that, to loose all of your lifetime friends in just one day? - and he began to cry. I wasn’t aware of the reason of the bombing he was talking about, so I had to ask - But who bombed the caserns?  - The gringos! - he answered - When they invaded our country… And why?  Well, I think a good part of the answer is   this documentary: ” The Panama Deception” by Barbara Trent and David Kasper. It does not on ...

The Fourth World War (2003) 2008-05-20 18:25:29 The First World War of the 21st Century has begun From the front-lines of conflicts in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Palestine, Korea, ‘the North’ from Seattle to Genova, and the ‘War on Terror’ in New York, Afghanistan, and Iraq. It is the story of men and women around the world who resist being annihilated in the Fourth World War. “The Fourth World War” brings together the images and voices of the human victims of this global conflict. “A powerful, radical cry from the frontlines of the war on people” (Naomi Klein) You may watch the movie here or download it with several subtitles using the link below. Download the documentary (subtitles in English, French, German, Portuguese and Slovak included) “The Fourth World War (2003)” @ IMDb the4thworldwar.blogspot.com ...

The Big Brother State (2007) 2008-05-19 12:10:06 Stop the Big Brother State An animated short film by David Scharf With this animated short film created by David Scharf I will start presenting several documentaries dealing with the appearance of Big Brother states in Europe, America and around the world. As Benjamin Franklin said: “…people willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.” Enjoy the film: The official movie page ...

The Shock Doctrine - A talk by Naomi Klein (2007) 2008-05-18 16:39:18 In the following talk, Naomi Klein presents the basic ideas of her new book “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism“. It was held during 2007 at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Use the following player to listen to the speech online or use the links below to download the audio or watch the videos. Download the videos Watch the videos online Download the audio file “The Shock Doctrine (2007)” - Link to the audio-book ...

No End in Sight (2007) 2008-05-17 09:46:04 Iraq’s Descent Into Chaos In the endless list of documentaries about the US-war in Iraq, the documentary “No End In Sight” by Charles Ferguson appears as “one of the best documentaries about the war in Iraq” up to date, to cite “The New York Times” . “No End in Sight” focuses on serious and fatal mistakes made by the Bush administration in the two year period following the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The film portrays these errors as the cause of ensuing problems in Iraq, such as the rise of the insurgency, a lack of security and basic utilities for many Iraqis, sectarian violence and, at one point, the risk of complete civil war. Watch the documentary online or use one of the links below to download a high quality version. Download the documentary (alternative torrent here or here for the DVD version) Official movie page “No End In Sight” @ IMDb “No End In Sight” @ Wikipedia ...

The Shock Doctrine (2007) 2008-05-16 11:39:54 The Rise of Disaster Capitalism In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein, author of “No Logo“, explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world - through the exploitation of disaster - shocked people and countries. (Text partially taken from here) In the following short-film made by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein, and directed by Jonás Cuarón, Naomi Klein personally presents the idea of the Shock Doctrine addressed in her book. Download the audio-book “The Shock Doctrine”: the official page “How economic shock therapy backfired in iraq” - a speech by Naomi Klein (To report broken links, to give suggestions or if you know where to find the same document in another language, plea ...

How Economic Shock Therapy Backfired in Iraq (2005) 2008-05-15 03:46:04 A speech by Naomi Klein In her speech, Naomi Klein, award winning journalist and author of the international best seller, No Logo, talks about democracy and how the idea and the term are misused over and over again by politicians. She focuses on the discrepancy between the democracy promised by the Bush Administration to the Iraqi people and the reality in Iraq after the invasion. She stresses that the invasion of Iraq was done on the basis of economic interests.  Her main message is that true democracy begins with a conscient acting of all of us. A very informativ and enlighting  speech, one should not miss it! The speech was held in Oakland, California, on the 9th of February of 2005. Download the speech Naomi Klein’s web presence Related posts: “Uncovered: The War on Iraq (2004)“ and “Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006)“ ...