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Citizenfour

   2014    History
Citizenfour received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2015 Oscars. The film was directed by Laura Poitras concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal." In January 2013, Laura Poitras received an encrypted e-mail from a stranger who called himself Citizen Four. In it, he offered her inside information about illegal wiretapping practices of the NSA and other intelligence agencies. Poitras had already been working for several years on a film about monitoring programs in the US, the result of the September 11 attacks. In June 2013, accompanied by investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald and The Guardian intelligence reporter Ewen MacAskill, she went to Hong Kong with her camera for the first meeting with the stranger, who identified himself as Edward Snowden. Several other meetings followed. The recordings gained from the meetings form the basis of the film.

Jesus Camp

   2006    Culture
The youngest foot soldiers for the Lord are shown in their native environment in this documentary. Becky Fischer is a children's pastor who runs 'Kids on Fire,' a summer camp for evangelical Christian children in North Dakota. Fischer believes in the political and moral importance of a Christian presence in America, and uses her camp to reinforce the religious training most of her charges are already receiving at home (the majority of the campers are home-schooled by their parents).
Using video games, animated videos, and group activities to help put her message across, Fischer encourages the kids to pray for the President and his Supreme Court appointees while urging them to help 'take back America for Christ.' For the most part, the children seem reasonably ordinary beyond the fact they pray with uncommon fervour and sometimes speak in tongues.
Along with Fischer and her cohorts, Jesus Camp features interviews with Ted Haggard, an evangelist and advisor to George W. Bush, and Mike Papantonio, a Christian talk-show host who believes the right-wing slant of many Christian evangelists is taking the church into a dangerous direction.

The Propaganda Game

   2015    Culture
North Korea, formerly known as the hermit kingdom, is perhaps the largest source of instability as regards world peace. Its border is one of the most militarized in the world. The lack of impartial information, both inside and coming out of the country, is the perfect setting for a propaganda war, which will be analysed in the film through numerous examples of the surprising way in which information is manipulated, in and about North Korea. Alejandro Cao de Benos, the sole foreigner who works for the People's Republic of Korea Government, and many locals will show us their vision of the reality in North Korea. The other side of the story will be reflected through interviews to South Korean citizens, human rights advocates, diplomats, propaganda experts, etc.

9/11: Inside the President War Room

   2021    History
Twenty years ago, at 9.03am on 11 September 2001, America was under attack. President George W Bush was sitting in front of seven-year-olds in a classroom in Florida. Members of the president’s security detail thought the next plane could be aimed at them. The film is a claustrophobic clock-ticking thriller and tells the story of the presidency on arguably the most consequential day in recent history. As the clock ticks, the administration makes the greatest decisions of their lives: should they order fighter jets to shoot on American civilians? Should the president declare war or calm a battered nation? How would the leadership of the most powerful nation on earth grapple with the national and international implications?
This documentary tells the definitive story of the Bush administration through 12 hours of that momentous day, with first-hand testimony from President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and other senior staff who had their hands on the levers of power. The events of that day led to two decades of conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq. As America and its allies now withdraw from Afghanistan and the Taliban resume control, this is the story of how it all began.

Requiem for the American Dream

   2016    Culture
The definitive discourse with Noam Chomsky on the defining characteristic of our time - the deliberate concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a select few. Chomsky unpacks the principles that have brought us to the crossroads of historically unprecedented inequality - tracing a half century of policies designed to favour the most wealthy at the expense of the majority. "Requiem for the American Dream" is profoundly personal and thought provoking. Chomsky provides penetrating insight into what may well be the lasting legacy of our time - the death of the middle class, and swan song of functioning democracy. A potent reminder that power ultimately rests in the hands of the governed, "Requiem for the American Dream" is required viewing for all who maintain hope in a shared stake in the future.

The Rise of Putin

   2020    History
A definitive account of Putin's power and how it changed the modern world. The series is an exploration of how Vladimir Putin brought his knowledge of spy-craft to bear on his leadership of Russia, how his personal experiences have influenced his politics and how modern Russia has been created through an acute sense of betrayal, pride and anger.
The first episode takes viewers on a journey into the mind of one of the 21st century's most influential leaders, offering a portrait of a politician who modelled himself on the Russian James Bond and whose presidency reads like a spy thriller. We will see how Putin escapes poverty by joining the KGB, his reinvention as a political fixer in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and how he gets into position to take over from President Yeltsin.
Series: Putin: A Russian Spy Story