Concerning Violence is a 2014 documentary film written and directed by Göran Olsson. It is based on Frantz Fanon's essay, Concerning Violence, from his 1961 book The Wretched of the Earth. Narrated by Ms Lauryn Hill, the documentary provides a bold and fresh visual narrative on Africa, based on newly discovered archive material covering the struggle for liberation from colonial rule in the late ‘60s and ‘70s. Fanon’s landmark book, written over 50 years ago, is still a major tool for understanding and illuminating the neocolonialism happening today, as well as the violence and reactions against its continuation.
Night and Fog (French: Nuit et brouillard) is a 1956 French documentary short film. Directed by Alain Resnais, it was made ten years after the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. The title is taken from the notorious Nacht und Nebel (German for "Night and Fog") program of abductions and disappearances decreed by the Nazis on 7 December 1941.
The documentary features the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek while describing the lives of prisoners in the camps. Night and Fogwas made in collaboration with scriptwriter Jean Cayrol, a survivor of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. The music of the soundtrack was composed by Hanns Eisler.
The Act of Killing is a 2012 documentary film about the individuals who participated in the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66. The film is directed by Joshua Oppenheimer and co-directed by Christine Cynn. It won the 2013 European Film Award for Best Documentary, the Asia Pacific Screen Award, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards.
Produced and directed by John Pilger, 'The War You Don't See' (2011) is a powerful and timely investigation into the media's role in war, tracing the history of 'embedded' and independent reporting from the carnage of World War One to the destruction of Hiroshima, and from the invasion of Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan and disaster in Iraq. As weapons and propaganda become even more sophisticated, the nature of war is developing into an 'electronic battlefield' in which journalists play a key role, and civilians are the victims. But who is the real enemy?
Standard Operating Procedure is a 2008 documentary film which explores the meaning of the photographs taken by U.S. military police at the Abu Ghraib prison in late 2003, the content of which revealed the torture and abuse of its prisoners by U.S. soldiers and subsequently resulted in a public scandal. The film was directed by Errol Morris. Commenting on the relationship of his film to the notorious photographs, Morris has said his intent was "…not to say that these 'bad apples' were blameless… but… to say that they were scapegoats. It was easy to blame them because, after all, they were in the photographs… Photographs don’t tell us who the real culprits might be… They can also serve as a coverup, they can misdirect us… Photographs reveal and conceal, serve as [both] exposé and coverup".
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse is a 1991 documentary film about the production of the 1979 epic Vietnam War feature film Apocalypse Now. In the late 1970s, as renegade filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola struggles to complete an epic allegory of the Vietnam War, his wife, Eleanor, films his daily travails with a camera of her own. The documentary based on her footage details the difficulties of the large production -- from weather-related delays in the Philippines to star Martin Sheen's heart attack while filming -- and it provides unprecedented behind-the-scenes clips of one of Hollywood's most-acclaimed films.
Jan. 1 1994: The Day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went in effect. A few minutes after midnight in Southeastern Mexico, several thousand Indian soldiers take over half the state of Chiapas, declaring a war against global corporate power and for humanity. They call themselves the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). Zapatista is the definitive look at the uprising in Chiapas. it is the story of the Mayan peasant uprising, armed with sticks and their word against a first world military. It is the story of a global movement that has fought 175,000 federal troops to a standstill and transformed Mexican culture and international political cultural forever.
Michael Moore's political documentary uses humour and connect-the-dots investigative journalism to question the Bush administration's motives for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The film argues that President George W. Bush and his inner circle used the media to further an agenda that exploited the 9/11 attacks. The close ties of the Saudis to the Bush family, the cynical profiteering of corporations and a political elite beholden to special interests are all cited as elements of a corrupt system.
Generation Kill is an American seven-part television miniseries produced for HBO that aired from July 13 to August 24, 2008. Highly trained young Marines of the First Reconnaissance Battalion struggle with inadequate supplies, bureaucratic snafus and poor communication as they lead the drive into Baghdad during the first weeks of the war in Iraq, in a seven-part miniseries based on the best-selling nonfiction book by embedded Rolling Stone correspondent Evan Wright.
Documentaries