Theme: War & Imperialism
While the bombs are falling over Libya, we put focus on war and imperialism with the movies of this month. Maybe these movies will provide food for thought as well as insight regarding the potentially frightening development in North Africa and the Middle East?
The War You Don’t See
In his latest documentary, renowned journalist John Pilger examines the role of the media in the wars of Afghanistan and Iraq. In the British newspaper The Guardian, one reviewer wrote “Pilger has never traded in anything other than black and white,” and “Pilger’s starting point is that all governments are shysters whose only interest is economic and all journalists are witless dupes,” but “For all his lack of subtlety, he presents his case with passion and conviction.” “What shone through,” he concludes, “was that those we rely on to think clearly in times of war are often those most seduced by myopic machismo and that any sense of history gets instantly forgotten.”