Tuesday, June 17, 2014

World Cup 2014: Capitalism, Corruption and Protest (Part 2)

In part II of our World Cup 2014 series we take a look at the initial proposal the government of Brazil presented to FIFA and how the reality has shaped up all these years later...here a hint, the budget more than quadrupled. We specifically take a look at the construction at three of the 12 stadiums and the pit corruption, extortion and over billing they have all become.  We also touch on similar stadium projects from the World Cup 2010 in South Africa and the preparations for the upcoming World Cup 2022 in Qatar (which has already killed hundreds of workers).  [Click to Listen]

Thursday, June 12, 2014

World Cup 2014: Capitalism, Corruption and Protest (Part 1)

Our introductory episode covering the most watched (and most corrupt) sporting event in the entire world, the FIFA World Cup.  We start off looking at why soccer can and is an important sport, especially on the world stage.  Then we move into a brief overview of what has been going on in Brazil - both in the streets and within the halls of the Brazilian government at the request of FIFA officials - in the lead up to the World Cup of 2014, focusing on the Confederations Cup of 2013 and the corruption and protests that occurred during that event.  [Click to Listen]

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Collapse (2009)

Activist Cinema Episode 9 - Collapse (2009) was directed by Chris Smith and is essentially a monologue film.  There haven't been too many of these kinds of film made, but within this small sub-genre of films, Collapse is one of the best.  We choose this film as a nice end cap to the We're So Fucked series of episodes as most of the ideas and sentiments from that series are well represented in this documentary about the late, great Michael C. Ruppert. [Click to Listen]