Activist Cinema 2015 Part 2

We finish up our year end wrap up of Activist Cinema from 2015 with a brief discussion of some prominent LGBTQ films (The Danish Girl, Stonewall, Freeheld, Carol and About Ray) and how they were mostly not that good...but that is okay.  We also compare the narrative device used in the film Stonewall with the exact same device used in the film Suffragette and how the critics hated it in one film, but loved it in another.  There were also two notable films, one produced independently (99 Homes) and one produced by Hollywood (The Big Short), that tackle the issue of the housing market collapse of 2008.  Then, we move onto the Activist Film of 2015, Chi-Raq.  Spike Lee has created another brilliant film (see also: Bamboozled) that captures the zeitgeist of the times in a way that few filmmakers working today are capable of doing.  [Click to Listen]

Activist Cinema 2015 Part 1

We start off our annual year end wrap up with some news about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigating the hiring practices of the major Hollywood studios.  Turns out, the entertainment industry is shallow, image obsessed and sexist towards women.  Hopefully this investigation will have better results than the 1969 investigation by the EEOC...or the 1983 class action law suit by the Directors Guild of America.
We also take quick look at a few of the essential documentary films of 2015.
Merchants of Doubt
Cartel Land
Best of Enemies
He Named Me Malala
[Click to Listen]

Episode III : Child Brides and Dancing Boys

It's a really shitty time to be a kid in the world today, especially if you are one of the 250 million girls under the age of 15 who are forcibly married off by their family each year.  UNICEF and Girls Not Brides are trying their best to raise awareness and combat child marriage, but on some parts of this planet a daughter is a commodity to be sold.  Some daughters as young as 8.  Often times to men old enough to be her father or grandfather.  Unfortunately, the boys of Afghanistan don't have it any better.  The centuries old practice of "bacha baazi" ("boy-play") has returned to Afghanistan, essentially making child rape a cultural norm.  Boys, from 9 to 15 years old, dance for "kaatah" ("owners") in large dance hall parties before being sexually abused.  How culturally normal is this practice?  The occupying forces of the US Military are specifically told not to interfere. [Click to Listen].

Episode II : Finem Puer Abusum

It's a really shitty time to be a kid in the world today, especially if your family is religious.  Specifically if your family is Catholic and poor.  In this episode we take a look at the abuse of children by degenerate priests, bishops, cardinals...basically white males in positions of power within the Catholic church.  From the 2002 stories published by the Boston Globe Spotlight team to the wonderful work that survivors of abuse are doing to help each other try and heal, the Internet has played a very significant role in exposing the centuries long cover-up by this powerful, worldwide religious organization. [Click to Listen]

Episode I : The Lost Children of Hamelin

It's a really shitty time to be a kid in the world today.  Over 2 million of them will go thru the well oiled machine that is the international sex slave market.  On this episode we look at how a human trafficking bust in New Jersey was a catalyst for Peter Landesman, a journalist, to travel the world and expose the system that keeps this market thriving (Click for Article).  And the humans sold in this market are getting younger and younger.  [Click to Listen]

We Are Being Programmed (Part 7): The World We Live In

We are all affected by it...call it advertising, propaganda, programming, social engineering, psychological operations, or whatever other term could be applied.  The act of a force outside of your mind trying to convince you to do something.  In this installment we take a look at the world of propaganda we are currently stuck with.  At this stage, we have to look past political ideologies to the one true underlying factor that guides the programming...money.  Our coverage begins with the good intentions found within the Church Committee.  But, it turned out to just be a bunch of words on pages.  Corporations continued their financial hijacking of democracy.  Now, the CIA has their own Media Liaison Office, the Government of Mexico bought a scene in 007's newest adventure - Spectre, a retired senator is Hollywood's top lobbyist, NPR and CNN are employing active duty Army officers and the First Lady presents Best Picture at the Academy Awards.  Not since late 1930's Germany have the government and the media been so well separated. [Click to Listen]

Propaganda (1928): Part 5

In this fifth and final episode of the Mic Check Radio Book Club series we conclude with the final chapters of the audio book, Propaganda by Edward L Burnays, published in 1928.  Noam Chomsky has called this book "the main manual of the public relations industry".  It may be 87 years old, but the ideas and concepts are still used (and successful) today.  This book explores the psychology of manipulating the masses in order to influence consumerism, politics, social change and gender dynamics.  On this episode we will hear Chapter 8: Propaganda for Education, Chapter 9: Propaganda in Social Service, Chapter 10: Art and Science and Chapter 11: The Mechanics of Propaganda. [Click to Listen]