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2015/02/06 02:36:24
Subject: Bitter Lake - Adam Curtis documentary centred on Afghanistan but speaks to the World more generally.
Wiki wrote:Kevin Adam Curtis (born 26 May 1955), better known as Adam Curtis, is an English documentary filmmaker. His best-known work is The Century of the Self (2002), a film in which he argues that Sigmund Freud's theories of the unconscious shaped the development of public relations and advertising. Curtis says that his favourite theme is "power and how it works in society", and his works explore areas of sociology, philosophy and political history.[1] He describes his work as journalism that happens to be expounded upon through the medium of film. His films have won three BAFTAs. He has been closely associated with the BBC throughout his career.
Politicians used to have the confidence to tell us stories that made sense of the chaos of world events. But now there are no big stories and politicians react randomly to every new crisis - leaving us bewildered and disorientated.
Bitter Lake is a new, adventurous and epic film by Adam Curtis that explains why the big stories that politicians tell us have become so simplified that we can’t really see the world any longer.
The narrative takes in events in America, Britain, Russia and Saudi Arabia - but the country at the heart of it is Afghanistan. Because Afghanistan is the place that has confronted our politicians with the terrible truth - that they can no longer understand what is going on.
The film reveals the forces that over the past 30 years rose up and undermined the confidence of politics to understand the world. And it shows the strange, dark role that Saudi Arabia has played in this.
But Bitter Lake also experimental. Curtis has taken the unedited rushes of almost everything that the BBC has ever shot in Afghanistan - and used them in new and radical ways.
In so doing, he builds a different and more emotional way of depicting what has happened in Afghanistan - a counterpoint to what he sees as the narrow and increasingly destructive stories told by those in power.
The film is exclusively for BBC iPlayer - because iPlayer is a completely unexplored new area, one that offers opportunities to experiment with new and more involving forms of reporting.
Just finished watching this and it was very enjoyable and I thoroughly recommend it.
The over simplification and deliberate obfuscation of the narrative can only lead to dark places.
This music features throughout as well as some Nine Inch Nails
To expand the point of the film basically describes the West's relationship with the Saudi's and Money. The Saudi's relationship with Wahhabism and how they financed it's spread. The relationship between the banks and governments is hinted at and you can draw your own conclusions about what the film maker is saying here.
Personally it says to me how globalisation and international finance has failed.
There's also a distinct undertone of the condemnation of greed.
The film also points out that we in the West have lost all our identity and have lost our moral authority through our over simplification of world events.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2015/02/06 04:05:28
The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king,
2015/02/07 00:45:12
Subject: Re:Bitter Lake - Adam Curtis documentary centred on Afghanistan but speaks to the World more generally.
