Documentaries
In the Name of Allâh, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
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The War You Don't See
By John Pilger. From the award-winning director of The War on Democracy comes John Pilger's latest work, The War You Don't See. This hard-hitting exposé scrutinises the effects of the media during wartime, asking what is the role of the media in rapacious wars. When symbols are separated from facts and the facts don't matter, could the media be accused of conspiring to play down the carnage and of using 'embedded journalism' to amplify the lies? This documentary unveils the war you don't see and allows you to make up your own mind. |
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Koran by Heart
110 kids from the Islamic world are chosen and arrive in Cairo for the world's oldest Koran reciting contest. Koran By Heart follows two boys from Senegal and Tajikistan, and a little girl from Maldives - who go head-to-head with kids nearly twice their age in the pronunciation, recitation and perfected memorization of the Qur'an. |
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Planet Earth
With an unprecedented production budget of $25 million, and from the makers of Blue Planet: Seas of Life, comes the epic story of life on Earth. Five years in production, over 2,000 days in the field, using 40 cameramen filming across 200 locations, shot entirely in high definition, this is the ultimate portrait of our planet. A stunning television experience that captures rare action, impossible locations and intimate moments with our planet's best-loved, wildest and most elusive creatures. From the highest mountains to the deepest rivers, this blockbuster series takes you on an unforgettable journey through the daily struggle for survival in Earth's most extreme habitats. Planet Earth takes you to places you have never seen before, to experience sights and sounds you may never experience anywhere else. |
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Science & Islam
BBC Documentary Series. Physicist Jim Al-Khalili travels through Syria, Iran, Tunisia and Spain to tell the story of the great leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th centuries |
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HAMAS: Behind the Mask
Hamas is one of the world's most secretive and controversial organizations. Its charter calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. ‘There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.’ Hamas regards the territory of Israel, the Gaza strip and the West Bank as an inalienable Waqf (Islamic bequest), which can never be surrendered to non-Muslims. Hamas has been listed as a terrorist organization by most western powers. Yet despite this Hamas has grown in strength and popular support amongst Palestinians. This documentary investigates the men and women behind the mask. |
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Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
HBO Films is currently presenting one of the nominated documentaries for a Grand Jury Prize at this years Sundance Festival: Ghosts of Abu Ghraib. This is a film that needs to be seen by every American. It is a stark lesson in what happens when we are led by individuals who have no respect for law and human rights.
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Taxi To The Dark Side
Taxi to the Dark Side accomplishes what a documentary, or just a concise analysis, regarding all of the facts in one of the many nightmares the United States' involvement in the middle east should: to inspire the utmost disgust and condemnation of a system that has become as corrupt as it has (or rather always has been with this bunch). It's uncontainable to think how all of this started, grew exponentially, and resulted ultimately in the horrors at Abu Gharyb and Guantanamo Bay, in that it is nestled in the twisted, criminal (yes folks, criminal) 'policies' of the Bush administration. But Alex Gibney's approach isn't narrow-minded but multi-faceted: he's interested in what a complex, ugly organism torture has become, the psychological just as much as the physical, and he has a man at the center of it. Dilawar, an innocent taxi driver from a poor farm in Afghanistan, was swept up by three other Afghan soldiers and sent to Bagram prison, where along with other supposed terrorists or terrorist collaborators was tortured (in his case especially in brutal fashion, as we learn in graphic description from those who participated first-hand), and died from the trauma.
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GITMO: The New Rules Of War
Gitmo: The new rules of war is a Swedish documentary about the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base by Erik Gandini and Tarik Saleh. The film features interviews with Janis Karpinski, Mehdi Ghezali and Geoffrey Miller, among others. Gitmo premiered at IDFA in 2005, and reached mainstream theaters in Sweden on February 10, 2006. In 2003, a year after Swedish citizen Mehdi Ghezali was detained at "Gitmo", which sparked some media interest in Sweden, Erik and Tarik started filming the documentary and visited the base on a guided tour of selected areas. Mehdi Ghezali was released in 2004, and was interviewed for the film.
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Torturing Democracy
"Torturing Democracy" is a new documentary which details how the government set aside the rule of law in its pursuit of harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists. |
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Occupation 101
Synopsis: A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike any other film ever produced on the conflict -- 'Occupation 101' presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the never ending controversy and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions. The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the role of the United States in the conflict, and the major obstacles that stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. The roots of the conflict are explained through first-hand on-the-ground experiences from leading Middle East scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers whose voices have too often been suppressed in American media outlets. |
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Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle ... all » East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported |
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Palestine is Still the Issue
John Pilger returns to the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza where, in 1974, he filmed a documentary with the same title about the same issues, a nation of people - the Palestinians - forced off their land and later subjected to a military occupation by Israel. This was an occupation condemned by the United Nations and almost every country in the world, including Britain. But Israel is backed by a very powerful friend, the United States. Pilger finds that 25 years later the basic problems remain unchanged: a desperate, destitute people whose homeland is illegally occupied by the world's fourth biggest military power. What has changed is that the Palestinians have fought back. Stateless and humiliated for so long, they've risen up against Israel's huge military machine, although they themselves have no arms, no tanks, no American planes and gun ships or missiles. |
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Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers” is a 2006 documentary about the ongoing Iraq War and the behavior of companies with no-bid contracts working within Iraq. The film claims four major contractors who over-bill the government (and by extension, the American public), doing substandard work while endangering the lives of American soldiers as well as private citizens. The documentary contends these companies are composed of ex-military and ex-government workers who unethically help their companies get and keep enormous contracts and milk the American taxpayer. |
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The War on Democracy
John Pilger's 2007 documentary explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Pilger claims that the film "...tells a universal story... analyzing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". According to Pilger, the film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow". |
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A History of Government-Sponsored Terrorism
"Terrorstorm" reveals documented cases where governments have carried out terror attacks against their own populations as a pretext to control them. "TerrorStorm" reveals how, in the last hundred years, leaders have repeatedly murdered their own citizens while posing as their saviors. Contraversial Talk Show Host Alex Jones draws upon historical examples to relate them to alternative theories to recent terrorist events such as 9/11 as well as the London Bombings. |
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Uncovered: The War on Iraq
The film will present interviews with more than 20 experts, all of whom have informed opinions about the reasons we were given for war and the evidence presented to support those reasons. Some supported the war itself but are deeply concerned about the way information was misused. All believe it is their duty to speak up. Among those interviewed are former Ambassador Joe Wilson, weapons inspectors Scott Ritter and David Albright, anti-terrorism expert Rand Beers, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, former CIA operative Robert Baer and Washington editor of The Nation, David Corn. |
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When The Moors Ruled In Europe
This short documentary describes the glorious rule of Muslim Moors in what is now Spain. A forgotten history is remembered. A must see documentary. |
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BBC Documentary - An Islamic History of EuropeIn this 90-minute documentary, now showing in three 30-minute episodes, Rageh Omaar uncovers the hidden story of Europe’s Islamic past and looks back to a golden age when European civilisation was enriched by Islamic learning. Rageh travels across medieval Muslim Europe to reveal the vibrant civilisation that Muslims brought to the West. This evocative film brings to life a time when emirs and caliphs dominated Spain and Sicily and Islamic scholarship swept into the major cities of Europe. His journey reveals the debt owed to Islam for its vital contribution to the European Renaissance. |
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The Qur'an and the Kalashnikov BBC DocumentaryA Documentary Made in 1998 about the Soviet Afghan war and the aftermath of the conflict, the rise of Osama Bin Laden & Taliban. People from all aspect talk about the conflict including former CIA and presidential advisors. |
