British Universities Film & Video Council

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John Pilger: Documentaries That Changed the World

Synopsis
DVD set brings together twelve of John Pilger’s most hard-hitting and inspirational films. Drawing extensively on eye-witness testimony, Pilger has been a foreign correspondent and a front-line war reporter since 1967. A passionate and rare critic of foreign military and economic ventures by Western governments, Pilger has been described as unique on British television. His work makes uneasy viewing as he uncovers shocking truths about the political forces that manifest themselves worldwide; forces that many turn a blind eye to. Leaving no stone unturned he treads where many journalists fear to go. The individual programmes featured in this DVD set are:
Disc One:
YEAR ZERO - THE SILENT DEATH OF CAMBODIA (1979)
The shocking state of Cambodia after Pol Pot’s murderous regime.
NICARAGUA - A NATION’S RIGHT TO SURVIVE (1983)
How can a country survive when its jungle borders hold 4000 hostile troops?
BURP! PEPSI V COKE IN THE ICE COLD WAR (1982)
A look at the worldwide struggle for soft drink supremacy.
FLYING THE FLAG - ARMING THE WORLD (1995)
An investigation of the world of international arms dealing.

Disc Two:
VIETNAM - THE QUIET MUTINY (1970)
The incredible account of the break-up of the US military in Vietnam.
DEATH OF A NATION - THE TIMOR CONSPIRACY (1994)
An exploration of the situation in East Timor - a country ruled by bloodshed and fear.
INSIDE BURMA - LAND OF FEAR (1996)
An undercover investigation of slave labour in Burma.
WELCOME TO AUSTRALIA (1999)
An examination of the exclusion of Australia’s Aborigines.

Disc Three:
PAYING THE PRICE: KILLING THE CHILDREN OF IRAQ (2000)
An analysis of the effect of economic sanctions on Iraq.
PALESTINE IS STILL THE ISSUE (2002)
An assessment of the problems endemic to the West Bank and Gaza.
BREAKING THE SILENCE: TRUTH AND LIES IN THE WAR ON TERROR (2003)
An inquiry into the "war on terror" and its affects on ‘liberated’ countries.

Disc Four:
STEALING A NATION (2004)
The scandalous story of the expulsion of the Chagos Islanders.
JOHN PILGER AT THE GUARDIAN HAY FESTIVAL 2006

DVD extras include: Introductory booklet about John Pilger’s films written by Guardian contributor Mark Curtis; John Pilger in conversation with Anthony Hayward at the Guardian Hay Festival 2006
Language
English
Country
Great Britain
Year of release
2007
Year of production
197-2006
Subjects
Media studies; Politics & government
Keywords
television documentary films; investigative journalism; Pilger, John

Credits

Director
John Pilger
Contributor
John Pilger

Distribution Formats

Type
DVD
Format
Region 2 PAL
Price
£12.00
Duration/Size
644 minutes
Year
2007

Sections

Title
Year Zero - The Silent Death of Cambodia
Synopsis
John Pilger and David Munro discover startling new evidence that the deadly Pol Pot regime is on the brink of returning to power.

Title
NIcaragua - A Nation’s Right to Survive
Synopsis
With 4,000 hostile troops strung along Nicaragua’s jungle borders with Honduras, John Pilger investigates this tiny nation’s right to survive.

Title
Burp! Pepsi v Coke in the Ice Cold War
Synopsis
This is the first film made by John Pilger with director Alan Lowery, a fellow Australian. It looks at the worldwide struggle for soft drink supremacy by the Coca Cola company, which illuminates the power of multinational cooporations.

Title
Flying the Flag - Arming the World
Synopsis
John Pilger and David Munro look behind the political rhetoric and discover the world of international arms dealing.

Title
Vietnam - The Quiet Mutiny

Title
Death of a Nation - The Timor Conspiracy
Synopsis
The exposure of another terrible human tragedy to which governments turned a blind eye, East Timor - a tiny country off the northern tip of Australia - is ruled by bloodshed and fear. More than 200,000 people were wiped out by neighbouring Indonesia. Since East Timor’s liberation in 1999, this film’s contribution has been recognised worldwide.

Title
Inside Burma - Land of Fear
Synopsis
John Pilger and David Munro go undercover in one of the world’s most isolated, and extraordinary countries, Burma, which Amnesty International calls ‘a prison without bars’. They discover slave labour preparing for tourism and foreign investment.

Title
Welcome to Australia
Synopsis
With the run-up to the Sydney Olympics, John Pilger and Alan Lowery take a look at what’s behind the curtain of hype and glamour. Australia’s Aborigines are still exculded, impoverished and mistreated - while their part in the brilliant history of Australia’s sports successes goes virtually unrecognized.

Title
Paying the Price - Killing the Children of Iraq
Synopsis
John Pilger and Alan Lowery travel to Iraq with Denis Halliday, a former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations who resigned over what he called the "immoral policy" of economic sanctions. There they find a suffering nation held hostage to the compliance of a dictator, Saddam Hussein, over whom they have no control

Title
Palestine is still the Issue
Synopsis
John Pilger returns to the Occupied Teritories of the West Bank and Gaza where he filmed a documentary with the same title, about the same issues, in 1974. He finds the basic problems unchanged: a desperate, destitute people whose homeland is illegally occupied by the world’s fourth biggest military power. He hears extraordinary stories from Palestinians, though most of his interviews are with Israelis whose voices are seldom heard, including the remarkable witness of a man who lost his daughter in a suicide bombing.

Title
Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror
Synopsis
This film, set in Afghanistan, Iraq and Washington, looks at President Bush’s ‘war on terror’ and the ‘liberation’ of countries where bloodshed and repression continue. In Afghanistan, Pilger investigates the claim that life has improved for the women of Iraq now that the Taliban have gone. In Washington, he interviews leading American officials, ‘neo-cons’ in the Bush regime. John Bolton, of the State Department, now the US Ambassador to the United Nations, says he regards the figure of 10,000 civilian deaths in Iraq as ‘quite low’.

Title
Stealing a Nation
Synopsis
In the 1960s and 70s, British governments, conspiring with American officials, tricked into leaving, then expelled the entire population of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean. The aim was to give the principal island of this Crown Colony, Diego Garcia, to the Americans who wanted it as a major military base. Indeed, from Diego Garcia US planes have since bombed Afghanistan and Iraq. The story is told by islanders who were dumped in the slums of Mauritius and in the words of the British officials who left a ‘paper trail’ of what the International Criminal Court now describes as ‘a crime against humanity’

Title
John Pilger at the Guardian Hay Festival 2006

Distributor

Name

Network

Email
shop@networkonair.com
Web
http://networkonair.com/ External site opens in new window
Phone
01992 657707
Address
19-20 Blythe Road
Berghem Mews
Hammersmith
London
W14 0HN
Notes
Founded in 1997, Network specialises in distributing niche television programmes, predominantly licensed from Granada Ventures and Fremantle. They have recently branched into feature film distribution. Sale via retail outlets or direct via Network’s website, which has some’web exclusive’ offers.
 

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