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Watch films. Read independent news. Take action.
Democracy Now! is a daily independent newshour broadcasting on over 500 radio and television channels. This video displays the most recent episode of Democracy Now!
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We passed the four hundredth video added to the site over the weekend, making it one of the largest and highest quality collections of activist-related videos available across the web. In addition to over one hundred documentaries, which we know other sites specialize in, we also feature a wide variety of short films, PSAs, presentations, and shorter tv and video clips - all selected to inspire action on the issues covered.
We'd like to thank everyone who has supported us so far. We've got many great plans in store! ..including a massive revamp of the site, and some new tools to help fellow film screening activists across the country get alternative information out into their communities.... all which we're excited to announce more details about soon. Until then we hope you continue to enjoy watching all of the great films here, and use them in your community to inspire action and enthusiasm for affecting radical change.
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The most memorable reporting I've encountered on the conflict in Iraq was delivered in the form of confetti exploding out of a cardboard tube. I had just begun working at the MIT Media Lab in March 2006 when Alyssa Wright, a lab student, got me to participate in a project called "Cherry Blossoms." I strapped on a backpack with a pair of vertical tubes sticking out of the top; they were connected to a detonation device linked to a Global Positioning System receiver. A microprocessor in the backpack contained a program that mapped the coördinates of the city of Baghdad onto those for the city of Cambridge; it also held a database of the locations of all the civilian deaths of 2005. If I went into a part of Cambridge that corresponded to a place in Iraq where civilians had died in a bombing, the detonator was triggered.
When the backpack exploded on a clear, crisp afternoon at the Media Lab, handfuls of confetti shot out of the cardboard tubes into the air, then fell slowly to earth. On each streamer of paper was written the name of an Iraqi civilian casualty. I had reported on the war (although not from Baghdad) since 2003 and was aware of persistent controversy over the numbers of Iraqi civilian dead as reported by the U.S. government and by other sources. But it wasn't until the moment of this fake explosion that the scale and horrible suddenness of the slaughter in Baghdad became vivid and tangible to me. Alyssa described her project as an upgrade to traditional journalism. "The upgrade is empathy," she said, with the severe humility that comes when you suspect you are on to something but are still uncertain you aren't being ridiculous in some way.
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I came across an article a few days ago written by John Hockenberry, an award-winning journalist who once worked for NBC’s Dateline and is now a fellow at MIT’s Media Lab. Titled “You Don’t Understand Our Audience”: What I learned about network television at Dateline NBC, this article is a relentless, burning indictment of everything that’s wrong with the mainstream media today. In a future era, when historians look back on our time and ask how so many people could have been deceived into supporting the disastrous, nightmarish war in Iraq and ignoring so many other pressing issues, Hockenberry’s article will be Exhibit A.
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Fourteen minute video featuring straight talk from veterans and their family members telling what is missing from the sales pitches presented by recruiters and the military's marketing efforts.
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CIA director Leon Panetta told the New Yorker: "When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point." News commentator Ed Schultz said today that Cheney is wishing for a terrorist attack on the U.S.
What should we make of all this? Well, everyone knows that Cheney is ruthless: Cheney is the guy who pushed for torture, pressured the Justice Department lawyers to write memos saying torture was legal, and made the pitch to Congress justifying torture. The former director of the CIA accused Cheney of overseeing American torture policies. Cheney is also the guy who:
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The Senate Commerce Committee appears to be poised to confirm Julius Genachowski, President Barack Obama's choice to head the Federal Communications Commission.
In a hearing that lasted around 90 minutes Tuesday afternoon, Democrat and Republican lawmakers praised Genachowski, with committee chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) going so far as to say he was "thoroughly impressed" with the nominee.
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Deconstructionist philosopher Avital Ronell teaches that a few generations ago European travelers in the Swiss Alps found the sight of the mountain peaks so overwhelming that they equipped their carriages with special screens to block their view. They looked through tinted glasses to mediate the experience of raw nature. Today, standing in the Alps or outside our home, we no longer rely on colored glasses. Instead, we use digital cameras, cell phones and movie players to filter our experience. And we have become so accustomed to the view that we prefer pixels to sublime reality … we are addicted to the screens we use to dampen the rawness of life.
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Montana Senator Max Baucus, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is the Senate’s point man on healthcare reform. A new article in the Montana Standard finds that Senator Baucus has received more campaign money from health and insurance industry interests than any other member of Congress.
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It may not be as exciting as the Thrilla in Manila, but its outcome will have far more impact on the lives of tens of millions of families across the country. The story is straightforward. President Obama had stepped up to challenge the insurance industry in order to reform the health care system in the United States.
Specifically, he is proposing to create a public health insurance plan, like Medicare, that people would have the option to buy into. Ideally, this would ensure that everyone had a good health insurance option available to them and provide real competition to the existing private plans.
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If the reports coming out of Tehran about an electoral coup are sustained, then Iran has entered an entirely new phase of its post-revolution history. One characteristic that has always distinguished Iran from the crude dictators in much of the rest of the Middle East was its respect for the voice of the people, even when that voice was saying things that much of the leadership did not want to hear.
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>> Visit the Films for Action Blog
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Film of the Day
Maxed Out
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Maxed Out takes us on a journey deep inside the American debt-cycle, where everything seems okay as long as the minimum monthly payment arrives on time. Sure, most of us may have that sinking feeling that something isn't quite right, but we're told not to worry. After all, there's always more credit! Maxed Out shows how the financial industry...
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What People Are Watching Right Now
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Directed by Jonas Cuaron. Alfonso Cuarón, director of "Children of Men", and Naomi Klein, author of "No Logo", present a short film from Klein's book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster...
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10 min. ago
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In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent...
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15 min. ago
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Writer-director Curtis Johnson seems to view compassionately the young militants who make up the loose network of public speakers, protest organizers, and lab-animal liberators the U.S...
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20 min. ago
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What do beer cans, car tires and water bottles have in common? Not much unless you're renegade architect Michael Reynolds, in which case they are tools of choice for producing thermal mass and...
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21 min. ago
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Paul Stamets: 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World
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Mycologist Paul Stamets breaks down many of the discoveries he's made studying mycelium -- and lists 6 ways that this astonishing fungus can help save the world.
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22 min. ago
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Food Inc.
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In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent...
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Government of Occupation
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Is it the end? END:CIV is a film that examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and...
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Democracy Now! (Latest Episode)
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Democracy Now! is a daily independent newshour broadcasting on over 500 radio and television channels. For more information, including complete transcripts of their shows, click on the website...
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Learn about Clear Cuts
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This rough cut features Qwatsinas of the Nuxalk Nation who inhabit the central coast of British Columbia, Zoe Blunt from the Forest Action Network, and Derrick Jensen, author of Endgame. I...
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Right America: Feeling Wronged
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On the day Barack Obama was elected the 44th President, more than 58 million voters cast their ballots for John McCain. In the months leading up to this historic election, filmmaker Alexandra...
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The Good Life
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Watch New York Times bestselling author Mark Albion's 3-minute animated movie Based on Mark's book, More Than Money. "The Good Life" takes you to a chance meeting between an MBA and a...
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Corporations on Trial: A Case of Global Proportions
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Steve Susman alleges it is "one of the largest conspiracies in the world," and as a result the lawyer has filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil and 23 other energy companies.
The...
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Before You Enlist!
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Before You Enlist! provides a rational voice to counter the seductive and often deceptive recruiting practices of the U.S. military. The message is not "don't enlist" but rather to provide...
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Meat The Truth
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Although many films have convincingly succeeded in drawing public attention to the issue of global warming, they have repeatedly ignored one of the most important causes of climate change,...
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Dear Oprah: Non-Voting America's Wildest Dream
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More than a hundred million Americans don’t vote. Even when they're electing their president and, with that, the most powerful political leader in the world. A year before the presidential...
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The Zeitgeist Movement: Orientation Presentation
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The Zeitgeist Movement is not a political movement. It does not recognize nations, governments, races, religions, creeds or class. Our understandings conclude that these are false, outdated...
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Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11
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Just days after September 11, 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency assured the public that there should be no concern about any health hazards associated with exposure to smoke and debris...
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View more Online Films >>
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What's this site all about? Films For Action is a non-profit group and website based in Lawrence, KS featuring an extensive collection of the best indy-media documentaries and videos you can watch free online. We posts videos and articles regularly on a wide variety of activist issues, with an emphasis on ideas, information, and perspectives not covered by the mainstream media. We've cataloged over 400 videos from across the internet, which you can explore below. Let us know through our contact page whenever you find a new film you think we should add.
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