Apr 10, 2018

37 Documentaries About War That the US Government Doesn't Want You to See

By Tim Hjersted / filmsforaction.org
100%
37 Documentaries About War That the US Government Doesn't Want You to See
Oil wells on fire during the Gulf War in Kuwait, 1991

These documentaries expose the ugly truth about war and the governments who wage them. The US government is focused on in this collection because I am based in the US, and it is every citizen's duty to call out and name the crimes of their government.

It's all too easy to decry the injustices of other countries while remaining silent when those crimes are committed by our own. But nothing good has ever come from silence when the truth is marginalized and lies are amplified.

As John Pilger says, we must break the silence. But first, we must understand the truth about war, so that we will no longer be fooled by the lies our own government tells us again and again. This kind of media literacy is vitally necessary today.

The same government that asked us to trust us with Vietnam, Iraq, and countless other conflicts, is asking us to trust them again. Let us not forget what we have already learned.


If you believe this information is important for everyone to know, please share it.

While some of us are familiar with this information, there is always a new generation that must regretfully learn about this history for the first time. This makes this collection especially useful for high school and college students.

Given a large number of people still defend and support aggressive US foreign policy (thanks largely to a complicit and compliant corporate mass media), there is still a great need for this information to reach a wider consciousness.

Even if we watched some of these films years ago and their conclusions seem obvious, we should never take for granted how many people have yet to take this journey and would benefit from learning about it now.

Even many folks that have seen some of these films and consider themselves pretty informed will likely be shocked by the history they will learn about from the ones they haven't seen yet.

The War at Home: The Untold History of Class War in the United States 104 min
104 min · "In a time when many are questioning institutional integrity across society, seeking accurate and relevant information to help make sense of our supposedly post-truth era, Noble shines a...
The War You Don't See 98 min
98 min · A powerful and timely investigation into the media’s role in war, tracing the history of embedded and independent reporting from the carnage of World War One to the destruction of...
The Power Principle: Corporate Empire and the Rise of the National Security State 264 min
264 min · "A gripping, deeply informative account of the plunder, hypocrisy, and mass violence of plutocracy and empire; insightful, historically grounded and highly relevant to the events of...
Counter-Intelligence: Shining a Light on Black Operations 360 min
360 min · "Scott Noble may have outdone himself with Counter Intelligence. The Psywar filmmaker amassed a tour de force of power elite and deep state scholars weighing in and synthesizing decades...
Oliver Stone: The Untold History Of The United States 570 min
570 min · There is a classified America we were never meant to see. From Academy Award®-winning writer/director Oliver Stone and historian Peter Kuznick, this twelve-part documentary series looks...
Israelism 84 min
84 min · When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the brutal way Israel treats Palestinians, their lives take sharp left turns. They join a movement of young...
Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade 95 min
95 min · Shadow World reveals the shocking realities of the global arms trade – the only business that counts its profits in billions and its losses in human lives.
War By Other Means 52 min
52 min · John Pilger travels to many third world countries to investigate the devastating results of loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). This film shows how many wars...
What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy 118 min
118 min · This is a powerful 10-part compilation that (in important ways) pulls aside the veil of Official myths and Lies about "freedom", "democracy", and “human rights” being the basis of U.S...
War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death 72 min
72 min · This critically acclaimed look at American war propaganda exhumes five decades of remarkable archival footage to show how presidents from both parties have relied on fear-driven...
Breaking The Silence: Truth And Lies In The War On Terror 51 min
51 min · "BREAKING THE SILENCE is a film with enormous emotional power, bringing us the human consequences of our military attacks on Middle East countries. It also provides us with important...
A Bold Peace: Costa Rica's Path of Demilitarization 90 min
90 min · 70 years ago Costa Rica abolished its army and committed itself to fostering a peaceful society. It has been reaping the benefits ever since.
The Coming War on China 110 min
110 min · John Pilger reveals what the news doesn't - that the world's greatest military power, the United States, and the world's second economic power, China, both nuclear-armed, are on the road...
Vietnam: The Quiet Mutiny 26 min
26 min · In this, the first of his 58 documentary films, John Pilger combines candid interviews and amazing frontline footage of Vietnam to portray a growing rift between the US military...
Bitter Lake 136 min
136 min · 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...
The Power of Nightmares 180 min
180 min · The Power of Nightmares is a BBC documentary 3-part film series. The films compare the rise of the Neo-Conservative movement in the United States and the radical Islamist movement...
Buying the War: How Big Media Failed Us 83 min
83 min · In 2003, the United States pre-emptively attacked Iraq in a war that would last for eight years claiming an estimated 189,000 lives, costing over $2 trillion and causing untold economic...
Cointelpro 101 56 min
56 min · COINTELPRO may not be a well-understood acronym but its meaning and continuing impact are absolutely central to understanding the government’s wars and repression against progressive...
No End in Sight 102 min
102 min · A staggering portrait of arrogance and incompetence, the documentary No End in Sight avoids the question of why the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, choosing instead to focus on the war's...
The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis 86 min
86 min · In this documentary Bill Moyers exposes the inner workings of the secret government. Though originally broadcast in 1987, it is even more relevant today. Interviews with respected, top...
Hearts and Minds 112 min
112 min · Peter Davis' landmark documentary Hearts and Minds confronts with stark frankness the United States' involvement in Vietnam and the development of its foreign policy in the 1970s. Using...
Iran (Is Not the Problem) (2008) 79 min
79 min · IRAN (Is Not The Problem) is a feature length documentary film responding to the failure of the American mass media to provide the public with relevant and accurate information about the...
Enemy Image 92 min
92 min · When Baghdad exploded under bombs, television chose to bring us fireworks. But does this distant and spectacular image tell us what is really happening on the ground, how it feels or...
Rethink Afghanistan 65 min
65 min · Rethink Afghanistan is a ground-breaking, full-length documentary focusing on the key issues surrounding this war. We hope to raise critical questions regarding Afghanistan that Congress...
The Israeli Lobby 50 min
50 min · Is the pro-Israel lobby so strong, financially and politically, that the U.S. relationship with Israel is taboo and therefore unmentionable? And what happens to those who dare expose the...
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire 76 min
76 min · Hijacking Catastrophe places the Bush Administration's original justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neo-conservatives to dramatically...
Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers 76 min
76 min · This is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.
Gaza Fights For Freedom 84 min
84 min · This debut feature film by journalist Abby Martin is a documentary about the historic nonviolent Great March Of Return protests, which occurred every week from March 2018 until December...
Blood and Oil 52 min
52 min · Blood and Oil offers a riveting look at how U.S. efforts to control the global flow of fossil fuels has led to endless war, alliances with authoritarian regimes like Saudi Arabia, and...
Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives: The Environmental Footprint of War 58 min
58 min · Using on-site and archival footage to illustrate specialist and eyewitness accounts from around the world, "Scarred Lands & Wounded Lives" shows how war and preparations for war further...
Soldiers of the Vine: Healing War Trauma with Plant Medicine 65 min
65 min · In May of 2016, six American Veterans with PTSD went to the Amazon in search of healing. What they found was another war...for the soul of humanity.
The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel's Public Relations War in the United States 85 min
85 min · Over the past few years, Israel's ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territory and repeated invasions of the Gaza strip have triggered a fierce backlash against Israeli policies...
Israel’s Reel Extremism 40 min
40 min · Critics have called this original Zeteo documentary a ‘gut-punching’, ‘extraordinary investigation’ that you must watch to truly ‘see Israel’.
Afghanistan War Exposed: An Imperial Conspiracy 37 min
37 min · Abby Martin covers the whole truth about the Afghanistan War, from the CIA construct of the 80's through 2020's senseless stalemate. Two decades, three administrations, tens of thousands...
Peace, Propaganda, & The Promised Land: US Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 80 min
80 min · Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions...
The Night Won’t End: Biden’s War on Gaza 79 min
79 min · From air strikes to field executions, Fault Lines investigates the killings of civilians by the Israeli military in Gaza and the role of the United States in the war.
The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Tests Military Tech on Palestinians 96 min
96 min · Uncovering how Israel profits from surveillance technologies using occupied Palestinian territories as a testing ground.

These documentaries are all mostly free to watch online.

A few cost a few dollars to rent.

Suggest other films to add to this list via our contact page.

This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Human Rights   Politics   War & Peace
War & Peace
Recently Added
Abolish the Prison Industrial Complex. Invest in Alternatives.
Patron Documentaries
Subscribe for $5/mo to watch over 50 patron-exclusive films
Trending Videos Explore All
Trending Articles Explore All
Documentaries by Peter Charles Downey
Our mission is to support the people and movements creating a more free, regenerative and democratic society. 



Subscribe for $5/mo to support us and watch over 50 patron-exclusive documentaries.

Share this: