Atheist Cinema

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Comment by TNT666 on March 11, 2011 at 5:28am

Just viewed another great documentary: Casino Jack and the United States of Money. An excellent non-partisan investigation into the legalised bribery system called lobbying in the USA. The documentary goes over Jack Abramoff's (page worth the read if you can't see the doc!) political history from his College Republican days, to his time in prison for fraud. Abramoff had his dirty little so far up so many politicians' arses it is amazing! John McCain took great pleasure in taking his fellow GOP down as they were in opposing camps for the then coming electoral campaign. 12 people have been similarly convicted along with Abramoff, all among the highest ranked access to the presidential office, and maybe more to come. The doc ends on two very depressing commentaries on our times:

-In the year following Abramoff's fraud conviction, total lobby money spent went up by 1 billion dollars

-Under Obama, the courts decided to remove the cap on corporate contributions to electoral funds

According to most political pundits, the main drive, in addition to sheer power mongering, for more and more electoral money, is the spiralling costs of re-elections. The only way to put an end to spiralling campaign costs, and by the same token ending the need for a good deal of lobbying, would be to instigate public electoral funding, where all candidates have access to the same budget. Allowing for elections to be decided by quality of candidature instead of wealth. But this isn't about to happen. :(

Outside the financial institutions lobby, one of the other biggest lobbies is "Big Pharma", often handled by Phrma, maybe the topic of the next big documentary smack down... :)

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on December 26, 2010 at 4:34pm

Comment by TNT666 on November 14, 2010 at 2:34pm

The past couple of months, I've been dealing with a painful herniated disk and been spending most of my time watching DVDs in bed. I've been focusing a lot of my rentals on docs and fantasy, I guess because I got tired of the same old tear jerk recipe dramas... where have all the good dramas gone?? Our foreign movie selection isn't very extensive...

I just watched Burning the Future: Coal in America. Though not a feat of cinematography by any means, and suffering from from an emotion based approach instead of a fact based one (both kinds are required I guess to reach a wider market) I still like this. All I ever known about coal was its CO2 emitting filth. In the past couple of years, I'd heard a little about montain top mining, which I knew was bad for hydrological reasons, creating unstable earth and flooding. But that was my extent of understanding of coal. I did not know it was the source of more than 50% of electricity in the USA and that the burning of coal in the USA was the source of 25% of CO2 production in the world. Previous to Bush being in office, the USA had forward looking programs to embark on a journey of newer more sustainable technologies, but one of Bush's first actions in office was to trash all alternative energy production and increase coal funding. This film focuses mainly on the health problems suffered by citizens living near mountain top coal mines due to air and water poisoning. There was a fair bit of new material in here for me, but I would have like more hard facts and less tears from various affected family members. But for any given agenda, there are people who are best swayed by facts and others more susceptible to emotion. This film has a little of both.

Comment by TNT666 on November 13, 2010 at 11:15am

Sharkwater

I just rented this, it was one of the most compelling underwater documentaries I've seen, and I've seen many. This very young Canadian man embarked on a dream, to go out and create a piece of art that would make people love sharks, in order to help save them from mass slaughter simply for their fins, along his journey he got more than he bargained for. This film was done in collaboration with Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. An exciting, riveting, shark advocacy film.

Comment by TNT666 on November 11, 2010 at 7:30am

Has anyone watched Conolly's "The Man who Sued God"?

Comment by TNT666 on November 7, 2010 at 3:41am

Fabulous documentary called Bio-Dad
An exploration of the impacts of reproductive technologies on people, real people. Barry Stevens was among the first babies to come from artificial insemination. After years of searching, he has found a few dozen half siblings. In the doc he investigates the repercussions of growing up without knowing your biological background. Not thru the eyes of good/evil, but through actual questioning of the value of genealogical trees for medical histories, unbeknownst coupling among siblings and the biological consequences on of intended non-biological offspring. The ethics of selling genetic eggs and sperm, which is illegal in Canada, but unregulated in the US. Assisted reproduction is a cash crop for doctors in the US where people are willing to pay huge amounts for their own little 'accessory' to call their own. A really good piece to begin discussions on the choices we want to make in technological reproduction.

Comment by TNT666 on November 4, 2010 at 1:09am

And now, for a very short movie review, from the N.American capital of non-relgiosity in film-making: Québec.

The Wild Hunt is an exquisitely filmed low budget indie film. Tho everything about the production was French, the film itself is in English. It is a surprising exploration of the borders between fantasy and reality, between love and hate, between apathy and passion. You probably won't find it in rental shops as it's only had a small USA release in film festivals, but it should be available from the online rental franchises. The spiritual beings in this film are decidedly in the realm of fantasy. Happy viewing.

Comment by TNT666 on October 29, 2010 at 7:32pm

My next rental: South of the Border directed by Oliver Stone, released in the USA on June 25, 2010. From the box description, it is a look at the new political tendencies towards the left in S.America and how this is a good thing. That will be my next rental, has anyone watched this?

Comment by TNT666 on October 22, 2010 at 6:58pm

hey Dallas, could we have an official countdown of most atheist movies, not in their quality but in their sheer magnitude of denial ? Like an ongoing vote/list or something, I don't know if Ning has the technology for such a thing?

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on October 22, 2010 at 6:00pm

Welcome to the group, Alexandre.

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