Punishment Park (1971) Director: Peter Watkins Actors: Patrick Boland, Kent Foreman, Carmen Argenziano Runtime: 88 min Punishment Park is a dystopia (reverse utopia) in which US President Richard Nixon declares a state of emergency, suspends all civil rights, the police arrests thousands of people and deliverers them to military tribunals which are adjudicating with no …
Citizenfour (2014) Director: Laura Poitras Actors: Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald Runtime: 114 min “We are building the biggest weapon for oppression in the history of mankind.” Edward Snowden In January of 2013 documentary film director and producer Laura Poitras received an encrypted e-mail from a stranger who called himself Citizen Four, who offered to provide …
Das Experiment (2001) Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel Actors: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel, Oliver Stokowski Runtime: 114 min Exceptionally tense and dynamic movie that will literally keep you on the edge of your seat. Although it isn’t mentioned at any point, the film is largely based on actual events – in the summer of 1971 at Stanford …
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Director: Stanley Kubrick Actors: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden Runtime: 95 min Hilarious and very intelligent (also terrifying at the time it was made) Cold War black comedy that completely reveals insanity and absurdity of the Cold War paradigms. …
The Stanford Prison Experiment Runtime: 29 min In the summer of 1971 at Stanford University professor Philip Zimbardo set an experiment in which the basement of the Department of Psychology was converted into prison and the group of 24 volunteers was randomly divided into guards and prisoners. This research, whose goal was exploring the social …
All the President’s Men (1976) Director: Alan J. Pakula Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford Runtime: 138 min During the U.S. presidential campaign of 1972, Washington Post reporters Karl Bernstin and Bob Woodward investigated the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. An anonymous source from the FBI, …
Medium Cool (1969) Director: Haskell Wexler Actors: Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz Runtime: 111 min A realistic movie centered around a TV cameraman and his relationship with a single working class mother, made in the social atmosphere of a mass political awakening and loss of trust in the legitimacy of the system. The focus …
Catch-22 (1970) Director: Mike Nichols Actors: Alan Arkin, Art Garfunkel, Richard Benjamin Runtime: 122 min This anti-war comedy of the absurd attempts to show the defeat of the rational mind in the face of the madness of war. A squadron of U.S. B-25 bombers is deployed on a small Mediterranean island near Italy. The commander …
Enemy of the State (1998) Director: Tony Scott Actors: Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight Runtime: 126 min Although it is a blockbuster thriller with a Hollywood happy ending, this is also one of the first movies to realistically deal with modern high-tech surveillance and the state offensive against personal privacy, which has in recent …
Syriana (2005) Director: Stephen Gaghan Actors: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright Runtime: 128 min A movie about the impact of the oil industry and petroleum politics on the Middle East, but also on world politics. Syriana is a term used by Washington think-tanks to describe a hypothetical re-shaping of the Middle East. The structure …
