Inside the secret CIA drone war. Intimate stories from the war on terror. People living under drones in Pakistan and drone pilots struggling with killing through joysticks in the US.
The film covers diverse and integral ground from the recruitment of young pilots at gaming conventions and the re-definition of “going to war”, to the moral stance of engineers behind the technology, the world leaders giving the secret “green light” to engage in the biggest targeted killing program in history, and the people willing to stand up against the violations of civil liberties and fight for transparency, accountability and justice.
This is just the beginning. In the midst of fast advancement of technology and lagging international legislation the film shows how drones change wars and possibly our future.
http://www.dronethedocumentary.com/
Brankica Stankovic is the editor and journalist on one of the most well-known documentary programs, the “Insider” on the TV-station B92
For five years she has been under constant police protection because she does her job as a critical investigative journalist. She refuses to bow to threats from assassins, ultra-nationalists, neo-Nazis and criminal networks based in hooligan movements.
Brankica Stankovic and her colleagues have also investigated the mafia in the construction industry, dubious real estate and money laundering in overseas tax havens.
Since 2009, when the program "Insider", brought several programs about how hooligans from the ultra-nationalist football clubs Partizan and Red Star also had numerous convictions for assault, vandalism, extortion and murder, Brankica Stankovic have been protected by special forces from the Serbian anti-terrorist corps.
Around the clock, there are heavily armed police around her and her young daughter, Sara.
Written and directed by Tom Heinemann
Produced by Borgen & Heinemann (2015)
Editor in chief, Jose Ruben Zamora owns the newspaper El Periodico in Guatemala. The media exposes cocaine cartels and the country's political corruption. He is threatened on his life and has been kidnapped. He had to send his three sons in exile in the United States.
But Jose Ruben Zamora refuses to remain silent.
Written and directed by Erling Borgen
Ten-year-old Yula, has but one dream—to escape the largest garbage dump in Europe and lead a normal life.
For 14 years, Oscar-nominated director Hanna Polak follows Yula as she grows up in the forbidden territory of Svalka, the largest garbage dump in Europe, 13 miles from the Kremlin in Putin’s Russia.
SOMETHING BETTER TO COME is Yula’s story and is a dramatic cinema vérité story about coming of age -- and maturing to the point of taking destiny into one’s own hands.
It is a universal story of hope, courage, and life.
Following the discovery of oil in 2010, Ghana is on the road to becoming one of Africa's more economically successful countries. But it is not quite there yet and still ranks 138th out of 187 countries in the 2014 Human Development Index.
According to the World Food Programme (WFP), four out of 10 children under the age of five in northern Ghana are chronically malnourished, meaning they will not be able to meet their full growth potential. Some of them, to put it even more starkly, will die for lack of food.
This is why Ghana still receives tens of millions of dollars' worth of food aid from the international community.
But while these annual donations, from the WFP and others, are carefully calculated to provide sustenance to all those in dire need, somehow they never prove to be enough.
The food arrives in bulk at government-run distribution centres and then quickly runs out. So what happens to all the food that is donated?
Ghanaian journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas´ undercover investigation reveals how officials of the Ghanaian Health Service – some of the very people tasked with distributing aid to starving children - are stealing and selling it for their own gain.
Armed with the evidence, Anas then joins forces with the Ghanaian police and together they plot a sophisticated sting to catch the crooks in the act.
For 14 years, Oscar and Emmy nominated filmmaker Hanna Polak has been tracking homeless children in Moscow.
The result is the award-winning “Something Better to Come,” a documentary that shows us life on Europe´s largest garbage dump. An illegal place to visit, run by the mafia, where you could get killed by wild dogs or run over by heavy machinery, but where hope nonetheless lingers.
Through her experiences with this highly unusual project, Hanna will talk about the process of developing a story and developing the hypothesis to prove it. She also address how to finance a long-term project and deal with situations when people formally don`t exist.
ASSIGNMENT CHINA: FOLLOW THE MONEY (55 minutes)
Presented by Mike Chinoy, USC US-China Institute
In many decades of Western news coverage of China, 2012 was a watershed moment. In the space of just a few months, a Bloomberg News team headed by correspondent Michael Forsythe publishing a sweeping expose of how relatives of China’s new leader, Xi Jinping, has earned vast fortunes in a variety of often disguised business deals. Soon after, David Barboza of the New York Times published his own revelations of the wealth accumulated by the relatives of Chinese premier Wen Jiabao.
Both stories broke new ground, not only in terms of what they revealed about China’s new rich, but also as examples of a new kind of investigative journalism that has become increasingly important for covering a rapidly changing China. The correspondents took advantage of China’s evolution towards a more open, internationally engaged, market-style economy to unravel a series of complex, opaque, often hidden set of business dealings reaching to the highest levels in the People’s Republic.
The behind-the-scenes story of the journalists who conducted the investigations -- and faced the dramatic, controversial, and often frightening consequences -- is the subject of “Follow the Money.” Based on extensive interviews with most of the leading figures involved, the film chronicles the emergence of a new kind of journalism that will become increasingly crucial as reporters -- and the public at large -- seek to understand the dynamics of a new, wealthy, and increasingly powerful China.
“Follow the Money” is the final episode of Assignment China, a 12-part series chronicling the history of American correspondents in China from the 1940s to the present day produced by the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California. The lead reporter is Mike Chinoy, a senior fellow at the Institute and former CNN Beijing bureau chief and senior asia correspondent.
http://indiasdaughter.com/home/
When the news of the ‘India’s Daughter’ (Jyoti Singh) gang-rape hit our TV screens around the world in mid December 2012, I was as shocked and upset as we all are when faced with such brazen abandon of the norms of ‘civilised’ society. I knew that violent and brutal rapes happen all the over the world with horrifying and relentless frequency.
What moved and compelled me to commit to the harrowing and difficult journey of making this film was not so much the horror of this rape, but the optimism occasioned by the events that followed the rape – the reports of protesters, in unprecedented numbers, braving the December freeze for over a month, in response to this heinous crime. It was the ordinary men and women of India who withstood the onslaught of tear gas shells, lathi charges, and water cannons, to make their cry of ‘enough is enough’ heard with such extraordinary forbearance, commitment and passion, that inspired me to action. This was an ‘Arab spring for Gender Equality”, and it occurred to me that in my lifetime I had never witnessed any other country make such a stand for ‘me’, for my rights as a woman. I felt compelled to bend my skills, my energies and whatever talents I may have in my field of work (film-making) to amplify those determined and hopeful voices who cried “enough is enough”.
When we look at the worldwide statistics of rape and violence against women in general, India comes off pretty badly. But I think it is important to bear in mind that this is by no means an India-centric problem. Far from it. Patriarchy, discrimination against, and devaluation of women is rife the world over. The statistics which roll at the end of the film bear witness to that. In my own country, the UK, 33% – that’s 1 in 3 – young girls aged between 13 and 17 have experienced sexual violence. One woman in 5, globally, will be raped or be a victim of attempted rape, and 1 in 3, globally, is beaten, forced into sex, or abused. I have been raped.
One of the more startling aspects of “INDIA’s DAUGHTER” is an unprecedented confession in custody from one of the rapists in this case. We filmed him in Tihar Jail, Delhi, after his conviction. This interview has afforded crucial insight into the mindset of the men who committed the rape, and presents a wider in-depth exploration of the patriarchal society and culture which seeds and encourages violence against women. With understanding comes the possibility of change.
What chilled and depressed me most of all through the time I spent making the film, was the realisation when I met the rapists in prison, that these were ordinary, apparently normal and ‘unremarkable’ men. The horrifying details of the rape – the pulling out of Jyoti’s intestines with bare hands -- had led me to expect deranged monsters. It would be easier to process this heinous crime, if they were monsters, the ‘rotten apples in the barrel’, aberrant in nature. Perhaps then, those of us who believe that capital punishment serves a purpose, and I am not amongst them, could wring their hands in relief when they are hanged. For me the truth couldn’t be further from this – and perhaps their hanging will even mask the real problem, which is that it is society itself and our shared culture when it comes to attitudes to women, that is responsible for these men and for their actions.
An equally chilling and shocking aspect of the film lies in the contribution to it by the defence lawyers, so called ‘educated’ men. It is this, even more than the horrifying lack of remorse and self-justification of the rapists, that confounds viewers and makes them utterly furious. ML Sharma: “We have the best culture. In our culture there is no place for a woman”. AP Singh (the other defence lawyer in the case): “If my daughter indulged in pre-marital relations, I would take her to my farmhouse and in front of my whole family, I would pour petrol on her and burn her alive”.
Jyoti herself, who fought tooth and nail to afford her further education, was determined to work towards changing her society’s attitudes to girls and women. Her motto, according to her closest friends was: “Don’t think you are a ‘girl’: what a boy can do, we can do!” and she’d often express her conviction that the biggest problem in India was ‘mentality’ – that people have fixed and stereotyped notions about the differences between girls and boys, which limit girls lives and infringe their rights. Tragically, it was the very values and attitudes that she decried, and strived against in whatever way she could, which destroyed her. This film pays tribute to her remarkable and inspiring short life, and it looks through the specifics of this case to shine a bright light on what fuels rape and violence against women.
If anything positive can be said to have come out of the horror of this event, it is the awakening amongst women and men alike in India and the world to the issue of violence against women. This particular gang rape has been a huge turning point. The case has been a catalyst for change, and the protesters forced government to at least introduce some immediate measures in response to their call. Not enough, but a start. Ultimately, the film is optimistic – as Leila Seth says towards the end of the film: “These things will change. It’s only a question of how hard we push”. The massive public response to the incident bears witness to an attitudinal change on the horizon, a resetting of the moral compass.
All of us who care about those who bear us and who are (or should be) half our world, should stand up now with courage and commitment and demand this long overdue change. I hope with all my heart that this film will prove to be the powerful tool for change I meant it to be. And for this, we need you. Please join hands with our campaign and lend your energies, ideas, and voice to support this push for change.
Mojo Masterclass – As journalism becomes increasingly competitive, mainstream or community journalists need a broader digital storytelling skillset.
They especially need to know how to mojo – to use smart devices to create user generated stories (UGS).
The Smartmojo 101 Guerrilla Workshop is a three-hour fast track introduction to mobile journalism. Participants will learn how to shoot a basic sequence, use natural light, receive tips on recording clean audio, and learn how to edit this into a short UGS—all on their iPhone.
This is a practical mojo workshop and you’ll need an iPhone loaded with the iMovie app.
Go Mojo!
When we look at the worldwide statistics of rape and violence against women in general, needless to say India comes off pretty badly. But I think it is important to bear in mind that this is by no means an India-centric problem. Far from it. Patriarchy, discrimination against, and devaluation of women is rife the world over. The statistics which roll at the end of the film bear witness to that. In my own country, the UK, 33% – that’s 1 in 3 – young girls aged between 13 and 17 have experienced sexual violence. One woman in 5, globally, will be raped or be a victim of attempted rape, and 1 in 3, globally, is beaten, forced into sex, or abused. I have been raped.
One of the more startling aspects of “INDIA’s DAUGHTER” is an unprecedented confession in custody from one of the rapists in this case. We filmed him in Tihar Jail, Delhi, after his conviction. This interview has afforded crucial insight into the mindset of the men who committed the rape, and presents a wider in-depth exploration of the patriarchal society and culture which seeds and encourages violence against women. With understanding comes the possibility of change.