Showing documentaries as part of a teach-in?

[jjthoma]

I have no idea what the legalities of this are so it may not be possible, but I think if Occupy Chicago were able to secure a location to show documentaries such as "Inside Job" or "Hot Coffee" that are extremely educational and relate directly to why financial reform is needed, it would be beneficial. I learned a lot from both of these documentaries and feel a lot more comfortable sharing my opinion and my stance because of them. I think this information would give occupiers more confidence when discussing issues with those who may not support or be aware of the occupy movement yet.

Just my 2 cents! Thank you everyone here SO much for all that you are doing. It gives me hope for our country to see so many people fighting for a cause they believe so strongly about.

[hclasalle]

Great idea: no need to reinvent the wheel. There needs to be more education out there about these issues before solutions can be implemented, and there are many documentaries out there (like 'the Corporation') that very eloquently articulate arguments for our struggle.

"A Beautiful truth" is a documentary I saw, it's streamable on netflix, it deals with the cancer industry and helps to understand the detrimental effects of capitalism on our public health crisis, it depicts how the cancer industry perpetuates our disease and is a great documentary in defense of NON-PROFIT HEALTH CARE, which is how it should be.

For-profit health care is completely dehumanizing ... and after the oil industry, big pharma is the second industry that sends the most lobbyists to DC, which should help to explain how one of every two Americans will die from cancer and how people in Japan live about ten years more than we do. We think it's normal for Americans to be this sick, it's not.

In order to easily understand the distortion of our values by capitalism, ponder that at huge percentage of our GDP is from 'health care'. It's a huge money making machine: but this does not represent our true welfare. It's just like 'financial services' taking up a huge portion of our GDP. GDP does not measure the wellbeing of Americans. Very few benefit from these high 'productivity' numbers, they truly represent that Americans are sick and in debt.

I think every discussion of public health, or insurance, or health care should include an open, transparent, public discussion of 'A Beautiful Truth'. It's a very powerful documentary.

There isn't a comparable documentary on the AIDS industry but the discussion could be generalized to include patents for HIV drugs and how affordable care has been time and again denied by Big Pharma to people in Africa. Patent (intellectual property) laws have been used to keep people dying without medicines: to the corporatist and capitalist 'Doctors' getting paid for these meds is more important than saving human lives. This is a huge distortion of our values, and of the professional ethics that the medical field (I choose not to use the word 'industry') should aspire to live by.

[Fred]

The money masters was released in 1996, but excellent in that it proves even then smart people were noticing central banking was rooted back from ancient time plaguing the people all this time. I know every time the central banks are gone, prosperity follows. I hate to use Hitler, but look at how he took Germany from WW1 to WW2 and they had the mightiest military in the world, paid back all it's debts, the mark went from 4.28 to 430 while the dollar stayed a dollar. The people were more prosperous then ever. Hitler killed the central banks and prospered, yet no one asks the question where did very poor and suffering Germany get the money from. I actually learned about the economy from Germany in my University history class and have been hungry from economic history since.

[redsquid2]

"The Warning" - a PBS documentary, is about a government employee named Brooksley Born. She was Chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the late 90's. She warned Congress repeatedly that derivative swaps were not properly regulated. Senators and Congressmen and Alan Greenspan repeatedly told her that her ideas were crazy.

If I'm not mistaken, derivative swaps purchased on credit were a big factor in the financial collapse.

13 years after Ms. Born's warning, are derivative swaps properly regulated? Has anything changed?

At least Alan Greenspan has admitted he was wrong about this. However, many of Brooksley Born's detractors have not.

[jmixi]

What about showing the documentaries as part of a weekly film series, followed by discussion, etc.?

Does anyone have a projector and screen that could be used for this (unfortunately I recently got rid of mine)? Also, a space. A lot of the branch libraries have public meeting rooms, perhaps one of those could be used. I think all you have to do is call the library, reserve the date/time for the room, and the only stipulation is that the event must be open to the public. Which, as Occupy Chicago, it totally would be. Other ideas for space?

[sheryl]

Good thought on the library space.

Margin Call. Not a documentary. An interesting story of people and financial meltdown, on Wall Street, 2008.

Currently showing in theaters and on demand with cable. Interesting to me that it has been made so available. This film should have some free public showings in it's future.

[sheryl]

P.S. What a great thread. Lots of good resources mentioned. "Inside Job" was shown maybe a month or so ago at one of the colleges. Sorry I missed it then.

[redsquid2]

"Manufacturing consent." It is based on a book by Noam Chomsky, titled, "Manufacturing consent: the political economy of the mass media."

Per Wikipedia, this film shows how corporate media tend to serve the interests of dominant elites.

[cainec1]

a weekly series with a discussion following it would be a great way to build momentum and bring in new people.

[StudiesReports]

The Money Masters
The Corporation
The End of Suburbia
Freedom To Fascism (Aaron Russo)
Money As Debt