Years of the Eagle

The Village Detective: A Song Cycle

April 2021 •English

Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Iceland, July 9, 2016. The surprising discovery of a canister —containing four reels of The Village Detective (Деревенский детектив), a 1969 Soviet film—, caught in the nets of an Icelandic trawler, is the first step in a fascinating journey through the artistic life of film and stage actor Mikhail Ivanovich Zharov (1899-1981), icon and star of an entire era of Russian cinema.

Animated Soviet Propaganda

June 1997 •Russian

A landmark four disc Box Set - Unearthed from Moscow's legendary Soyuzmultfilm Studios, the 41 films in ANIMATED SOVIET PROPAGANDA span sixty years of Soviet history (1924 - 1984), and have never been available before in the U.S.

Victory in the West

May 1941 •German

A Nazi propaganda film about the lead up to World War II and Germany's success on the Western Front. Utilizes newsreel footage of battles and fell into disfavour with propaganda minister Goebbels because of it's lack of emphasis on Adolf Hitler.

John Huston War Stories

September 1999 •English

During World War II, the propaganda engine of the U.S. government made a pivotal decision with unforeseeable results: they tapped John Huston to shoot war documentaries with an expressly patriotic spin. Few could guess the degree to which Huston's documentaries would depict the sheer brutality and horror of modern warfare - particularly his Let There Be Light and The Battle of San Pietro. The films served (by default) as cinematic protests, even as they graced new and brilliant heights within the scope of American documentary. (Indeed, Light was banned by the government for 35 years). Midge Mackenzie's 1998 documentary John Huston: War Stories explores this little known facet of Huston's career, intercutting clips from the various documentaries with a Huston interview shot just prior to his death.

Cinecittà, de Mussolini à la Dolce Vita

May 2021 •French

Cinecitta is today known as the center of the Italian film industry. But there is a dark past. The film city was solemnly inaugurated in 1937 by Mussolini. Here, propaganda films would be produced to strengthen the dictator's position.

Panodrama

February 2019 •English

Tommy Robinson goes on the offensive by documenting how his own “hit piece” on his character was being constructed by the taxpayer-funded BBC for their popular investigative news special “Panorama.” In the film he manages to capture footage of the blackmailing of his former employees to invent stories, along with an organization—known as “Hope not Hate”—on set with the BBC, intimidating ex-employees of Robinson during interviews. The host of “Panorama” at the time of filming is caught on camera casually using racist and homophobic slurs during a £220 champagne lunch with the same ex-employee they had planned to coach for a fake interview in which the BBC would possibly edit in which to make it appear as, “a gender, a sexual thing against Tommy Robinson,” according to the host. Within 24 hours of releasing the film, social media giant Facebook made a public statement of their own and removed Tommy Robinson’s accounts permanently.

¿Por qué morir en Madrid?

May 1966 •Spanish

Left Behind

January 1994 •English

Leading biblical scholars and religious experts discuss the implications of the Rapture, when prophecies predict that Jesus Christ will return to Earth and his true believers will be transported to meet him.

Lenin and the Other Story of the Russian Revolution

June 2018 •French

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, is remembered as the instigator of the October Revolution of 1917 and, therefore, as one of the men who changed the shape of the world at that time and forever, but perhaps the actual events happened in a way different from that narrated in the history books…

The Choice - The Risks of Web Democracy

June 2018 •Italian

Italy’s biggest political party, the Five Star Movement, promotes direct democracy through internet voting. Five Star Movement uses a digital platform named Rousseau, that allows Movement’s members to vote online and express their opinion on various issues. But who governs this data?

A Hero's Death

August 2001 •German

It was the biggest escape in the history of the Berlin Wall: in one historic night of October 1964, 57 East-Berliners try their luck through a tunnel into West Berlin. Just before the last few reach the other side, the East German border guards notice the escape and open fire. Remarkably, all the refugees and their escape agents make it out of the tunnel unscathed, but one border guard is dead: 21-year-old officer Egon Schultz.

Land Without Bread

December 1933 •Spanish

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time.

Railway Station

January 1980 •Polish

Kieslowski’s later film Dworzec (Station, 1980) portrays the atmosphere at Central Station in Warsaw after the rush hour.

Victory Through Air Power

July 1943 •English

Based on the book by Major Alexander de Seversky's about his theories of the practical uses of long range strategic bombing. Using a combination of animation humorously telling about the development of air warfare, the film shows de Seversky illustrating his ideas of how air power could win World War II for the Allies.

Brink of Disaster!

January 1972 •English

A student is held up in the library while a riot rages outside. As SDS protesters head to burn the library down, he has to fend them off with his baseball bat. This film opens with actual footage of civil disturbances in the 1960s, and moves on to images of historical American figures.

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media

November 1992 •English

A film about the noted American linguist/political dissident and his warning about corporate media's role in modern propaganda.

Cultural Marxism: The Corruption of America

June 2010 •English

A love affair with collectivist ideologies has lead to ever bigger government and the welfare-warfare state. Lead by a Marxist splinter group called the "Frankfurt School" -- "the long march through the institutions" has infiltrated every corner of Western culture to corrupt traditional Christian values with "political correctness," another name for "cultural Marxism." The ultimate goal of cultural Marxism is to first destroy American free-enterprise capitalism by undermining its economic engine, the Middle Class and this will lead -- they hope -- to the destruction of the basic building block of society: the Family Unit.

Triumph of the Will

March 1935 •German

A showcase of German chancellor and Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally.

The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl

September 1993 •German

This documentary recounts the life and work of one of most famous, and yet reviled, German film directors in history, Leni Riefenstahl. The film recounts the rise of her career from a dancer, to a movie actor to the most important film director in Nazi Germany who directed such famous propaganda films as Triumph of the Will and Olympiad. The film also explores her later activities after Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945 and her disgrace for being so associated with it which includes her amazingly active life over the age of 90.

WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception

December 2004 •English

There were two wars in Iraq--a military assault and a media war. The former was well-covered; the latter was not. Until now... Independent filmmaker, Emmy-award winningTV journalist, author and media critic, Danny Schechter turns the cameras on the role of the media. His new film, WMD, is an outspoken assessment of how Pentagon propaganda and media complicity misled the American people...