Last-Studio varia-documentary

"A Compassionate Spy" ( 2022 ) Director: Steve James The incredible story of Manhattan Project scientist Ted Hall, who shared classified nuclear secrets with Russia. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21376858/ _ _ _ "Fascinating and disturbing" This film gives us a very deep look at why people betray their country's secrets. While some do it for money or ego or because they are compromised, it is obvious that Ted Hall did it for ideological reasons. While working on the atomic bomb for the US, Hall becomes convinced that this weapon is too powerful for one nation to have sole possession of. A communist, he shares crucial secrets with the Soviet Union, our ally during WW2. Much later, as the crimes of Stalin come out and the Rosenbergs are convicted for betraying less important secrets, he wavers but, to protect his family, never does confess to the FBI. He goes on to make vital contributions to cancer treatment and other areas of science while his brother designs the US missles that deliver the nuclear weapons intended to be used against Russia in the Cold War. This documentary not only gives us new insights into the Manhattan Project and subsequent nuclear proliferation but also into a man who substantially changed history by accelerating the Soviets' development of atomic weapons. Hall seems mostly unrepentant and his widow exuberantly so. The viewer is left to decide whether what he did was heroic but misguided or whether it was simply blatant treason. Given the current state of the world, the whole question of whether anyone should have developed a weapon no one should ever use leaves the viewer profoundly disquieted. IMDb user commentary review _ _ _

"The Everlasting Present - Ukraine: 30 Years of InDependence" (2021) Director: Igor Lopatonok Ukraine is a country that was unknown to most citizens of the United States, but it was always known to the political establishment of the USA. But since February 22, 2014, Ukraine quickly came to the attention of Americans, as well as the entire world. Ukraine - 30 Years of Independence explores the competing narratives about country's journey through the eyes of an American filmmaker as it is being told through the words of the men who governed the country. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15745168/ _ _ _

"Revealing Ukraine" (2019) Director: Igor Lopatonok "Revealing Ukraine" by Igor Lopatonok continues investigations on of the ongoing Ukrainian crisis following "Ukraine on Fire". In addition, it analyzes the current political backstage and its dangerous potential for the world. _ _ _ For the last 5 years, Ukraine has made many headlines in the press and television news, but what has really changed in the life of Ukrainians? Why is there a civil war still raging on the East Ukraine, in Donbas, even though it has been contained and de-escalated? How is it possible that such a troubled third world country as present Ukraine successfully meddled in the presidential election of 2016 in such a superpower as the USA? "Revealing Ukraine" by Igor Lopatonok continues investigations on of the ongoing Ukrainian crisis following preceding "Ukraine on Fire". In addition, it analyzes the current political backstage and its dangerous potential for the world. In the movie the main speaker - heavyweight Ukrainian politician, opposition leader -Viktor Medvedchuk is being interviewed by the renowned filmmaker Oliver Stone. Oliver Stone also sat with Russian president Vladimir Putin to ask him a questions about Ukrainian crisis. They share their thoughts on the reasons for the conflict and ways to solve it. The audience will be guided through a behind the stages of the real "games of power" in a way that they can't see in any mainstream mass media. —Igor Lopatonok https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10498588/ _ _ _

"Presenting The Syria Deception: Al Qaeda Goes to Hollywood" Dan Cohen, September 15, 2018 An exclusive Grayzone investigative documentary rips the cover off of the most sophisticated and expensive campaign of humanitarian interventionist propaganda in modern history. For decades, Western governments, corporate media, and Hollywood have engaged in a project of mass deception to manufacture consent for military interventions. Waged in the name of lofty ideals like freedom, human rights, and democracy, US-led wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya wound up bringing death, destruction and even the return of slavery to the African continent. As the wounds from those catastrophes festered, Washington embarked on its most ambitious project yet, marketing another war of regime change, this time in Syria. The following investigative mini-documentary exposes the cynical deceptions and faux humanitarianism behind the campaign to sell the dirty war on Syria. It also demonstrates the lengths that the US and its allies have gone to develop new ploys to tug at Western heartstrings and convince even liberal minded skeptics of war that a US intervention was necessary — even if it meant empowering Al Qaeda’s largest franchise since 9/11 and its theocratic allies among the insurgency. Big lies and little children have formed the heart of what is perhaps the most expensive, sophisticated, and shameless propaganda blitz ever conducted. Welcome to The Syria Deception. Hollywood’s role in promoting war is nothing new. The American film industry has collaborated over the years with the State Department, the Pentagon, and the intelligence services to produce an array of films burnishing the military’s image, revising controversial US actions, and propagating official accounts of critical events through action blockbusters. As the American role in destabilizing Syria expanded, so too did the number of high budget documentaries produced on the crisis. This film will examine what is perhaps the most ambitious perception management documentary project of them all: Cries from Syria. Produced by HBO, debuted at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, and now available on Netflix, Cries from Syria was widely promoted in mainstream Western media outlets and was even screened in the International Court of Justice. The feature-length documentary has also been promoted by public figures from the neoconservative Nikki Haley, who as US ambassador to the United Nations has agitated for regime change from Syria to Iran, to recently deceased rock musician Chris Cornell, who included footage from the film in his final music video before he committed suicide. Pop diva Cher even composed an original song for the film. Watch as I attend a screening of the film on Capitol Hill in May 2017 that brought together some of the key lawmakers, pseudo-experts, corporate media pundits, and professional regime-change lobbyists behind the Syria deception. _ _ _ Dan Cohen Dan Cohen is a journalist and co-producer of the award-winning documentary Killing Gaza. The Washington, DC correspondent for Behind the Headlines, Cohen produced video reports and print dispatches from Israel-Palestine, Latin America, and the US-Mexico border. Follow him on Twitter at @DanCohen3000. _ _ _ https://thegrayzone.com/2018/09/15/presenting-the-syria-deception-al-qaeda-goes-to-hollywood-video/ _ _ _

"A Sniper's War" (2018) Director: Olya Schechter A story of a sniper fighting for the pro-Russian rebels in Eastern Ukraine. Described as a "stealth invasion" of Ukraine, the proxy-war being waged in Donbas is a contentious conflict between Russian-backed separatists and the West. In the midst of swirling propaganda and controversy this documentary follows Deki, a pro-Russian sniper tasked with defending his separatist comrades on the front line of the conflict. In the midst of escalating international tensions, the film exposes an unseen side to this secretive war. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7974772/ _ _ _

"Ukraine: The hidden truth. Eyes Of War" (2017) 20-minute television documentary broadcast on the Matrix television network in Italy on Nov 15, 2017 The documentary film on Italy’s Matrix channel reviews the events in Ukraine in late 2013/early 2014 leading to the violent overthrow of Ukraine’s elected president on February 21, 2014. The documentary contains explosive new evidence and testimony concerning the sniper killings of dozens of protesters and police on Maidan Square on Feb 20, 2014 by right-wing extremists. The documentary confirms what has long been reported by researchers and eyewitnesses but covered up by Western media, namely, the sniper massacres were a provocation conducted by the extreme-right in Ukraine in order to spark a coup d’etat and gain the support of Western governments. The staging worked on all fronts, including winning the complicity of Western media. Further below is extensive background material published earlier in Canada and investigative news reports based on the Matrix documentary and published in Italy on Nov 15, 2017 and Germany on Nov 19, 2017. https://newcoldwar.org/bombshell-revelations-italian-television-documentary-sniper-shootings-maidan-square-february-20-2014-staged-provoke-coup-detat/ _ _ _

"Ukraine on Fire" (2016) Director: Igor Lopatonok Ukraine. Across its eastern border is Russia and to its west-Europe. For centuries, it has been at the center of a tug-of-war between powers seeking to control its rich lands and access to the Black Sea. 2014's Maidan Massacre triggered a bloody uprising that ousted president Viktor Yanukovych and painted Russia as the perpetrator by Western media. But was it? "Ukraine on Fire" by Igor Lopatonok provides a historical perspective for the deep divisions in the region which lead to the 2004 Orange Revolution, 2014 uprisings, and the violent overthrow of democratically elected Yanukovych. Covered by Western media as a people's revolution, it was in fact a coup d'état scripted and staged by nationalist groups and the U.S. State Department. Investigative journalist Robert Parry reveals how U.S.-funded political NGOs and media companies have emerged since the 80s replacing the CIA in promoting America's geopolitical agenda abroad. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5724358/ _ _ _

"I Am Femen" ( "Je suis Femen", 2014 ) Director: Alain Margot A revealing look at FEMEN--the topless female activists who fight corrupt and patriarchal political systems in Kyiv and all across Europe--as well as a portrait of the group's creative backbone, the bewitching Oksana Shachko. _ _ _ The main protagonist in this film, activist Oksana Shachko, was found dead in her Paris apartment in July 2018. The official cause of death was hanging and it was ruled a suicide. She was 31 years old. _ _ _ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3907394/ _ _ _

"Ukraine Is Not a Brothel" (2013) Director: Kitty Green Ukraine's topless feminist sensation Femen has created a media frenzy across Europe, but before they take the world by storm, these bold and beautiful women must confront the dark and perverse forces that power their organisation. _ _ _ Ukraine's topless feminist sensation Femen has stirred up a press frenzy across Europe. Outraged by the world's image of Ukrainian women as either brides for sale or commodities of sex tourism, Femen bare their breasts in protest in order to disrupt this perception and agitate these brutal patriarchal forces. Now, for the first time, 'Ukraine Is Not A Brothel' offers an intimate glimpse inside the world's most provocative feminist organisation. A movement that began in the snow-filled streets of a corrupt, post-Soviet Ukraine, Femen's naked war against patriarchy is gaining momentum across Europe. But before they take the world by storm, these bold and beautiful women must first confront the perverse and contradictory forces that power their own 'titillating' feminist organisation. —Anonymous https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3136842/ _ _ _