Danny Schechter Movies
- 2009
- Add Barack Obama: People's President - The Campaign That Changed History to Queue Add Barack Obama: People's President - The Campaign That Changed History to top of Queue
This political documentary uses social commentary and media analysis to determine how President Barack Obama's landmark 2007 campaign leveraged issues, perceptions, culture and news in order to find such immense success against seemingly impossible odds. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi
- 2007
- NR
Filmmaker Danny Schechter explores society's ongoing obsession with naked women while documenting one man's quest to abolish hypocrisy in this documentary centering on voyeur-cinema legend Ugly George. Long before Joe Francis was making his millions by encouraging everyday girls undress in front of the camera, Ugly George was doing the exact same thing on the streets of New York City. But how did he get away with his sordid scheme for so long, and what woman in her right mind would agree to take off their clothes for this camera-toting lecher? Director Schechter addresses both of these questions and more - including Ugly George's claim of having slept with more women than Wilt Chamberlain - in this film exploring the mystery of the man who took America's obsession with sex to whole new heights. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 2006
- Add In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts to Queue Add In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts to top of Queue
While a large number of Americans carry a certain amount of personal debt, few are aware of just how common and widespread the debt crisis has become. In 2006, it was estimated that the debt owed by American citizens totaled well over ten trillion dollars, and many economists believe that with more people owing so much and the nation's money supply in the hands of a dwindling number of people, a collapse along the lines of the 1929 stock market crash is not only possible but likely. Documentary filmmaker Danny Schechter explores this growing dilemma in In Debt We Trust: America Before The Bubble Bursts, which examines the various manifestations of the debt crisis – credit card companies who allow young and naïve customers to rack up large debts, loan firms who demand massive interest and penalties from homeowners struggling to stay afloat, lobbyists who helped push legislation through Congress making it harder for ordinary people to obtain bankruptcy protection, and punishing interest rates which can sometimes top out at 700%. In Debt We Trust: America Before The Bubble Bursts features interviews with Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas congresswoman active in fighting for economic justice, and Robert Manning, author of the book Credit Card Nation. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 2004
Documentary filmmaker Danny Schechter asks whether it was a disorganized media or a team of irresponsible vote counters who were responsible for misplacing the 180,000 ballots that would have elected Al Gore as President of the United States in the 2000 elections in this film examining one of the most hotly debated elections in American history. Nearly a decade after the fact, many Americans are still left wondering how our country sunk to the point we're at as the 2008 elections loom on the horizon. While many are afraid to simply go near the subject do to sensitive issues of disenfranchisement, racial exclusions, and voting rights violations - not to mention the subverting of an official recount - director Schechter poses the questions that could help to heal the festering wounds of division and, with a little luck and a lot of debate, finally set our country back on the right course. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 2004
- NR
- Add WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception to Queue Add WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception to top of Queue
Self-described "news dissector" Danny Schechter, who has worked as a producer for a number of major broadcast media outlets (including CNN and ABC News), examines news coverage of the war in Iraq in this activist documentary. In WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception, Schechter explores how the U.S. military and George W. Bush's advisors "stage managed" the Iraq war in order to win a favorable opinion from the public and keep the media's eyes away from issues and situations they found problematic, from using savvy psychology to convince citizens that Iraq possessed certain weapons it never actually had, to "embedding" journalists with companies of troops to produce reports sympathetic to the ground forces. WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception was named Best Documentary in Texas at the 2004 Austin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
A pair of pacifist-minded documentarians reach out to dozens of their generation's greatest thinkers in a bid to ensure a peaceful future for all in this documentary that encourages viewers to take an active role in the peace process. From September 2002 to May 2003, filmmakers Gabriele Zamparini and Lorenzo Meccoli conducted interviews with such internationally recognized thinkers as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Gore Vidal, Jesse Jackson, Ossie Davis, and Desmond Tutu to explore peaceful solutions to global conflict. In addition to exploring various alternatives to war and weapons of mass destruction as a means of solving conflict, these interviews provide fascinating insight into the modern era while simultaneously offering a look inside the minds of some of the planets greatest tinkers, activists, and leaders. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Harry Belafonte, Noam Chomsky, (more)
- 2004
- NR
Directed by Robert Kane Pappas, Orwell Rolls in His Grave questions whether the bleak, feverishly regulated world of author George Orwell's 1984 is no longer a dire fictional account of government power gone wrong but a creeping reality of recent American media trends. The film focuses on the media's least covered topic -- itself -- in an effort to trace the process by which newsworthy stories are either dismissed entirely or distorted into something more politically suitable for the heads of various media conglomerates. It also studies how influential politicos became responsible for an industry that was largely created in order to keep political abuse in check. Among the interviewees include legal scholar and former L.A. prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, film director and author Michael Moore, and Danny Schechter, a former producer for ABC and CNN. Pappas also covers the expansion of the news media and examines whether the onset of competitive 24-hour news stations has actually led to a nationally less informed public. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
Join documentary filmmaker Danny Schechter, music producer Nile Rodgers, Spike Lee, and over 200 others including artists, athletes, celebrities, police officers, and emergency workers as they come together for a one-in-a-lifetime musical event designed to benefit the victims of the 9/11 disaster by re-recording the hit song "We Are Family". Candid interviews give participants an opportunity to discuss their involvement with the project that originally hit shelves just one-day before the one-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 1992
Narrated by CBS journalist Ike Pappas, Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy is an investigative historical documentary based on the tragic events of November 22, 1963. The 90-minute film, a companion to Oliver Stone's fictional production JFK, explores the controversy between eye-witness accounts of Kennedy's assassination and the findings of the Warren Commission. Highlights of the program include archival news footage, discussions of the investigation, conspiracy theories, and interviews with Kevin Costner and Gary Oldman. ~ Kathleen Wildasin, Rovi
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