Over one hundred prisoners have died in suspicious circumstances in U.S. custody during the "war on terror". Taxi to the Dark Side takes an in-depth look at one case: an Afghan taxi driver called Dilawar who was considered an honest and kind man by the people of his rustic village. So when he was detained by the U.S military one afternoon, after picking up three passengers, denizens wondered why this man was randomly chosen to be held in prison, and especially, without trial?
Five days after his arrest Dilawar died in his Bagram prison cell. His death came within a week of another death of a detainee at Bagram. The conclusion, with autopsy evidence, was that the former taxi driver and the detainee who passed away before him, had died due to sustained injuries inflicted at the prison by U.S. soldiers.
The documentary, by award-winning producer Alex Gibney, carefully develops the last weeks of Dilawar’s life and shows how decisions taken at the pinnacle of power in the Bush Administration led directly to Dilawar’s brutal death.
The film documents how Rumsfeld, together with the White House legal team, were able to convince Congress to approve the use of torture against prisoners of war. Taxi to the Dark Side is the definitive exploration of the introduction of torture as an interrogation technique in U.S. facilities, and the role played by key figures of the Bush Administration in the process.
Codec : Xvid - Size : 997 MB - Duration : 1:19:02
Scenes from the film:
More resources:
Why Democracy - Taxi to the Dark Side
Los Angeles Times - 'Taxi to the Dark Side'
Official Site - Taxi to the Dark Side
IMDB - Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
Download the torrent from: mininova.org - isohunt.com
--Never believe anything until it is officially denied--
In his second inauguration address, President Bush pledged to 'bring democracy to the world'. In his speech he mentioned the words 'democracy' and 'liberty' 21 times. Most of the world, it is fair to say, will have recoiled, many in fear. Bush's speech was significant because it finally stripped noble concepts like 'democracy' of their true meaning- government, for, by and of the people.
This film explores the theme of disenchantment with democracy, concentrating on those parts of the world where people have struggled with blood, sweat and tears to plant democracy, only to see it brutally crushed.
Set in Latin America and the US, it explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile.
The film investigates the 'School of Americas' in Georgia, USA. General Pinochet's torture squads were trained in this secretive place, along with tyrants and death-squad leaders of Haiti, El Salvador, Brazil, Argentina, indeed every Latin American country where democracy was annihilated by the graduates of this 'school' where torture classes were held, the blueprints for Guantanamo Bay.
Archive footage demonstrates how democracy has been wiped out in country after country in Latin America since the 1950s.
Pilger travelled through Venezuela with its president, Hugo Chavez, the only leader of an oil-producing nation who has used its resources democratically - for the education and health of its people. Despite being toppled from his presidency in 2002 by rich and powerful interests backed by the US, he was brought back to power by the sheer weight of Venezuelan people power. The film has a positive element; great power is not invincible.
The film tells a universal story, analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called war on terror.
Video Specification:
Codec : XviD
Resolution : 640x352
Duration : 1:33:26
Size : 826.56 MB
Scenes from the Movie:
More Resources:
johnpilger.com
The War on Democracy
The Guardian - The War on Democracy: A Film by John Pilger
Channel 4 - The War On Democracy
venezuelanalysis.com - The War On Democracy
Wikipedia - The War On Democracy
Amazon.co.uk - The War On Democracy
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"Regardless of the war, the administration, or the various sophistries for expending human lives as a matter of government policy, profiteering from it universally offends all citizens, whether they are Republicans, Democrats, Independents, other parties or no shows."
--Charles Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.
Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.
Video Specification:
Codec : XviD
Resolution : 592 x 320
Duration : 1:15:00
Size : 701 MB
Scenes from the Movie:
More Resources:
Iraq for Sale - The War Profiteers
Amazon.com - Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
IMDB - Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
Wikipedia - Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
Rotten Tomatoes - Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006)
The Nation - Iraq for Sale
Brave New Film - Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
boingboing - Iraq For Sale: documentary about profiteering contractors
The Unrepentant Marxist - Iraq for Sale
ABC News - Documentary Slams U.S. Companies Working in Iraq
Washington Post - His Fans Greenlight the Project
Download the torrent from: torrentportal.com ; mininova.org
James Earl Jones narrates this documentary on the incredible and controversial life of Malcolm X. His father, a vocal activist and minister was killed when Malcolm was very young. Still, Malcolm didn't become interested in the struggle for civil rights until after he served time in prison for burglary. The study of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammed led him to become an outspoken and scholarly leader in the struggle for civil rights. The film is based on X's own autobiography which he penned with Alex Haley. Made after the assassination of the Muslim leader, it also includes an inquiry into his death as well as a eulogy given by Davis. This historic work was an important early non-fiction film about the African-American experience and an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature in 1972.
Review from filesoup.co.uk
A truly well crafted documentary where excerpts from Malcolm X's autobiography and footage of his speeches drive the narrative. This is about as close to capturing the spirit of Malcolm X as well as the cultural climate in which he operated as you can get. There is no obtrusive narrator or newsperson offering up their slanted view of Malcolm X here. Archival footage is used to flesh out the scenes Malcolm X desribes in his autobiography, from his childhood to Boston, Harlem, Birmingham, and Mecca. There are also numerous vintage interviews with with Betty Shabazz, Elijah Muhammad,Philbert X, Ella Collins Little, James Farmer and many others. From the opening of the film with Billy Holiday's STRANGE FRUIT to Ossie Davis' eulogy, this is truly the film to watch if you want to see Malcolm X's incredible journey to becoming El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and the impact he made upon America and the world.
Video Specification:
Codec : XviD
Resolution : 640 x 352
Duration : 1:31:41
Size : 735,502,336 bytes
Screenshots:
More resources:
Amazon.com - Malcolm X (1972)
Download the torrent from: isohunt.com ; onebigtorrent.org
In 1952, two young Argentines, Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granado, set out on a road trip to discover the real Latin America. Ernesto is a 23-year-old medical student specialising in leprology, and Alberto, 29, is a biochemist. The film follows the young men as they unveil the rich and complex human and social topography of the Latin American continent.
With a highly romantic sense of adventure, the two friends leave their familiar surroundings in Buenos Aires on a rickety 1939 Norton 500. Although the bike breaks down in the course of their eight-month journey, they press onward, hitching rides along the way. As they begin to see a different Latin America in the people they meet on the road, the diverse geography they encounter begins to reflect their own shifting perspectives. They continue to the heights of Machu Picchu, where the majestic ruins and the extraordinary significance of the Inca heritage have a profound impact on the young men. As they arrive at a leper colony deep in the Peruvian Amazon, the two are beginning to question the value of progress as defined by economic systems that leave so many people beyond their reach. Their experiences at the colony awaken within them the men they will later become by defining the ethical and political journey they will take in their lives.
Based on the journals of both Alberto Granado and the man who would later become El Che, The Motorcycle Diaries follows a journey of self-discovery, tracing the origins of a revolutionary heart.
File Specification:
Codec : Xvid
Resolution : 560x288
Duration : 1:55:04
Size : 735,916,032 bytes
Screenshots:
More Resources:
IMDB - Diarios de motocicleta (2004)
Wikipedia - The Motorcycle Diaries (film)
Wikipedia - The Motorcycle Diaries
Rotten Tomatoes - The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
Amazon.com - The Motorcycle Diaries (Widescreen Edition) (2004)
Amazon.com - The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey (Paperback)
Download the torrent from: torrentportal.com ; mininova.org ; isohunt.com
Excertps from The Sidney Morning Herald:
One of history's most enigmatic figures gets a sharp, intriguing examination here, in an exploration of the final hours before his death in the Bolivian village of La Higuera. In life, Che Guevara was a poster boy for revolution, having abandoned a career in medicine to join Fidel Castro's revolutionary "26th of July" movement, which seized power in Cuba in 1959, deposing the dictator Batista and, in the following decade, joining revolutions in Congo-Kinshasa and Bolivia. Described alternately as "the most complete human being of our age" and a "sociopathic thug", Guevara was transformed in death into a demigod revolutionary, his reputation and mystique enhanced by the disappearance (and subsequent return) of his body.
This program, from Italian filmmaker Raffaele Brunetti, is packaged in a fairly straightforward manner, blending interviews and archival film. Whether it achieves its aim is difficult to say. It says little about Guevara that students of his life and work would not know and it rarely opens a window for the viewer with little more than a passing interest in Guevara's place in history.
The program is, perhaps, greater than the sum of its parts - revisiting some of the key locations, interspersed with clips from Guevara's life and observations from a handful of the important figures in his life.
File Specification:
Codec : Xvid
Resolution : 624x352
Duration : 0:52:50
Size : 523,677,696 bytes
Screenshots:
Green Left - Che Guevara: a symbol of strength and justice
independent.org - The Myth of Che Guevara’s Corpse
Download the torrent from: boxtorrent.com ; mininova.org
Keiji Nakazawa attracted widespread attention in 1973, when he published the first installment of his semiautobiographical manga (comics), Barefoot Gen. Nakazawa was 6 years old in August 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Most of his family was killed in the blast, and the artist survived through sheer luck. Nakazawa's continuing story now fills seven volumes (nearly 2,000 pages). In addition to two animated features (also written by Nakazawa), three live-action films and an opera have been based on Gen.
Nakazawa's alter ego, Gen Nakaoka is on his way to school when the bomb detonates. He makes his way back to his home through hellish scenes of ruined buildings, corpses, and hideously mutilated survivors. Although his family is still alive, Gen and his pregnant mother are unable to free his father, sister, and brother from the rubble of their house and must leave them to burn to death. His mother goes into labor during their flight and his new sister is born amid the devastation. Holding the infant, Gen tells her to remember the horrors, so that they never occur again.
Barefoot Gen is completely unlike the musical fairy tales and slapstick comedies Americans associate with animation, but its powerful antiwar message has won admiration around the world. Barefoot Gen II follows the character through the early days of the postwar era.
Product Description
Drawn from writer Keiji Nakazawa's true life experiences in the aftermath of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Barefoot Gen tells the story of one family's struggle to survive against overwhelming odds. Six-year-old Gen has lived practically his entire life in the shadow of war. Yet he is not prepared for the horrors which follow the bombing of Hiroshima. Contains scenes of extreme violence; reccomended for mature audiences.
File Specification:
Codec : Matroska
Resolution : 512x384
Duration : 1:23:03
Size : 986,189,657 bytes
Screenshots:
More resources:
Wikipedia - Barefoot Gen
IMDB - Hadashi no Gen (1983)
Blackmoon - Barefoot Gen
The Critical Eye - Barefoot Gen
Amazon.com - Barefoot Gen (1992)
