Corporate Media – not the best thing on Earth.
This much is clear (or should be), but how did this happen? when did it start? and more importantly, who is responsible for the monopolization of media today? These are the questions that Jean-Philippe Tremblay answers in his greatly detailed talking heads documentary Shadows of Liberty. This high end production features an impressive cast of people including Julian Assange, Dan Rather, Amy Goodman and the one and only Danny Glover. They all regale you with information and stories that you may or may not already know, all leading to the undeniable fact – mainstream media in the United States is largely run by conglomerate whose main interest is not providing real news, but to make a profit. The fact that these conglomerates are funded by government contracts has led to the censorship of mainstream news.
Jean-Philippe Tremblay’s film is an exhaustive study into this subject and topics such as the Nike sweatshop scandal, TWA airline crash and the Iraq war are discussed thoroughly. The film is extremely well made (great soundtrack), with seemingly unlimited resources to archival footage and impressive personalities. While the film seems a bit one sided in nature (no one defended the conglomerates in this film), it does serve as a great introduction to those who are unaware of topics of media, news and government censorship.
Now comes the real problem. Shadows of Liberty will be definitely be a hot movie among the audiences at any documentary film festivals. However, this is the type of audience who already knows about most of the cases and information presented in the film. The real challenge would be to have this film air on a national broadcast somewhere, which as we all know, will require a bit of work. So watch this movie, and then tell a friend about it.
Next Screening:
Sun, Apr 29 4:00 PM, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3