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  Ghosts of Rwanda

  January 5, 2012 / Wars

  When the United Nations sent peacekeepers to this small, Central African nation — with the full support of the U.S. government — most of the policy-makers involved believed it would be a straightforward mission that would help restore the U.N.’s battered reputation after failures in Bosnia and Somalia. Few could imagine that, a decade later, Rwanda would be the crisis that still haunts their souls. Ghosts of Rwanda, a special two-hour documentary to mark the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan [...]

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  Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Majority

  December 25, 2011 / Wars

  The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance… it is the illusion of knowledge. A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike any other film ever produced on the conflict – Occupation 101 presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the never ending controversy and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions. The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the role of the [...]

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  Star Wars In Iraq

  December 13, 2011 / Wars

  Al Ghezali reported that he had seen three passengers in a car all dead with their faces and teeth burnt, the body intact, and no sign of projectiles. There were other inexplicable aspects: the terrain where the battle took place was dug up by the American military and replaced with other fresh earth, the bodies that were not hit by projectiles had shrunk to just slightly more than one meter in height. As in any war, the war in Iraq [...]

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  Commando: On the Front Line

  December 6, 2011 / Wars

  In Commando: On The Front Line, director Chris Terrill embarks on a courageous 12-month journey to Afghanistan alongside Britain’s most elite front line troops – the Royal Marine Commandos. A division of the Royal Navy, the Royal Marine Commando directs the most physically and mentally challenging training regime of any military contingent in the United Kingdom, and only the cream of the crop gets through. This eight-episode series provides fascinating insight into the experiences of the 50 new recruits of [...]

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  Hollywood and the War Machine

  December 6, 2011 / Wars

  Empire examines the symbiotic relationship between the movie industry and the military-industrial complex. War is hell, but for Hollywood it has been a Godsend, providing the perfect dramatic setting against which courageous heroes win the hearts and minds of the movie going public. The Pentagon recognizes the power of these celluloid dreams and encourages Hollywood to create heroic myths; to rewrite history to suit its own strategy and as a recruiting tool to provide a steady flow of willing young [...]

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  The War of the World

  December 3, 2011 / Wars

  Controversial historian Professor Niall Ferguson argues that in the last century there were not in fact two World Wars and a Cold War, but a single Hundred Years’ War. It was not nationalism that powered the conflicts of the century, but empires. It was not ideologies of class or the advent of socialism driving the century, but race. Ultimately, ethnic conflict underpinned 20th-century violence. Finally, it was not the west that triumphed as the century progressed – in fact, power [...]

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  Our War: 10 Years in Afghanistan

  November 22, 2011 / Wars

  Series marking the ten-year anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, telling the story of the conflict through the words and pictures of the young soldiers themselves. Ambushed – This opening part of the series tells the story of a close-knit group of friends from 3 Platoon, 1st Battalion Royal Anglian regiment, who were sent to Helmand province in 2007. For most of them it was their first experience of war. The whole tour was filmed on a helmet camera by [...]

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  The Prisoner: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair

  November 17, 2011 / Wars

  The Prisoner Or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair represents a follow-up to husband-and-wife filmmaking team Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein’s critically-worshipped, defiantly nonpartisan documentary Gunner Palace (2004), on the day-to-day of American soldiers stationed on the Iraqi front. In that earlier picture, Tucker and Epperlein stumble across Yunis Khatayer Abbas, a Middle Eastern man who merely confesses, “I am a journalist,” before American soldiers drag him off to incarceration. The Tuckers reconnected with Abbas at a later point, [...]

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  Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave

  November 17, 2011 / Wars

  Srebrenica, Bosnia, the world’s first United Nations Safe Area, was the site of the worst case of genocide in Europe since World War II. In July 1995, the Bosnian Serb army staged a brutal takeover of the small, intimate spa town and its surrounding region. Over a period of five days, the Bosnian Serb soldiers separated Muslim families and systematically murdered over 7,000 men and boys in fields, schools, and warehouses. Narrated by Bill Moyers, this compelling film includes previously [...]

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  The First World War

  November 17, 2011 / Wars

  Although the First World War gets less attention than its successor, it was really the watershed event of the 20th century. This conflict shaped the world that came after to this day. It was the catalyst for the rise of soviet communism in Russia, whose unraveling less than a decade and a half ago continues to affect worldwide diplomacy and economics. Germany’s defeat provided the opportunity for fascism and Hitler to come to power there, causing the Second World War [...]

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  Daylight Robbery

  November 5, 2011 / Wars

  Panorama investigates claims that as much as $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or not properly accounted for in Iraq. When the US goes to war, corporate America goes too. There are contracts for caterers, tanker drivers, security guards and even interrogators, many of them through companies with links to the White House. Now more than 70 whistle-blower cases threaten to reveal the scandals behind billions of dollars worth of waste, theft and corruption during the Iraq war. A [...]

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  Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War

  November 3, 2011 / Wars

  If anyone doubts that it is time for a clear and critical look at Western intervention in the Balkans, consider this: The forces that the US supported in Bosnia and Kosovo were and are closely allied with Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network. Bin Laden, himself, was a regular visitor in the office of Bosnia’s President Alija Izetbegovic in early 1993, when the US government was touting his commitment to moderation and multi-ethnic cooperation. Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War makes a compelling [...]

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