Documentary Movie Review: In The Shadows (Core of Corruption Part 1)

Movie Review: Core of Corruption: In The Shadows

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Core of Corruption is a series by Jonathan Elinoff, and "In The Shadows" is the first of the series. It takes a look at the persons, places, and events behind the 9/11 tragedy.

One of the most common complaints about the "9/11 Truth Movement" is its focus on "Controlled Demolition." This film touches on it, but focuses more on the background of the individuals directly related to the incident. I'm disappointed when these films focus so heavily on intelligence and government failures and still feel the need to get into a physics argument. Occam's Razor is the concept that you provide only the information that you need, the information that is relevant to your argument. I don't see how these films benefit from the Controlled Demolition theory. It becomes an argument on what is possible and what is probable, and not necessarily documented, proven events that are easily agreed upon to have happened. Much evidence supports the Controlled Demolition theory, however, the "how" is not as important as the "why" or the "who." Controlled Demolition would have been better covered in the sequel being released soon, or another film.

A heavy focus in this film is on what Porter Goss and Bob Graham Knew before the attack, and what power they had to pass on the information so something could have been done about it if they had. The film shows how these two men were privy to warnings beforehand and were involved in the failure of investigation.

Able Danger, The Dr. Graham 9/11 Report, John O'Neill, Randy Glass' letters to Bob Graham, and several other warnings were filtered through our government and almost every warning went unheard and this film wants you to ask why. And those are the warnings that we KNOW our government had, when you see the Fox News report on Comverse Infosys and Amdocs you begin to really understand how the attacks could not have been pulled off without foreknowledge.

The secondary question is why we don't hear more about the Israeli spy ring found in our nation? This film takes the Fox News report's exposure of the problem of Israeli espionage, and asks about the odd secondary events on 9/11, and what the FBI could know about ties between some of these 9/11 events and this spy ring.

If you don't believe that the United States could have stopped the attack of September 11, you will understand that this becomes more than a mere one-day-one-event failure when you scrape the surface.

This film is almost comparable to Jason Bermas' "Fabled Enemies," only this film gives you more information and more ties to Graham and Goss. This film gathers more mainstream news reports and more clips of first-hand witness accounts.

Information: Very informative. If you don't know the information behind 9/11 you will after seeing this film. - 5 Stars

Source Documentation: News reports and first hand interviews. - 5 stars

Presentation Method: News Clips inter-cut with First Hand interviews. – 4 stars

Visuals/Sound: Great music score, great graphical elements. - 4 stars

Political & Social Spectrum: 9/11 transcends political party to the point where it is shunned by mainstream politics. There is no political angle here. - 4 stars

Solution, Constitution, or Pollution: Constitution. 9/11 becomes important to a person, but in the end, that won't protect our liberties. This film is a great research project, and perhaps a good movie to hand out, but other than that, 9/11 truth is a cause that becomes ever harder to act upon. - 2 Stars

Overall Wake-up-ability: Truth is made fun of in the mainstream and claimed to be discredited several times over, however, with more films making the inside connections between persons, places, and things, we may just have justice one day. If you can get someone to watch this, they will understand why 9/11 is still important to much of America. – 4 stars

Documentary Movie Review: American Drug War - The Last White Hope

Movie Review: American Drug War

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With the release of Kevin Booth's new film I thought I'd take a look back this week at his last film, American Drug War. I'll have a review up soon of “How Weed Won The West.”

American Drug War points the finger at the effectiveness of the “war on drugs” and its progress in the self-destructive culture saturated with legal mind-and-body-altering substances. Kevin Booth offers his own family's plight with drugs, both legal and illegal, and alcohol addiction as inspiration for his journey.

Along the way we meet several persons touched by the drug war in their own way. We hear from Freeway Ricky Ross via prison telephone, who was known at one time as the “wal-mart of crack” because of his wide distribution in southern California. His story of regret for selling his community out, inter-cut with former DEA agent Celerino Castillo's discussion of the South American drug running of the CIA becomes the most damning story of our Federal Government's hypocrisy.

Kevin also gets Tommy Chong to tell how he was set up by a government sting operation to get his son's pipe company to send a pipe to a county that banned paraphernalia.

This isn't a one sided argument though, we hear from Sheriff Arpaio of Maricopa County, often thought of as the toughest law enforcement official in the country when it comes to enforcement and incarceration. His opinion on combating drugs and listening to him brag about treating the K9 units better than the prisoners makes one re-think the sanity of law enforcement.

We also hear from Clinton's Drug Czar. (Go Czars!) Kevin ambushed him disguising himself as a conservative lecture-attendee to get him to speak about the importance of the drug war, and it becomes clear that the Federal Government and its heads really have no idea what is going on in the streets of big-city-USA.

One of the most shocking things about the drug war is the ability to use inmates as slave labor. When you hear the true motives for why some drugs will never be de-criminalized, you might just start speaking out about the issue yourself.

Most films about drugs are often criticized by mainstream America as biased, not stating the dangers of the drugs, or for advocating their use. Kevin, on the other hand, shows you the harm drugs create in our society, and then shows you why the Federal Government's solution is no better.

Information: The camera takes you to the streets, in the jails, in Kevin's family, and in the face of government officials. The only thing missing is a Doctor's perspective - 4 Stars

Source Documentation: First hand interviews, along with scenes from C-Span of congressional hearings - 5 stars

Presentation Method: Rugged HBO-style documentary. (fitting since it aired on Showtime) – 4 stars

Visuals/Sound: Nothing fancy. But for this film it doesn't need to be. - 4 stars

Political & Social Spectrum: Completely Neutral in my opinion, however some of the more family-oriented conservatives might not like the angle. But in my opinion that's their bias, not Kevin's - 4 stars

Solution, Constitution, or Pollution: Pollution. While this film is great information, with the best interviews, it leads nowhere. At the end, you're left feeling that it's someone else's problem and that you, as an individual, or community, cannot change this giant scheme between government and security contractors. - 2 Stars

Overall Wake-up-ability: This film will give a slap in the face to anyone in the country who still thinks that the CIA or privatization of government entities are good things. Almost anyone in society can take a new point of view from this film, the only problem is lack of a solution. This film doesn't even give firm examples as to where our values can be improved. Sure, it's a Must-See movie, but it should be accompanied by a talk about what we can do to at least fix the mindset, if not start fixing the problem, but maybe that's the point of the film, to fix the mindset...but if that were the case, it would be free-distribution, which it isn't. – 4 stars

Documentary Movie Review: Camp Fema

Movie Review: Camp Fema
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It was World War II and our nation faced an enemy that was percieved to be walking among us.

The response by the United States Government was to utilize the results from the Census to identify potential threats to our nation and create internment camps to house thousands of Japanese-Americans, including American citizens.

Fast forward 80 years. Our media and government point out how the war on terror includes the domestic front, including American citizens.

The latest film by filmmaker William Lewis and producer Gary Franchi looks at the lessons of history and examines current government programs and bills to simply ask about the possibility of the War on Terror could be used in such a way that would target political enemies of those in power in our nation and marginalize, criminalize and detain people who may disagree with the party line. Primary source documentation and testimony from several experts who have researched the modern political culture make a compelling argument that could frighten even the most avid skeptic.

Every so often we hear about the threat of Martial Law, however this film takes and in-depth look at recent political developments and asks the viewer to determine if there could very well be a dangerous path in store for this country if more people do not make civics education and accountability a priority in their lives.

From provisions of the Patriot Act (Which William outlined in his film, Washinton You're Fired), to government misuse of watch lists and threat reports, to quotes from our President about indefinite detention and a well funded "civilian" national security force, things begin to rhyme with history's worst actions in the name of "Nationalism."

While one hopes that we never have to worry about such a control grid, nor fear-mongering thereof, it becomes ever important when examining the current direction of the country and the way our government assesses what an enemy is, that we are able to continue to exercise our rights.

Information: When you first pop this DVD in, you think "Conspiracy Theory" but the relentless onslaught of informative content leaves you wanting more - 5 stars

Source Documentation: Clips from mainstream media, several constitutional researchers, and in your face screen captures of websites and government documents. - 5 stars

Presentation Method: One of the best parts of this film is a skit detailing a martial law force raiding someone's home. It is very entertaining, however, with a topic already struggling with legitimacy issues, it probably would have worked better as a dvd extra. Otherwise, the interviews and narration were flawless. - 4 stars

Visuals/Sound: Beautiful Graphics, seamless transitions, decent sound. - 5 stars

Political & Social Spectrum: This film confirms the fears of the conservative/patriot movement. Some of these things may have non-constitutionalists asking why they should care. Obama supporters will hate this film. - 3 stars

Solution, Constitution, or Pollution: Part Solution/Part Pollution. So you're afraid of Fema Camps, what next? There are several options at hand, and preparation is key, but so is Activism. While there is a great call to represent your values, it is a little fear based, and your left feeling that your fate relies solely upon your communication with your state legislature, although, some filmmakers would not give you that much. - 3 stars

Overall Wake-up-ability: This film suffers from the opposite of the "title misleading" problem most films have. No, the title is straight forward, unfortunately it's on a topic that avg. Joe dismisses as fear mongering. If you can get people to watch it, this film will change their outlook on the "good of Government" - 4 stars

Documentary Movie Review: Architects of Control - Program One

Movie Review: Architects of Control – Program One

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Michael Tsarion has given several presentations on the origins of the elite and the mystery religion and its ties to modern society. This film is a diet, more presentable version of the information he talks about.

As with all of Michael Tsarion's information, you really have to go into this film understanding that he's not going to tell you anything you expect to believe. He gives you thoughts on how you can inform yourself with knowledge to decipher the symbolism, codes, and propaganda that are out in the open in every day society.

“Talismans” are around us everywhere. Seemingly innocuous logos and icons are actually part of language going back centuries. Using clips from major motion pictures and examples in mainstream media right into real-life prophetic events and persons, This film makes you question whether reality is truly “stranger than fiction” or if reality is something that is straight out of what is written in fiction, guided by those who want to make those sci-fi books and films a reality.

As with most of Michael Tsarion's stuff, it's meant to make you question, not give you answers, so there is little proof involved other than whether you can believe what you're hearing. But that's the point.

Perception is everything, and when it comes down to downright facts, nothing is proven until you physically sense it in-person, and even then you must trust that what you've perceived is exactly what happened. So, when you're questioning a “reality” what you're questioning is the reality we've been told and sold through external sources.

Some in the movement, and really much of the skeptical society would attack Michael Tsarion and other alternative theological researchers for being too “out there” or for putting out information that they cannot “100% prove” however, the important thing to remember, is that SOMEONE believes it. Someone with POWER. Someone who wishes to control you. If you can prove at least that much, then the information is sound enough that the people should know about it.

It's good to finally get Tsarion and other experts in a format that isn't behind a podium with a slide show. The Graphics are amazing and the presentation is wonderful. The message of the film is to be an individual which, while positive, is a double edge sword.

You almost get the feeling after watching this, that being involved in government and activism is pointless as long as you have love in your heart and are freedom within your mind. Almost as if slavery is okay as long as we have spiritual freedom. But that's just one possible misinterpretation of the end part of the film that someone could possibly take away from this film, so if you get this feeling too, don't blame the person on the other end of the phone for your hearing aid malfunction.

This film goes into Mind Control at every level, from MK Ultra to subliminal advertising. Understanding what is possible is just as understanding what is known, and that is the point of this film. Getting to know deeper different important events in society in a light where you can see beyond the known into the potential that these events are also methods of rounding up the hive into a single mindset that is willing to submit to the proposed agendas of the elites.

Information: Informative to those who want to know about talismans and the depth of what the mind is capable of, with great comparisons to sci-fi media. - 3 stars

Source Documentation: Michael Tsarion is recognized as an expert in his own right when it comes to esoteric information, however there is no “proof” in philosophy and religion, and that's what this film is. - 2 stars

Presentation Method: Mixing Science Fiction with real study of reality is often used by the mainstream media to misinform or make fun of important issues, Michael shows us how the same tactics can be used to inform the people of these same issues when you point out how blatant and in your face these stories can be. - 4 stars

Visuals/Sound: The music is a bit annoyingly creepy on purpose, but the camera work and graphics are great. It's good to see Michael Tsarion somewhere other than a dark room behind a podium. It really gives pop to the information he's presenting. - 3 stars

Political & Social Spectrum: Neutral/Alternative Philosophical. Not biased, but a little too “alternative” for most social groups. - 3 stars

Solution, Constitution, or Pollution: Part Solution/Part Pollution. The information is good for anyone learning about individualism, but this is also pretty much brain candy that could potentially be a diversion for the active. - 3 stars

Overall Wake-up-ability: I hate to give this such a low score, but even the “Alternative” movements are not open minded enough for this information, and those who are, might not care about the spiritual/philosophical enough to believe in the individuality message. If you are open minded and like to wax philosophically then this movie is a must, and if you think you know people who may be open to questioning their reality, this movie is for them, but this movie is pretty far out there and the majority of even awakened people will shut down their eyes and ears to this message pretty quick. - 2 stars