Films

The War You Don’t See

Film. By John Pilger. 2010. 97 minutes.
Documentary on how the media has reported war, from the WWI to the present day.

Themes: Media, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements

The War You Don’t See is a powerful and timely investigation into the media’s role in war, tracing the history of ’embedded’ and independent reporting from the carnage of WWI to the destruction of Hiroshima, and from the invasion of Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan and disaster in Iraq. As weapons and propaganda become even more sophisticated, the nature of war is developing into an ‘electronic battlefield’ in which journalists play a key role, and civilians are the victims. [Producer’s description.]

John Pilger says in the film: “We journalists have to be brave enough to defy those who seek our collusion in selling their latest bloody adventure in someone else’s country. That means always challenging the official story, however patriotic that story may appear, however seductive and insidious it is. For propaganda relies on us in the media to aim its deceptions not at a far away country but at you at home. In this age of endless imperial war, the lives of countless men, women and children depend on the truth or their blood is on us. Those whose job it is to keep the record straight ought to be the voice of people, not power.”

A Dartmouth Films Production

Watch the Documentary

Via Vimeo.

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