Disclaimer: I’m not a film maker, reviewer, media or culture critic. What follows are some thoughts about the four (out of 13) films that I saw at the M.U.C.K. (Movies of Uncommon Knowledge) festival which ran in Toronto from October 1 – 4.

First, congratulations to M.U.C.K. festival director Dr. Stuart Samuels for pulling together a very diverse set of political films. I hope the festival was successful enough to repeat again next year.

Age of Stupid

Pete Postlethwaite (of “The Usual Suspects” fame) stars in this futuristic look back from 2055 at a planet devastated by climate change and asks the question, “Why didn’t we stop climate change while we still had the chance?” While it’s never very clear who the “we” are supposed to be, the film is nonetheless very powerful in highlighting the impacts of climate change already affecting the planet.

Using news and documentary footage, as well as some very creative animations and good music, director Franny Armstrong takes viewers around the world to Nigeria, the Alps, New Orlean, Iraq, Jordan, India and the UK. It covers a very wide range of climate change related issues including the ravages of oil production, melting glaciers, floods, windmill NIMBYism, the impact of the Iraq war on kids and the attempt to bring commercial air travel to every Indian (so they say).

All in all, the “Age of Stupid” is the kind of film that packs a lot of punch. However, it was a bit short on solutions.

The producers used “crowd financing” to make the film. This allows individuals and organizations to purchase shares in the film so that it can be an independent production.

Rethinking Afghanistan


Released online in February, Robert Greenwald’s latest production, was made in 8 parts which can all be seen online. The film’s overt objective was to deter the new Obama administration from escalating the number of US troops in Afghanistan. I guess Obama didn’t see the film because it carefully outlines the folly of the Afghanistan occupation and counter-insurgency.

Greenwald uses a combination of interviews and very graphic news footage to tell this story. To summarize the main thesis of the film – the post- 9/11 invasion of Afghanistan suffered from “mission creep”. Starting as a “search and destroy” misison, the invaders searched in too many of the wrong places resulting in a lot of pissed off, uncooperative Afghanis. This led to increased troop levels to quell the unrest which resulted in more civilian deaths leading to even more unrest and recruitment for the Taliban. Suicide missions against the troops added to the spiraling level of violence resulting in more repression and “collateral damage” – a vicious cycle experienced by all other invaders.

The film also takes a close look at growing instability in Pakistan, the cost of the war, civilian casualties, the situation of Afghani women and the war’s overall futility.

I highly recommend this film but there are also a lot of questions that are not asked and stories not told. I suppose it’s too much to expect all the questions to be answered in one film but let’s start with the “why”. While Bushco tried to sell the war on the idea that Al Qaeda and the Taliban had to be destroyed post 9/11, I think there is more to the story. In some ways, I see Afghanistan as the 21st century Grenada. It was designed to develop a growing acceptance in the US for intervention and war. Grenada was an easy solution to the “Vietnam syndrome” and led to a growing US military role in Central America and elsewhere. Afghanistan was the prelude to a larger conflict in Iraq although it was not the same cakewalk as tiny Grenada.

Rethinking Afghanistan is also a bit thin on an exit strategy. Given that’s its goal was to avert Obama’s LBJ-like surge, a full exit strategy was not overtly part of the film. While some on-the-ground development projects are identified as alternatives to the status quo, it just didn’t seem like enough. The standard US post-intervention operating procedure is to abandon the country and not pay for any reconstruction. Just look at Vietnam and even the post-Soviet Afghanistan.

Some of the issues not explored (maybe they will be in future installments) include the treatment of prisoners, the use of mercenaries and look at civil society organizations in Afghanistan.

Crude – The Real Price of Oil


While “The Age of Stupid” looks at the catastrophes of runaway climate change caused by burning fossil fuels, Joe Berlinger’s Crude (which premiered at Sundance) looks at the catastrophes of oil extraction. It is the story of an 18-year legal battle against Texaco (now part of Chevron) on behalf of 30,000 people in several aboriginal communities in the Ecuadoran Amazon whose land and water were poisoned by Texaco’s practice of dumping waste into Amazon waterways (18 billion gallons – yes, that’s billion) and storing it in unprotected ponds.  

Crude is a horrifying “David & Goliath” story of crimes against humanity while providing hope that when people organize, they can take on vested interests. The final chapter is yet to be written in Ecuador. Check out the trailer here at the Amazon Watch website.

The film examines this catastrophe from several angles – the environmental and health consequences on these communities, Chevron’s denials and obfuscations, the legal strategy employed by Ecuadoran and US attorneys and how superstar Sting got involved in bringing attention to the issue.

It is a moving film which gives a direct voice to those impacted by the reckless actions taken by the oil industry to (tar sands anyone?). Chevron’s lawyer moves from denial that there was even a problem to shifting the blame to the state owned consortium which Texaco joined. Their position was summarized by the line “there aren’t supposed to be any people living here”.

Check out these other reviews for more in-depth look at this very important film.

Call & Response

Call and Response is about human trafficking and modern-day slavery. It was first released in the fall of 2008. It more or less defines slavery in the context of one person owning another, working for nothing and the inability of slaves to walk away from their situation. Check out the trailer.

The film describes modern day human trafficking as a rapidly growing problem (27 million people globally) with more human trafficking taking place now than at any time in history e.g) 2.2 million girls and women sold into sex slavery every year. It is driven by the huge profits involved and lack of enforcement. It calls for the development of a 21st century abolitionist movement to eradicate slavery in all its manifestations – “child soldiers, child slavery, sex slavery and labour slavery” (the film’s categories). It implies the need for the development of a “slave-free” label on consumer products, not unlike, but different from “fair trade”.

I highly recommend this very moving film, directed by musician Justin Dillon which is punctuated with musical performances from a number of artists who responded to the call to take a stand to highlight this scourge.

Cornel West is brilliant in making the links between US slavery and modern music bringing the film full circle. He comes up with such zingers as “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” If I could embed video, I would embed the second clip on the West page. He posits that we need each other to have strong voices to move our struggles forward.

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P.S. – I hope to some more reviews for the upcoming “Planet in Focus” film festival.

Gary Shaul

Gary Shaul is a life-long Torontonian and retired Ontario civil servant. He's been involved with a number of issues over the past 45 years including trade unionism, proportional representation, Indigenous...