Adam Curtis

[Sweejak]

Is doing a series of blog posts (video N/A outside of UK) on Afghanistan under the heading Kabul:City that continues his unique style with focus on ideologies gone bad, very bad.

Hopefully this will make it into a film sooner rather than later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/#jump_more

[Sweejak]

Kabul No1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2 ... r_one.html

No1 (continued)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2 ... one_1.html

Kabul: City Number One - Part 3
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2 ... art_3.html

Kabul: City Number One - Part 4
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2 ... art_4.html

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Thanks for these, Sweejak. I'll hopefully get a chance to watch them later on.

Curtis is brilliant at what he does.

[82_28]

Jesus H Christ. That reads like some PKD novel I don't remember. Wow.

Is all that true?!?!?

I suppose it probably is. Whatever that means. . .

[Sweejak]

AOL, You don't need to catch the embedded videos, it would be nice, but not necessary.

85_28, love the PKD comment.

[cptmarginal]

Excellent stuff, thanks for the heads-up. I'm not bothering to watch the videos right now, but there is a method (described in the comments to part one of this series) to spoof your geographical location & watch BBC videos.

Last week six Italian soldiers died in a suicide truck bomb-blast in Kabul. The deaths shocked Italy and a state funeral was held in Rome. At the funeral Prime Minister Berlusconi became the first western leader to call for the western troops to withdraw from Afghanistan.

But Roberto Saviano the expert on the Neapolitan mafia - the Camorra - pointed out that Italy's relationship to Afghanistan was far more complicated. The soldiers who died, he said, came from the south of Italy, an area where their life chances have been blunted by corruption and organised crime. Their only option out of the trap was the army - which had then taken them to Afghanstan. The country that produces 90% of the heroin in Italy and the rest of Europe.

And it is that heroin that fuels the power and corruption of organised crime in Southern Italy.

Careful, now. This is getting awfully close to providing some sensible answers for questions like "why are wars fought?"

[tazmic]

"Many thanks for your email. I wrote the Media Alert, so I'll respond. I did see the first part of your series. It contained some excellent material, particularly by the standards of mainstream analysis. But what was so disturbing was that while you at times really did touch on issues that are all but taboo in our society, you ultimately reproduced exactly the kind of deceptive spin that Bernays used to camouflage the truth about big business control. A good example was the framing explanation of the issues presented, and repeated, in several parts of the series:"

MediaLens's negative take on Curtis

[Sweejak]

MediaLens's negative take on Curtis

I'm not as well read as David Edwards, but the critique seems useful only as a flag to keep an eye out. It's really hard to determine intent absolutely. How do you do that short of having actual documents and plans?

Looking at Curtis's other films in the context of this complaint I don't think it really holds up, maybe Curtis doesn't go deep politics enough, but his films remind me of prisms with a lot of unusual angles that make the deficiencies minor.

[tazmic]

Agreed Sweejak, I just thought it a reasonable expression of reservations
I had felt. Either way, I'd rather have his work available than not, it's
impressive & enlightening in many ways.

[Sweejak]

I love it when someone just comes out full tilt and says it, but upon examination it's often opinion. Do you think maybe he's restrained by the documentary parameters? And then, he does work for the BBC.

[Nordic]

Anyone know why the videos don't work?

Or how to get them to work?

[cptmarginal]

Anyone know why the videos don't work?

Or how to get them to work?

BBC videos only work for local users, not worldwide. You can try installing Tor + Mgeni, as described in the comments to the first article. I tried this yesterday, but it didn't work out for me - going through a proxy made things intolerably slow.

Unless somebody knows of a fast, free proxy server then it's probably only feasible to watch BBC videos through a pay-subscription proxy.

[Wombaticus Rex]

I caught the medialens critique earlier and I thought it was kind of a dick move. Curtis does meditations, think-pieces, tone poems about information culture and political control...he's not writing a fucking textbook, you know?

His letter to Curtis comes off as very didactic and self-important, basically "I'm an expert on one of the hundreds of subjects you brought up, and I feel that you didn't tell the whole story."

Let art be art, for the love of Ganeshe.

I wouldn't have responded to that guy, either. It's more important that Curtis keeps synthesizing and creating, than that he "answers for" his work or works out his content with a committee of self-appointed experts.

[Nordic]

Anyone know why the videos don't work?

Or how to get them to work?

BBC videos only work for local users, not worldwide.

Why the F would they do that? That's just bizarre.

[orz]

Little obsolete thing called international copyright/licensing laws? And a little extortion scam called the License Fee.