8-18-16 | End of the Road: How Money Became Worthless is documentary about government mismanagement of the currency.
8-14-16 | Made in a more innocent age, this 1934 Disney cartoon, The Wise Little Hen, is a promo for work ethic and self-sufficiency.
8-13-16 | It’s Fidel Castro’s birthday today. A great documentary to remember him by is Improper Conduct, which covers his attempt at exterminating gay people. It’s free online.
8-3-16 | Reason has produced a documentary short on how the libertarian movement in Brazil brought down the country’s incompetent president.
7-27-16 | A documentary has been made about perennial comic presidential candidate Vermin Supreme, “the friendly fascist,” who relentlessly mocks the trappings of power.
7-25-16 | Here’s a list of all the TV shows supporting Hillary’s presidential campaign. It’s a surprisingly long list.
7-23-16 | A new documentary, Chicago Boys, tells the story of Chile’s Milton Friedman-inspired economic miracle.
7-22-16 | A short 7-min film about one UK woman’s experience exercising her right to film the police.
7-21-16 | A new documentary is in the works on the Free State Project.
7-19-16 | Changeling is a 2008 film that tells the true story of a mother’s determination to find her kidnapped son…and of a corrupt police department that tried to stop her.
7-19-16 | Animal Corp. is a modern retelling of Orwell’s Animal Farm, courtesy of The Fund for American Studies.
7-18-16 | For fans of Indian cinema, The Home and the World, (Ghare-Baire), was reviewed favorably by Libertarian Futurist Society President William H. Stoddard.
7-16-16 | It’s a Wonderful Life! (with capitalism) is a short humorous film about the benefits of capitalism, from The Fund for American Studies.
7-15-16 | The Foundation for Economic Education endorses the Indian film Guru: “…one of the most pro-free market movies ever made and perhaps the best.”
7-11-16 | A documentary filmmaker took a hell of a chance, but he just ripped a hole in North Korea’s propaganda efforts. He kept the cameras rolling when they were supposed to be off and smuggled the film out. Under the Sun reveals a cold, Orwellian existence in which everyone is constantly afraid and obedient. “During a scene in Under the Sun, a North Korean minder orders uniformed workers to form a line on the factory floor before they speak on camera. ‘Say that joyfully,’ orders the minder, a bespectacled, middle-aged man, as he prods the laborers to talk about how much they love their work producing soy milk.”
7-11-16 | The independent film Ten Years just aired in NYC to thunderous audience applause. “Ten Years explores Hong Kong people’s fear of the potential political and social changes under Chinese rule and presents a dystopian Hong Kong future in 10 years – a topic that has gotten the film banned in mainland China and pulled off in theaters across Hong Kong.”
7-10-16 | The NY Press can’t figure out why there is so little artistic interest in the American Revolution. Maybe it’s because our current intellectual class sees liberty as an obstacle to its Utopian vision? P.S. There have at least been a few films on the Revolution.
7-9-16 | DC is bringing back the streetcar. But a local historian says there are good reasons why streetcars went away in the first place.
7-9-16 | The Objectivist Standard sees a positive trend: more films “presenting geniuses as main characters, glorifying brilliant achievements of great minds, depicting principled men of integrity struggling valorously to promote some life-sustaining value, or all of these together.”
7-9-16 | Indian filmmaker Ali Emran has made a film based on Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. “Winner of the best feature film award from Jammu & Kashmir region at the International Film Festival of Kashmir 2015, Ibtiba (The Beginning) is the story of Zahir, an architect for whom integrity is sacrosanct.”
7-9-16 | The Chicago Reader has just reviewed the biographical documentary Eat That Question—Frank Zappa in His Own Words. “Today Zappa might be less a Bernie Sanders man than a Rand Paul (or at least a Ron Paul) conservative, though he would never have thrown in with any party. As Eat That Question illustrates, Zappa was, in every sense, a frontier spirit.”
7-7-16 | Trey Gowdy doing his usual magic, this time regarding Hillary Clinton’s, uh, miscommunications. I see a campaign commercial in this somewhere.
7-6-16 | Rand Paul comments on Hillary Clinton’s, uh, miscommunications…and nails it.
7-5-16 | Remy’s ad for “DC Matic,” the software that protects against email scandals…
7-3-16 | The Federalist has an article on David Bowie’s instinctive individualism. “I can’t tolerate people who want to form, or be part of, movements. It should always come back to individuals,” he said in 1977.
6-30-16 | Not sure what all that American Revolution stuff was about? Maybe it’s time to watch a good film on the subject: list here. Otherwise, someone might do an awkward ‘man in the street’ interview with you…
6-30-16 | Julie Borowski parodies the new film The Purge, a dystopian vision of a US in which one night a year all crime is legal. Yeah, what would actually happen if everything were legalized?
6-29-16 | Thatcher explains why the EU doesn’t like referendums: “Socialists don’t like ordinary people choosing, for they might not choose socialism.” [h/t Against Crony Capitalism]
6-28-16 | We live in an age of surfaces. Incredibly, there is a conference for politicians and pop figures, leaning on each other’s manufactured popularity apparently.
6-27-16 | Three Reason videos just won awards! Congrats Reason!
6-24-16 | Trey Gowdy grills hapless DHS bureaucrat on unconstitutional nature of terrorism watch list. Nails it. [h/t Stephen Steven Crowder]
6-23-16 | Margaret Thatcher’s speech, in which she predicted the EU would try to turn the UK into a vassal state. Somewhere she is smiling.
6-23-16 | Quote of the day: “I feel a disturbance in The Force, as if a million bureaucrats in Brussels screamed in impotent rage, and then went to a meeting.”
6-23-16 | The film that changed history: Brexit the Movie. It was a made on a shoe-string budget by the talented director Martin Durkin, and was viewed by over 2 million times, more than the vote difference in this knife-edge election. Newsweek earlier reviewed the film and called it a “libertarianx wet dream.”
6-23-16 | BREXIT JUST WON: This means that EU plans to create a federal government comparable to that of the US, in which the UK would essentially be a subordinate state…have been scuttled. Time for a song.
6-23-16 | The Ukraine just opened to the public its local Soviet archives. Families are now discovering what happened to their relatives when they were taken away to Stalin’s death camps.
6-23-16 | John Stossel vs. Hillary Clinton…on free speech.
6-21-16 | John Stossel debunks gun myths in just 6 minutes.
6-18-16 | No idea what this Japanese commercial for Donald Trump means — you could interpret it in multiple ways — but don’t drink your coffee while watching.
6-18-16 | Libertarian songwriter GoRemy responds (in song) to the politicization of Orlando.
6-17-16 | A 2014 film made in secret in Iran, “Manuscripts Don’t Burn,” tells the story of of an assassination attempt on a journalist about to publish a book on abuse of power by the Iranian government.
6-14-16 | So why do we have the Second Amendment anyway? That question is being asked now in social media. The number to remember is 169 million, that’s the democide death toll (death by government, *excluding wars*) in the last century. The documentary Innocents Betrayed (free online) tells what can happen when guns are outlawed.
6-13-16 | Hip libertarian music video from Academicos de Milton Friedman.
6-11-16 | “Porc Fest,” the annual Free State Project get-together is scheduled for next week in NH, June 19-26. This documentary tells you why so many libertarians are moving to the Granite State.
6-11-16 | John Stossel makes an excellent case against the War on Drugs in just 6 minutes.
6-10-16 | You didn’t invent that iPhone: Nancy Pelosi says the federal government invented iPhone. Steve Jobs did a good job “putting it together.” [h/t Stephen Crowder]
6-9-16 | Spongebob characters explain what it’s like to argue with a socialist about socialism in Venezuela.
6-9-16 | Libertarian filmmaker Michael Matheson Miller, whose documentary “Poverty Inc.” won the FreedomFest Grand Prize in 2014, was recently interviewed about the film, which is still winning awards in festivals around the world.
6-6-16 | The actor who played (evil) Draco Malfoy was seen at the LP convention and met Gary Johnson. Not sure what to make of that.
6-4-16 | This 13-minute clip relates the sad and declining state of things in Venezuela, which seems to be nearing the end of its rope as food is running out.
6-3-16 | Godfrey Bloom, speaking to the UK in the European Parliament, calls it a house of theft, and quotes Murray Rothbard. [h/t Mises Institute]
6-1-16 | Now that the EU is partnering with social media venues to control “offensive” speech, here’s a look at the future.
5-27-16 | San Francisco airport was allowed to do an experiment…using a private airport screening service instead of TSA. Was it any better? Well…
5-21-16 | The documentary Hunted in Russia, about routine and unchecked abuse of gay men by Russian gangs, is a good example of why the Second Amendment is key to liberty. Sometimes government, even when not actively hostile, just isn’t inclined to protect you…and you’re on your own. Unfortunately, for the gay men “hunted in Russia” they have no Second Amendment. [h/t Clint Townsend]
5-15-16 | Last surviving Casablanca actress Madeleine Lebeau has died. Her tearful performance helped to make this scene an iconic moment representing defiance in the face of authoritarian domination.
5-13-16 | The new documentary, Brexit: The Movie, (free online), which advocates that the UK exit the European Union, got some backhanded praise from Newsweek: “It is a paean to high aspirations, low tariffs and even lower taxes. It is a libertarian’s wet dream of Randian proportions.”
5-8-16 | An obscure 1951 film, “Hometown Story,” noted mostly for including a young Marilyn Monroe in a small part, turns out to be a pro-capitalist parable quite possibly inspired by Ayn Rand.
5-7-16 | Ray Bradbury wrote a great horror story about a writer, whose work was banned and destroyed, taking revenge on the censors. I just happened to find it on youtube.
5-3-16 | The Simpsons pretty much nailed our current presidential predicament with regard to the two-party system in this short clip.
4-30-16 | The NYT should love this one: Mike Norris, the son of Chuck Morris, will debut his new film Amerigeddon in theaters May 13th. It’s about a dystopian future in which a corrupt government must overcome the Second Amendment to gain absolute power.
4-20-16 | The Supreme Court says law-abiding U.S. citizens are entitled to own guns, but localities like NYC are thwarting that ruling by making an application process so absurdly onerous that most give up. John Stossel investigates.
4-20-16 | The Foundation for Economic Education published a nice review of the documentary “Chuck Norris vs. Communism,” about the contribution of Western films to the demise of the USSR. [h/t Moving Picture Institute]
4-18-16 | HBO has announced a new film celebrating the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, focused on his role in civil rights legislation. Another film to support the narrative just in time for this year’s election. Johnson will be played by Bryan Cranston, fresh from his role as Trumbo.
4-16-16 | “The subversive British filmmaker Charlie Lyne was looking for a way to express his displeasure with the U.K.’s film censorship bureaucracy. So he decided to use the website Kickstarter to crowdsource funding for the dullest movie imaginable.” His movie is a ten-hour film of paint drying.
4-15-16 | Libertarian comedy-songwriter somehow managed to “join” the Democratic debate.
4-14-16 | ABC’s “The Middle” severely mocked college speech-Nazis in the latest episode.
4-13-16 | So what actually happens when a government’s borrowing capacity is finally exhausted? John Stossel takes a look at Prichard, AL.
4-13-16 | The new film “Confirmation” rehashes the Clarence Thomas hearings, just in time for this election year. To judge by reviews, it has the usual angle. “Conservatives will hate HBO’s new film on the disgraceful war waged on Anita Hill.” — Mother Jones
4-13-16 | Little-known fact: John Maynard Keynes was not a trained economist, but a self-taught one, who was unaware of a great deal of economics. His contemporary, Friedrich Hayek, whimsically recalls…
4-8-16 | The Atlas Society recommends the French film Marguerite. “The French film Marguerite offers a sometimes amusing but ultimately painful tale of a would-be singer who is so shielded from her own lack of talent that the ending can only be opera-tragic.”
4-5-16 | The BBC has found the smoking gun on communist British traitor Kim Philby. This clip just recently uncovered from the archives of the East German Stasi (secret police) shows Philby secretly lecturing the Stasi on how he was able to get away with his crime.
4-4-16 | The World Health Organisation would like to see all films that feature smoking given an adult rating, effectively banning Pinocchio, Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, The Little Mermaid, Alice in Wonderland.
4-3-16 | Thousands of Hong Kongers attended hastily-planned screenings of the film Ten Years on April 1, after the dystopian movie about the potential dangers of Communist control mysteriously disappeared from cinemas in Hong Kong earlier this year. [h/t Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation]
4-1-16 | Sajid Javid, UK Business Secretary, was invited to choose a film for Parliament’s film society to watch. Javid’s choice caught the audience by surprise: The Fountainhead. “When he first saw it, he said that evening, he thought it was ‘a film that was articulating what I felt.'” He is so taken with it that he reads the court scene to himself twice a year (e.g. “I wished to come here and say that I am a man who does not exist for others.”). The pro-socialist Guardian is very bitter about it.
Libertarian Film News: 1Q16
3-29-16 | Young Americans for Liberty has acquired exclusive rights to screen the free-speech film “Can We Take a Joke?” on college campuses for one week in April. If you are a college student, you can show it free of charge.
3-29-16 | Cuban actress Maria Conchita Alonso — whose family was forced to flee Cuba, and who played Robin Williams’ girlfriend in the escape-from-socialism film Moscow on the Hudson — happened to run across pro-communist Sean Penn in the Los Angeles airport. “I just turned around and screamed with all my strength, ‘Communist a – – hole!’ . . . My mother, she started clapping.”
3-29-16 | Libertarian filmmaker Martin Durkin has just raised $200K on Kickstarter to make Brexit: the Movie, about why the UK should exit the nanny-mega-state EU. The film will be released in time for Britain’s referendum on this issue. The trailer is here. Durkin is the Director of the excellent Margaret Thatcher biopic Margaret: Death of a Revolutionary, one of the “Top 25 Libertaran Documentaries.”
3-26-16 | Nice three-minute interview of a Wall Street Journal editor on his recent visit to the Free State Project in New Hampshire.
3-26-16 | There is a new libertarian super-hero in town. His name is Max Justice. This is episode one of this (so far) three-part series.
3-21-16 | Reason parodies the strangely undemocratic nomination process of the Democratic Party. “In the Great Hall of the Democratic Party, there are assembled the Party’s greatest heroes, created from the establishment elite…coming to the rescue of Hillary Clinton.”
3-20-16 | South Park has not only promoted libertarian ideas — but by fighting in courts for its right to parody, it has impacted the law. “According to The Hollywood Reporter, the ‘What, What (In the Butt)’ case has been the most cited in courtrooms across the country in the last five years, thanks to the growth of digital content.” Reason weighs in with “How South Park Saved Fair Use.”
3-18-16 | ““I have been working on The Fountainhead,” Hollywood Director Zach Snyder confirmed. “I’ve always felt like The Fountainhead was such a thesis on the creative process and what it is to create something. Warner Bros. owns [Ayn Rand’s] script and I’ve just been working on that a little bit.”
3-15-16 | If you thought flirting with fascism was new to the U.S., take a look at this Cato analysis of the 1933 film Gabriel Over the White House, which seems to openly endorse the idea that FDR should have supreme power…and suspend the Constitution. Things have actually been worse before. [h/t Instapundit]
3-14-16 | John Stossel to moderate Libertarian Party presidential debate: “The event will be taped March 29, to air three days later. The candidates: former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, software entrepreneur John McAfee, and Libertarian Republic founder Austin Petersen.”
3-14-16 | Debt Limit: A short (funny) film on government debt. [h/t Anthem Film Festival]
3-13-16 | “Slavery is as old as mankind. It pervades all of human history and all the globe until modern times; and after disease and death it has probably been the single greatest source of human misery. So how, after so many thousands of years, was it suddenly reduced from being a common, mainstream and legitimate institution to an abhorrent aberration — generally rare and hidden — largely confined to the moral backwaters of the world? That’s the subject of this film: the rise of the anti-slavery movement in England, and more specifically the rise of a man who did more to free slaves than anyone since Moses, a guy you probably have never heard of: William Wilberforce.” The film Amazing Grace, which I just reviewed, tells his story. The DVD, by the way, is just $5 on Amazon.
3-12-16 | Shadows on the Wind, a Firefly fan film, is in the works via Kickstarter.
3-8-16 | PAID HOLLYWOOD INTERNSHIP: Applications have opened for the Taliesin Nexus “Odysseus Fellowship,” which places qualified applicants in paid three-month internships at leading production companies, working for movers and shakers in the industry. Applications close on May 31st, 2016. Taliesin Nexus assists those who “share a passion for a free society.”
2-29-16 | America needs this Patricia Neal right now. [h/t B. Daniel Blatt]
2-28-16 | A short video advertisement for the upcoming Students for Liberty conference in Prague. Looks like fun!
2-28-16 | This gutsy British lecturer — Milo Yiannopoulos — is doing more to defend campus free speech than pretty much anyone, taking the debate right into the lion’s den. Here’s a recording of his latest talk.
2-28-16 | The libertarian Moving Picture Institute has announced its top film picks for 2016. Best Picture goes to…Bridge of Spies.
2-26-16 | Trumbo takes top “honors” in the 2016 Duranty Awards for Historical Distortions in Film. Note that the award is made of fool’s gold. 🙂
2-26-16 | OPEN CALL FOR LIBERTARIAN FILMS: Anthem Film Festival, the annual screening of libertarian films, is seeking submissions for its July, 2016 event in Las Vegas.
2-25-16 | John Stossel has just recommended the film Joy.
2-19-16 | The excellent action film 13 Hours, which tells the story of six heroes who rescued Americans trapped by Hillary’s Benghazi debacle, was slammed by left-wing critics who projected/hoped it would lose big money. Less than 2 months after its release, global box office sales just hit $55 million and its likely to end up at $70 million when all is said and done, a cool $20 million more than cost. Nice to see the good guys win.
2-13-16 | Frank Zappa’s libertarian political side is revealed in the new documentary Eat That Question: Frank Zappa In His Own Words. “The man himself may surprise you. He doesn’t do drugs! He is an anti-Communist! For a guy some wanted to shrug off as just another late 60s joker, Zappa, if nothing else, will at least impress with his work ethic…Zappa’s libertarian streak manifests itself most famously when he took on Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center, accusing their attempts to label obscene lyrics as the first step toward an Orwellian theocracy.”
2-12-16 | FILM SCHOLARSHIP: “If you and your treatment are selected, you will receive a grant for $10,000 to make your short film or web-series and be paired with an established industry professional who will mentor you through a 100 day process.” This is the real deal, and is provided by Liberty Lab for Film.
2-10-16 | A new PBS series from The Free to Choose Network: “The Real Adam Smith – Morality & Markets, is the first hour of our new two-part series, which takes an intriguing look at Adam Smith, his background and the evolution of his ideas, both economic and ethical.” You can sign up to begin receiving notifications for airings in your area here.
2-10-16 | Someone has assembled a collection of clips in which Hillary contradicts herself over and over. It’s 13 minutes long. 🙂
2-4-16 | Sign of the times: The Director of the Academy-Award-winning Citizenfour is under surveillance.
2-3-16 | Supergirl review: “For now, I’ll give the show credit for making a libertarian villain who is not a mockery of libertarian philosophy.” –Scott Shackford, Reason
2-3-16 | The Free State Project just hit its 20,000 pledge trigger mark–that means the 20,000 libertarians who joined the movement will now begin migrating to New Hampshire. This may be the single best shot for a libertarian community to take hold in our lifetimes. For those interested, I recommend this very informative documentary on the many advantages of life there.
2-2-16 | It’s Ayn Rand’s birthday…here’s a review of We the Living, the best film resulting from her works. It’s a fitting tribute to the universally antiauthoritarian nature of Ayn Rand’s ideas that this film — first produced in fascist Italy as an attack on communism — was then banned at the angry insistence of the Nazis, who considered it antifascist. They were both right.
2-2-16 | “A well-known female Pakistani filmmaker’s new documentary about honor killings is giving impetus to a political effort to strengthen laws to protect women—even before it has been screened here.”
1-31-16 | Why Superman no longer considers himself American: “[Hollywood studios] are doing everything from cutting scenes and self-censoring to adding extra China-specific scenes and Chinese product placements, sometimes with hilariously inept results.”
1-30-16 | Coming Home looks interesting…a touching film about a man arrested during the Cultural Revolution, who comes home to find that his wife went into amnesia from the shock of his arrest…but can he reawaken her memory?
1-29-16 | Who knew Downtown Abbey had a libertarian character? “Your great-grandchildren won’t thank you when the state is all-powerful because we didn’t fight.” — the Dowager Countess, played by Maggie Smith…as quoted in this clip from the show. [h/t Daily Signal]
1-29-16 | A free seminar for young libertarians (ages 18-26) interested in filmmaking (Ages 18 – 26) in Los Angeles, California..application deadline is 2/5. [h/t Taliesin Nexus]
1-28-16 | When U.S. filmmakers went into Tibet to document Chinese government domination of the country, they became the unintended subjects of their own documentary. [h/t Moving Picture Institute]
1-28-16 | Never heard of Auschwitz hero Witold Pilecki? You soon will. A film about him is finally being made. “In September 1940, Pilecki proposed a daring plan that in hindsight appears nearly unimaginable: he would arrange to be arrested in the hope that the Nazis, instead of executing him, might send him to the Auschwitz camp where he could gather information and form a resistance group from the inside.” [h/t Leonard Read]
1-27-16 | Once referred to by the Boston Globe as “Little Libertarians on the Prairie,” the Laura Ingalls Wilder stories are now to be made into a film.
1-23-16 | Nice story of how an elderly widow beat Donald Trump, with the help of the Institute for Justice.
1-22-16 | The Arizona Daily Star gives a back-handed compliment to the new film The 5th Wave: “[it] has a weirdly virulent pro-gun, libertarian streak just under the surface.”
1-16-16 | LIBERTARIAN FILMS NEEDED: This year’s Anthem Film Festival, an annual screening of libertarian film, will be held in Las Vegas, July 13-16. The festival has just begun accepting submissions for this year’s event. More info here.
1-12-16 | The latest video from Project Veritas rips the lid off of Common Core.
1-12-16 | Libertarian fans of recently deceased David Bowie might like to know that he made his television debut at 17, not as a singer but as a personal freedom activist, defending the right of young men to have long hair, a controversial thing at the time.
1-9-16 | Rand Paul grills federal bureaucrats: “Why are bayonets being distributed to local police departments?” A pity no one else is asking that question.
1-6-16 | PBS is offering on instant (temporarily free) download the new documentary Chuck Norris vs. Communism, which tells how a black market racketeer and a courageous female translator brought Western films behind the Iron Curtain, thereby revealing to impoverished communists the truth about Western prosperity and values.
1-5-16 | A short film clip from a Soviet grocery store around 1990. It looks like an abandoned Safeway.
1-5-16 | Variety critic names The Hunting Ground among worst films of 2015. “‘Speaking of shoddy journalism,’ Taylor wrote after naming ‘Truth,’ the film that attempted to vindicate Dan Rather, the worst film of the year, ‘the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has succumbed without a murmur to The Hunting Ground, placing on its documentary feature shortlist a loaded piece of agitprop that plays fast and loose with statistics and our sympathy with victims of campus sexual assault.”
1-3-16 | Reason Magazine has favorably reviewed two current films: The Big Short and Joy.
Want more news? Continue to Libertariani Film News Update: 2015