Directed by David Vainola • Documentary • 1996 • 51 minutes
:30 Second Democracy explores the disturbing relationship between political parties and the advertising industry during election campaigns. Through television advertising, techniques perfected to sell commercial products are readily applied to political candidates, turning elections into marketing exercises and voting into another consumer choice.
:30 Second Democracy is unique among explorations of this theme, providing a comparative history of political television advertising in the U.S., Britain and Canada which looks at how each of these countries has taken widely differing approaches to regulating political advertising on television, with very different results.
Included in the program are some of the most famous and infamous political ads of recent memory, from President Johnson's 'Daisy' ad in 1964, to the British Labour Party's Kinnock 'Biography' and the Canadian Liberal Party's Free Trade ad, to the controversial 'Willie Horton' ad of the 1988 U.S. Presidential campaign. Complementing the ads are interviews with some of the highest profile admakers and analysts of political ads in the world.
Directed by Jimmy Leipold • Documentary • With Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Stuart Ewen, David Miller • 2020 • 53 minutes
In 1916, Woodrow Wilson ran on a platform strongly opposing US entry into WWI. But just a few months after taking office, the United States declared war on Germany. Soon after...
Directed by Judy Jackson • Documentary • 2003 • 50 minutes
A decade after the disastrous US humanitarian intervention in Somalia, HornAfrik, the first independent TV and radio station in war-ravaged Mogadishu, was established by three brave Somali-Canadians in the face of chaos and devastation. ...
Directed by Katerina Cizek and Peter Wintonick • Documentary • 2002 • 58 minutes
It may be the greatest media technology paradigm shift since TV's advent. From Rodney King to Osama Bin Laden, handicams aren't just for weddings and family vacations anymore. Over the past decade, amateur camcorder...
