Double Exposure Film Festival Film Review - Enemies of the State

The story of Anonymous server host, hacker National Gard Vet and suffer from depression Matthew DeHart is told in Sona Kennebeck's Enemies of the State. The key event is a 2010 raid of the DeHart Indiana family home where the FBI took Matts computer claiming that they were looking for evidence of child pornography. In Matt's version the FBI were looking for files relating to his darknet server that he had shut down. The files contain material that would expose the C.I.A. as acting on U.S. soil authors of a homegrown terrorist attack. After the event Matt fled to Mexico. When he was able to return to the family home he ended up studying in Montreal. The conditions of his residency meant he had to renter the U.S. then go back to restart the clock. Upon entering the United States Matt was arrested for the outstanding charge of two counts of child poronography in Tennesse and spent the next two years in prison.  DeHart claims he was tortured, interrogated after being injected with  the hallucinogenic drug Thorazine left in a cell with no clothing or furniture, and subject to sleep deprivation. Upon his release and return home his parents Paul and Leann who were also military veterans and both at one point had security clearance decided to flee with their son to Canada in April 2013 to seek asylum. 

Director Sona Kennebeck explores the two competing narratives.The FBI pursuing, tormenting and harassing Matt and his family all retired veterans with his father Paul having worked for the N.S.A. Paul and Leann are deeply involved in Matt's life possibly a level too much as the film explores. The other told by the judge and investigating FBI officer the case supporting the child poronograpy charges. Two boys had come forward that met Matt online claiming that he came to Tennessee to meet them and was in possession of compromising videos. 

The film uses a heavy dose of reenactments that is a trademark of Errol Morris who serves as producer for the production. Matts interrogation after his arrest at the border, A bird's eye view of the conditions in that first prison cell, and the asylum hearing in Toronto all get the treatment. Given the current sentiment to be at least wary if not full out distrusting government agencies Matt's story although extraordinary could be believed. Attempting to smear a perceived threat personally with a disturbing sexual narrative is a long-standing tool in the F.B.I's playbook. It's not until late evidence comes to light into the closing stanza of the film does the balance of probabilities tilt to one side over the other. 

Enemies of the State is the story of a hacktivist with connections to Anonymous, Wikileaks, and the Dark Web who went on the run after an interaction with the FBI. DeHart sought to defect to Russia and Venezuela then eventually sought asylum in Canada over a described data dump on his server that had National Security Implications. Matt DeHart was doing something on his computer that attracted the attention of the government. The proof presented for one argument .vs the lack thereof of the other and Matt's ultimate actions will lead the viewer to one likely conclusion. 

*** 1/2 Out of Four. 

Enemies of the State | Sonia Kennebeck |  U.S.A. | 2020 | 103 Minutes.

Tags; Dark Web, Internet Server, F.B.I Raid, C.I.A Coverup, Cyber-Crime Arrest, Torture, Thorazine, Child Poronograpy, Indiana, Tennessee, Prison, Asylum, Anonymous, Wikileaks, Hacktivist. 

Double Exposure Film Festival Film Review - MLK / FBI

Director Sam Pollard wanted to narrow the voices and let the archival material tell the story in his new Documentary  Film MLK/FBI. Pollard a close collaborator with Spike Lee on several films including Mo' Better Blues, Clockers, and Bamboozled limited the main speakers to 5. Two Historians, A FBI agent, two close friends of the Reverend,and a special appearance by James Comey. From 1963 Until his asssassination in 1968 the FBI conducted surveillance mainly by way of wiretapping on Martin Luther King Jr. The Reverand first came to the attention of the FBI after leading a successful 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Now seeing the mobilization that he was able to muster in the summer of 1963  Hoover felt active measures were required. He and his deputy director William C. Sullivan who called King "the most dangerous Negro in the future of this nation" used the threat of communism as the path to secure the authorization.

Stanley Levinson an inner circle advisor for King had well-known ties to the communist party.  Levinson was both a lawyer and a CPA plus they spun the notion that the black population would be more susceptible to communism. King argued the opposite finding it to be a wonder that more did not given the plight of African- Americans in the country. Hoover brought the communist leanings of Levinson to JFK who encouraged King to distance himself from Levison. King did not allowing Attorney General Bobby Kennedy to grant the first series of wiretaps on King in 1963.  They tapped the offices of the SCLC , King's home, and his close friend and speechwriter Clarence Jones who serves as one of the voices for the film. It was on the wiretap at Jones' home that the FBI learn that King was not always faithful to his wife and took the focus of the surveillance in a different direction. 

Historian Beverly Gage gives the FBI point of view that was the prevailing one on the day. The FBI under Hoovers 48 year reign carefully crafted their image as America's protectors bringing the best and brightest to the agency. There was the look of a G-Man tall and athletic that ranged from Fraternity boy to ex Football player. Plus a patriotic public campaign started by Hoover in the late twenties, that included newsreels and portrayals on film then the post war communist threat feed the beast. King biographer and author David Garrow gives a matter of fact comment noting that the FBI was not acting off-book. They were part of the political establishment and their actions were signed off both by Bobby Kennedy and later Lyndon Johnston. Both men were friendly with King but not disavowing Livingston led the former and a stong anti-Vietnam stance guided the latter to see things the F.B.I.'s way. 

MLK/FBI explores a leading goverment agency obsession boarding on paranoia to squash a threat that in their view tcould affect American society as a whole and more to the point themselves. Hoover reached the pinnacle of outrage when King was awarded the Nobel Prize. He publically labeled King the most notorious liar in the U.S. and launch a plan by Deputy director Sullivan to link King to a hotel rape. The plan was only called off due to King's April 4, 1968 death. The FBI saw themselves as standing up for white Christian ideals a position that was supported by the man on the street. Director Pollard presents the information clearly ad plainly and given the current relationship between minorities and authorities timely as well. 

***1/2 Out of 4.

MLK/FBI | Sam Pollard | U.S.A. | 2020 | 104 Minutes. 

Tags: MLK, Montogomery Bus Boycott, Baptist Preacher, SCLC, March on Washington, FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, Wiretaps, Imformants, Audultery, Survellance, Reel to Reel, Tapes, Nobel Peace Prize, Annoymus Letter, Assassination. 

Double Exposure Film Festival Review - The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel

Joel Bakan and Jennifer Abbott return with Joel Bakan co-directing this time 17 years after their landmark 2003 Documentary The Corporation which she co-directed with Mark Achbar based on Bakan's screenplay. The pair have been stewing over the last few years seeing that corporations have taken the diagnosis from the original film as being psychopaths to rebrand themselves as being on your side environmentally conscious and declaring that they have families too and want to leave the plant in a better state for both your and their grandchildren. 

The directors manage to make their way to the World Economic Forum at the invitation of its founder Klaus Schwab which is the focus of the first section of the film. JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is the executive in the crosshairs for most of this sequence. He holds court in Davos where the world financial elite meet to exchange views and set world economic policy. Current and past Heads of Sate mingle with billionaire CEO's and think tank chairs while techies looking to fund their startups struggle to get some face time. Dimon trumpets his plan to rebuild Detroit where in reality as the prior practices of his bank and his colleagues including floating dodgy mortgage funds lead to the collapse of the market, their bailout, and the demise of Detroit in the first place. 

The documentary as its predecessor continues to explore the expected suspects Google, Amazon, G.E. Facebook, Pepsi Co, and Merck outlining their schemes to avoid paying taxes and sheltering their profits offshore. Even a sequence where Microsoft invests to educate children in developing countries through a program known as Bridge International Academies is skewered as the teachers are not fully qualified, tethered to tablet that they are forced to follow strictly. The takeaway; if the driving principle is to make a profit social responsibility, a green agenda and making the world a better place will always come second. 

The most off-putting part of the film is the list of steps referred to as the Corporation Playbook. The directors outline a series of steps that Corporations take to put themselves at the centre of society. The main points is not paying their fair share of taxes creates a shortfall in the government's budget to deliver services. Because there is a shortfall the most vulnerable citizens suffer. Here steps up the seemingly altruistic Corporation to privatize the former government service: water, prisons, war, and education for a profit. They proclaim the government is falling short therefore the community-minded cooperation has to act. In the last third of the piece, the Directors touch on the rise of the progressive movement. Operation Wall Street, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Progressives running for and being elected to office as a pushback to the Market Society. Black Lives Matters and Covid-19 are also explored as a coda. as The additions seems a bit forced and the film would have been more cohesive without the last minute inclusion. The directors raise some good points but do not cover any new ground that the viewer has likely contemplated while watching a B.P. ad on how they are doing great things for the environment hoping that the consumer has forgotten the event of the Deep Water Horizon Horizon spill. If the conclusion from the first film was that Cooperation are Psychotic The New Corporation lays out the case that 17 years later it is in fact  Chaotic Neutral. 

*** Out of 4

The New Corporation: The Unfortunate Necessary Sequel | Joel Bakan/Jennifer Abbot | 2020 | 106 Minutes. 

Tags: World Economic Forum, Davos, Klaus Schwab, J.P. Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, Detroit, Bridge International Academies, Corporate Citizenry, Tax Avoidance, Privatization, Microsoft, Amazon, G.E., Progressive Movement, Occupy Wall Street, Protest, Black Lives Matter, COVID-19. 

 

Double Exposure Film Festival Film Review - 76 Days

 76 Days covers the hectic period of the lock down in Wuhan at the start of the COVID-19 virus. The main focus is on the hospital workers who are covered from head to toe in PPE, completely unrecognizable to each other except for their I.D.'s and grab any opportunity to sit and have a moment of stillness. The film opens with one of the staff arriving at the room of her father just after he has passed. She is physically restrained by her colleagues as she expresses her uncontrollable grief. She just wants to say goodbye but is not allowed to do so as words of encouragement are sent her way for her to be strong as her long shift has just started.

Director Hao Wu put the film together from New York while Weixi Chen and an Anonymous contributor shot the footage guerilla-style in Wuhan. The pair would upload their footage to the cloud where Hao Wu would go to retrieve finding the best threads to begin to piece together a film. The results are poignant yet devastating from the uncontrollable opening sequence to the end when the lockdown is finally lifted. 

The project tracks a patient referred to by staff as Grandpa throughout the film. He is restless, does not wear his mask properly, and is constantly wandering throughout the hospital especially at night trying to get out and go home. From this personal and measurably happy tail, the embedded filmmakers train a lens to the entrance of the facility. The doors are locked and there is banging and shouting in the small space between the doors and the elevators. The area is full of infected people trying to get in for treatment. The hospital can handle 50 maximum slowly working their way through a selection process a few patients at a time. Another morbid task is making calls to the family of the deceased as the nurse on duty goes through personal belongings including cell phones, I.D. cards, and jewellery that the staff remove from the dead feeling the family would want to keep as a souvenir. 

The directors did not want any of the staff to be identified in reviews of the film for fear of potential backlash from the Chinese Government.  The film is shot in four different hospitals with the name of one being prominently displayed towards the end of the film. The spirit of the community is something to behold. Volunteers come from all over the country to help out. Citizens turn their vehicles into transports for the infected sanitizing the best they can and decontaminating after each trip. 

On top of it all the project originally set for a U.S. network to was eventually scrapped once the virus found its way to U.S. shores. Hao Wu continued to edit during the down period later convincing his two collaborators a world away to keep going as this was an important project that people should see. 

76 Days is a close-up view of medical workers working with the unknown.  The lessons learned that are being applied to the second wave that is now sweeping the globe were unknown to these virus battling pioneers. They manage to have some tender moments when they show their kindness by blowing up plastic gloves to create get well soon balloons placed amongst the tubes of a ventilator. They are the only people that these suffering manly seniors see in an isolated setting with a good possibility that their patients lives could be coming to an end. 

**** Out of 4

76 Days | Hao Wu/ Weixi Chen/Anonymous | U.S.A. | 2020 | 93 Minutes. 

Tags: Wuhan , China, COVID-19, Lockdown, Pandemic, PPE, Guerilla Filmmaking, Ventilator, ID Card, Smartphone, Facetime, Bracelet.