Tag Archives: social

The Corporation

The Corporation is one the most critically-acclaimed documentaries of this century. It examines the rise of the modern corporation as the dominant institution of our time. Once a minor entity, it now shapes economies, politics, and daily life across the globe.

Drawing on Joel Bakan’s book, the film investigates the corporation’s history, structure, and guiding motives. Through interviews with thinkers, insiders, whistle-blowers, and critics, it exposes how profit and power drive its behavior.

Voices like Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore help unpack its social and ethical consequences, highlighting the growing resistance challenging corporate influence and imagining possible alternatives.

The Dark Truth of Japan’s Paradise Island

Okinawa is known to many as a postcard perfect paradise. In 2019, before the pandemic stopped travel, the island welcomed 10 million tourists. But despite mass tourism, Okinawa is also the poorest prefecture in Japan.

The Reality of Legalizing Cocaine, Heroin, and Ecstasy

The War on Drugs has failed. Okay, but ending it is more complex than just letting people sell heroin to kids in supermarkets.We think about what a legal market might actually look like. We look at different classes of drugs, exploring exactly how legal, regulated markets for heroin, cocaine and MDMA can be structured in order to protect users from harm.

We examine the social implications of prohibition worldwide. Any attempt to shut down the trade in drugs such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine or weed invariably sets off a chain of events that just makes things worse, leaving a trail of death, illness, violence, slavery, addiction, crime and inequality across the globe.
Everyone loses – except, in a weird kind of way, the drugs themselves.

Cartels in West Africa

Over the past decade or so, South American cartels have found a new way to get their product into the vast European marketplace – West Africa.

The region’s porous borders, endemic poverty and weak law enforcement make it an easy target for international organised crime. But now drug use is spilling over into local markets, and the corruption inherent in the War on Drugs has begun to warp entire societies, leading to the emergence of Africa’s first real narco-states.

We examine the social implications of prohibition worldwide. Any attempt to shut down the trade in drugs such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine or weed invariably sets off a chain of events that just makes things worse, leaving a trail of death, illness, violence, slavery, addiction, crime and inequality across the globe. Everyone loses – except, in a weird kind of way, the drugs themselves.

Do Psychedelics Help With Depression?

Going on a shroom, DMT or acid trip may not sound like a conventional therapy session, but there’s a psychedelic revolution going on in the world of mental health treatment. Illegal drugs previously associated with hippies and raves are now being used to treat PTSD, depression, anxiety, addiction and obsessive disorders.

This is the story of how incredible new research is bringing the therapeutic benefits of magic mushrooms, LSD, MDMA and DMT to light – and how the War on Drugs has needlessly held this research back for 50 years.

We examine the social implications of prohibition worldwide. Any attempt to shut down the trade in drugs such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine or weed invariably sets off a chain of events that just makes things worse, leaving a trail of death, illness, violence, slavery, addiction, crime and inequality across the globe.
Everyone loses – except, in a weird kind of way, the drugs themselves.

Sex: Female

Sex: Female is a candid documentary exploring the sexual lives of everyday American women. The film features interviews with women of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds, sharing their intimate thoughts and experiences—ranging from teenage curiosity to lifelong passion. From a 76-year-old grandmother maintaining a vibrant sex life to young women navigating first loves and sexual identity, the film mixes humor, honesty, and poignancy. Neither sensationalized nor euphemistic, Sex: Female offers a frank, thought-provoking look at female sexuality, giving voice to perspectives often absent from mainstream media.

Slums: Cities of Tomorrow

Today, one person in six lives in a slum, a squat, or any other precarious dwelling. Governments consider these to be problems and try to eradicate them by building public housing, but most citizens refuse to live in environments that fail to address their reality. The documentary Slums: Cities of Tomorrow seeks to address the housing problem in the age of urban overcrowding by looking at structures built on a human scale from a sociological and philosophical perspective. Director Jean Nicolas Orhon gives us an intimate look at the inhabitants and families who, through resilience and ingenuity, have built homes that are well suited to their needs, often finding inspiration from the architectural traditions of their places of origin.

Slums: Cities of Tomorrow takes us on a human and aesthetic journey across the continents: in Mumbai, India, home of the largest slum in all of Asia; in Rabat, Morocco, on what was once fertile farmland; in a tent city in Lakewood, New Jersey; in a trailer district in Marseille, France; and in the native community of Kitcisakik, Quebec.

Split: A Divided America

Split: A Divided America is a powerful and provocative documentary that journeys across the country to confront one of the most pressing issues of our time: the growing political and cultural divide in the United States. Directed by emmy-nominated filmmaker Kelly Nyks’, the film blends emotional, street-level interviews with sharp insights from influential figures such as Noam Chomsky, Tucker Carlson, Jesse Jackson, Al Franken, Amy Goodman, Nicholas Kristof, and Robert Putnam, offering a panoramic view of the forces fueling polarization. Rather than delivering partisan answers, Split presents a bold, unfiltered look at how we got here—and what it might take to heal. The New York Times calls it “a sobering, clear-eyed look at the forces pulling America apart,” while The Washington Post praises it as “a vital conversation-starter in an age of echo chambers.” PocketReviews raves: “Minutes in, I was hooked… any documentary that gets you talking… is a documentary that is doing its job… FOUR STARS!” Urgent, engaging, and deeply human, Split is essential viewing for anyone seeking to understand the soul of a divided nation.

Psychics in the Suburbs

Psychics in the Suburbs is an insider’s look at the Australian psychic medium industry, revealed through the extraordinary life and work of south-western Sydney’s top psychic. Florence’s ability to communicate with the dead means that her clients are willing to pay top dollar for the chance to connect with deceased loved ones. It’s a business in Australia that is certainly booming, but also raising eyebrows.

Buying Sex

Buying Sex carefully guides the viewer through a wide spectrum of disagreement, exploring the many points of view in this age-old yet contemporary debate. Articulate and impassioned formerly prostituted women and sex workers make their claims for and against the proposed changes, while policy-makers, lawyers and even male consumers also offer insight and commentary on this vexing issue. Respecting the differences of ideology and opinion as Canada works its way toward an uneasy consensus, the film challenges us to think for ourselves and offers a gripping and invaluable account of just what is at stake for all of us.

Artificial Immortality

If you were able to create an immortal version of yourself, would you? Until this decade, that question was the stuff of science fiction, but now experts in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics suggest it will indeed be possible.

This cinematic documentary explores the latest technological advancements in AI, robotics and biotech, and poses the question: what is the essence of the human mind, and can this be replicated? Or even more unsettling, could we one day meet cloned versions of ourselves – clones which are better, smarter, and immortal? 

This film explores these questions with visionaries including: Nick Bostrom, author of Superintelligence, Hiroshi Ishiguro, developer of his own uncannily realistic clone Geminoid; Douglas Rushkoff, author of Team Human; Ben Goertzel, founder of Singularity.net who coined the term Artificial General Intelligence; and Deepak Chopra, who is creating his own A.I. mind twin. These visionaries see humanity advancing toward a new age of post-biological life, a world of intelligence without bodies, immortal identity without the limitations of disease, death, and unfulfilled desire. As scientists on the forefront of technology show that a world where humans and machines merge isn’t so far away, we have to ask ourselves will AI be the best, or the last thing we ever do?

Opening film at Hot Docs 2021

¨A fascinating foray deep into the realms of artificial intelligence, machine learning and biotechnology.¨ National Post  Chris Knight

¨The movie at once understands both the beauty and enormity of the possibilities.¨  Global News  Chris Jancelewicz

Margin of Error: AI, Polling and Elections

In the face of a century of traditional polling to predict public opinion, there is a shakeup afoot in the prediction game. Margin of Error: AI, Polling and Elections examines how a startup called Advanced Symbolics (ASI) uses artificial intelligence (AI) and public social-media data to forecast voter behaviour. But the promise of new technology also comes with questions about its accuracy, the threat to citizens’ privacy and our democracy itself.

Every one of us volunteers a huge amount of private data with virtually every Internet service we use, without reading or understanding the terms of service. This data can now be harvested by AI to accurately predict among many other things, how we will vote.

Even without surrendering personal information, the new AI algorithm Polly, developed by ASI, combs social media to build profiles of different demographics and determines their preferences.This method has already led to Polly’s success in predicting both the 2016 Trump victory and Brexit. With the 2019 Canadian federal election campaign as a real time back drop, Margin of Error puts Polly to the test revealing how an AI doesn’t just give a detailed picture of the publics voting intentions, but also how specific events can alter them.

But will knowing what our hopes and concerns are, give politicians the intel they need to respond to our needs, and lead to a “utopian” society, as ASI’s CEO Erin Kelly claims, or can this data be misused to mislead us – either by our own governments, or those of our adversaries? And should politicians even be responding to our desires, as expressed through social media?