Humanities Documentaries to Watch

A documentary on the series of televised debates in 1968 between liberal Gore Vidal and conservative William F. Buckley.

This is an unashamedly opinionated film. In Gore Vidal's America, the political coup has already happened. The right have triumphed and the human values of the liberals have been consigned to history. But how did this happen and who organized it? In this film Gore Vidal's acerbic, opinionated and informed approach rips away at the facade of the new America. The film dramatizes Gore's political views and his concern at the present state of American democracy using interviews and historical footage of his famous appearances on television and talk shows over the last fifty years. In the recently filmed interviews Gore examines the course of American history and policy making and draws dramatic conclusions on the fate of the nation in the modern age.

Known worldwide as the debate of the century, and taking place on April 19, 2019 at the Sony Centre in Toront, Canada. The debate was between the controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson (a harsh critic of Marxism standing for Capitalism) and the well known Slovenian philosopher Slavoj zizek (a Hegelian Marxist) on the relationship between Marxism, Capitalism, and happiness.

Ruling with an iron fist requires an aspiring dictator to know the playbook for absolute power, as history's despots prove in this sardonic docuseries.

VALENTINO'S GHOST: WHY WE HATE ARABS (2015) exposes how U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is the driving force behind the mainstream media's portrayals of that region and its people, resulting in injustice, bigotry, hatred and wars.

The Red Pill chronicles filmmaker Cassie Jaye's journey following the mysterious and polarizing Men's Rights Movement. The Red Pill explores today's gender war and asks the question "what is the future of gender equality?"

A historical perspective to understand Neoliberalism and to understand why this ideology today so profoundly influences the choices of our governments and our lives.

Released together with a book by the same name, this is a ten part television series broadcast on PBS by economists Milton and Rose Friedman that advocates free market principles. The thrust of the series is that the free market works best for all members of society. It provides examples of how the free market engenders prosperity and maintains that it can solve problems where other approaches have failed. The general format is Dr Friedman visiting and narrating a number of success and failure stories in history, which Dr Friedman attributes to capitalism or the lack thereof. The series is highly informative and interesting as Dr Friedman describes the various government interventions and "solutions" that generally do far more harm than good.

A documentary that explores why our primitive concept of money as a "single uniform commodity" is the ROOT cause of monetary dysfunction and a major factor in economic and political injustice.

The monetary systems practiced through modern banking.

A documentary that explores the baffling, fraudulent and destructive arithmetic of the monetary system that holds us hostage to a forever growing DEBT and how we might evolve beyond it into a new era.

This film is about the greatest rip-off in history - the very way money and debt are created and controlled. This affects everyone on the planet, and is the basic cause of all of our economic problems today. Until we all recognize this - in every nation - there is nothing any national government does will fix the problem, and all of us will see mounting debts and sinking standards of living. Our children will inherit this mess, and it will get worse every single year. The truth is that depressions are NOT normal. They are contrived. The truth is that nations don't need a national debt. The truth is that nations don't have to borrow. Why would you borrow when you can create the money you need? The truth is that governments generally aren't PRINTING money wildly; governments are BORROWING money wildly. The good news is we CAN fix this. It won't take a war or a revolution; it only takes a simple understanding of the problem, and its simple solution. The truth is that ANYONE can understand what's going on. This is not rocket science. The truth is that those who are making money off this rip-off want to keep you confused - confused about the basic facts of what your money is and who creates it.

A journey through Greece and Europe's past and recent history: from the Second World War to the current crisis. It is a historical documentary, a look into many stories.

Stefan Molyneux takes on the AlterNet article, "11 Questions You Should Ask Libertarians to See if They're Hypocrites" by RJ Eskow.

an intriguing, two-part look at Smith, his rise to prominence and the impact of his ideas today, both economic and ethical. It's difficult to imagine that a man who lived in a world of horse drawn carriages and sailing ships would foresee our massive 21st-century global market exchange, much less the relationship between markets and morality. But Adam Smith was no ordinary 18th-century figure. Considered the "father of modern economics," Smith was first and foremost a moral philosopher. The revolutionary ideas he penned in The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments, changed the world. Noted author, economic analyst and Cato Institute Senior Fellow Johan Norberg examines Adam Smith's 18th-century ideas and their relevance to our 21st century global marketplace today. Morality and Markets is the first hour, which takes an intriguing look at Smith, his background and the evolution of his ideas, both economic and ethical. Norberg travels Europe to locales where Smith was born, educated and spent his life teaching, writing and advocating his revolutionary ideas on markets and human morality. In the second hour, Ideas That Changed The World, Norberg traces Smith's insights regarding the benefits of free trade and the nature of wealth to the present, where they are currently in operation. He talks with some of the most distinguished Adam Smith scholars, as well as leaders of some of the world's most admired companies to discover how Smith's ideas continue to be relevant and drive the global economy today.

John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, and Karl Marx. Although many people don't know who they are, their theories have influenced decisions at the highest level. Narrated by BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders, this documentary explores their lives, their thinking, and how each has shaped the global economy and touched our everyday lives. From the producers of The Story of Math and The Code.

Terry Jones guides us through the history and the nature of the economic boom-bust cycle and why people repeatedly ignore it to their sorrow.

In this PBS-aired documentary, explore the life and ideas of Nobel Economist and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, Milton Friedman, through interviews with policymakers such as Estonia's Prime Minister Mart Laar, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who said, "...very few people over the generations have ideas that are sufficiently original to materially alter the direction of civilization. Milton is one of those very few people..."

Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous and sometimes nefarious world of cryptocurrency, Dead Man's Switch is a feature length documentary, a cautionary tale, about the short life and mysterious death of QuadrigaCX CEO, Gerald Cotten.

Economist Mike Maloney travels worldwide exploring monetary history, central banking, wealth cycles, financial crises to uncover hidden secrets of money, gold, and silver.

The story of the dollar is that of a myth, the American dream. The dollar flinches and the world quakes. Are we living the first signs of the end of an empire? The Marvelous History of the US Dollar examines the green back's history, allure, and unique role as a catalyst for globalization, and how the American buck became so almighty that "$" is the most powerful symbol on earth.

In this documentary series, anthropologist Anne-Sylvie Malbrancke introduces us to the amazing rituals of the world in the company of those who practice them.

An investigation of "disaster capitalism", based on Naomi Klein's proposition that neo-liberal capitalism feeds on natural disasters, war and terror to establish its dominance.

This documentary explores the murder of DeeDee Blanchard by her daughter Gypsy Rose, as well as the circumstances leading up to the event.