Zeitgeist

Even if you have seen films like "Loose Change", did the film segment make you question or challenge your beliefs about 9/11? Explain.

My original beliefs towards the 9/11 incident were fairly two-dimensional to begin with. They were as limited as a news headline is brief. "Hijacker Flies Into Twin Towers" was pretty much all I knew about the incident until films such as Loose Change, and more recently, Zeitgeist. The use of conventions such as archival footage, and their technique involving hammering away at individual ideas in the paragraph shown to the audience certainly planted the possibility of an inside job scenario in my head (but it hasn't caused a change of heart towards what the real story could be).

What documentary conventions did this film employ?

Zeitgeist used film conventions such as archival footage and talking heads. Many video clips from news reports and witness accounts were used. Footage from some of Bush's presidential speeches were included, as well as some made by others of governmental office.

What aspects of the film make its assertions seem true? List three facts that support their claim that 9/11 was authored by the US.

“All the World’s a Stage”, attempts to prove that the US government plotted the 9/11 attacks in New York and contracted the dirty work to international resources. Provided evidence includes a mixture of the apparent “TV clips of witnesses describing a second explosion”, the questionable “government efforts to hide any conclusive evidence of a Boeing 757 hitting the Pentagon” and the perplexing “the demolition-like accuracy with which the buildings collapsed”.

What would make you think that the film's assertions are false?

The second part of the film opens with a paragraph detailing the "myth" of the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 (called 9/11 from here on). The film maker has already reached a predetermined conclusion, and assumes you have as well, that the attacks on 9/11 were an inside job or something to that affect. Therefore this calls his entire analysis into question, however we will go on anyway, discussing each piece of evidence.

Why are critical thinking and research skills important when viewing a film like Zeitgeist?

If film-maker Peter Joseph can be credited for one thing, it’s flawlessly utilizing Dale Carnegie’s yes-yes technique to influence the viewer. Like any good conspiracy theorist, he starts with information that is true (yes #1), follows with information that is apparent enough to make the viewer question previous dogma (yes #2) and inserts his interpretation of what is driving those occurrences (in this case, that the US government intentionally detonated the twin towers). One major distinction between a conspiracy theory and a valid explanation is that conspiracy theories rarely work inversely as deduction.

War Tapes

1) What does Deborah Scranton mean by the “disconnect” she hopes to “bridge” with her documentary?
Scranton refers to how distant the War in Iraq is in relation to our lives. We tend to see the war as an event that occasionally comes to our attention and nothing more. The mainstream media only brings to our attention the death of a soldier or the aftermath of a bombing. With her film, Scranton hopes to make us aware that war is a daily reality for not just the soldiers, but for the civilians of Iraq who live in constant fear and panic. Scranton also wants to document the individual lives of the soldiers. People tend to completely disregard the value of a soldier’s service. Scranton wants to portray these soldiers as real people facing real obstacles in a real warzone.

2) How does media (television, news, documentaries, film) contribute to creating this disconnect?
The mainstream media is often impersonal. The mainstream media does not portray the soldiers as real people. The media only seeks out the facts and forego the experience of a soldier. Media has managed to turn death into a mere statistics. A reason they stay impersonal would be to avoid as much bias as they can (putting aside political agendas).

3) How can a documentary like "War Tapes" help remedy or bridge this disconnect?
War Tapes brings to us the human element of the war by bringing us face to face with the soldiers, and showing us the war through the eyes of the soldiers.