Jack Valenti's career as head of the MPAA spanned nearly 40 years and saw the end of the production code and the establishment of the movie ratings system, the failure of the Vietnam War, the arrival of home cinema followed by the internet, and culminated in the post-9/11 propaganda push. New details provided by the FBI files on Valenti show that throughout this period (1966-2004) he remained close to the establishment.
Tom Clancy was one of the most popular spy authors of all time, but was he a spy himself? What are the nature of his government connections? How were the film adaptations of his novels supported by the Pentagon and the CIA? What script changes were made by the DOD in exchange for their support? In Part I of this two-part podcast we examine five Tom Clancy films - The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
Chase Brandon was the CIA's first entertainment liaison officer, working in the entertainment industry for over a decade from 1996 onwards. Brandon helped produce over a dozen major films and a similar number of TV shows and more than any other individual helped set up a permanent CIA network within Hollywood and the rest of the industry.
What connects the Black Panther Party, the Masonic Temple in San Francisco and Jack Valenti? The answer is the award-winning 1969 movie Z, about the assassination of the Greek leftist pacifist politician Grigoris Lambrakis and the military takeover of Greece's government. A copy of Z went missing from the San Francisco film festival in 1969 and another copy that was loaned to the Black Panther Party that summer was only returned after a delay.
Mockumentary is perhaps the best sub-genre of cinema, and conspiracy-themed mockumentaries even more so. In this episode we look at four films - The Conspiracy, The Last Broadcast, Trollhunter and Apollo 18 - and examine why conspiracy mockumentaries are so good. The blend of realistic documentary formats with fantastical and absurd subjects not only makes for very original and entertaining watching but also affirms and subverts the conspiracy culture at the same time.
Sputnik — 19.03.2016 The al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) Islamist group claimed responsibility for an attack with explosive munitions on Norwegian energy major Statoil’s facility in the Algerian Sahara, media reported Saturday. The Norwegian oil and gas company declared state of emergency Friday following the attack on one of its gas facilities in Algeria. […]
The philosophy of Carl Schmitt asserts that for a state to be identifiable and legitimate it has to employ an enemy image - the perception of a threat from the Other. In this episode we explore whether this philosophy has been adopted by the Pentagon as part of their operations in the entertainment industry.
As many of you will remember, in early February a Hollywood film crew blew up a bus in central London. Because the bus explosion was so eerily reminiscent of the 7/7 London bombings and because I read about the Ministry of Defence, MI5 and MI6 being warned about the explosion ahead of time, I decided to file some Freedom of Information requests. When the Met Police rejected my request about this film - titled The Foreigner - they simply copy-pasted their rejection about Kingsman.
Jack Valenti was present at the JFK assassination and became a close aide to Lyndon Johnson before being made head of the Motion Picture Association of America. Valenti's lengthy FBI file - which I will be writing on in several parts - details his White House career, investigations into both his mob ties and allegations of sexual perversion, some hints towards his CIA connections as well as some of his nearly 40 years at the MPAA.
