At the center of every armed conflict of the 20th Century, the machine gun has been a tool of conquest – and of liberation. Everywhere, it has unleashed consequences its creators never imagined. This is the history of one of the world’s deadliest inventions, a story of technological innovation, the industrial revolution, and political power. Machine Gun: History Down the Barrel of a Gun, is a sweeping look at the rise of the American empire.
In light of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, we are reposting Paul Jay’s and Nelofer Paziras’s documentary ‘Return to Kandahar’. Originally released in 2003, this film follows Nelofer Pazira, as she returns from Canada to Afghanistan to seek out her childhood friend Dyana. While living under vicious Taliban rule, Dyana wrote Nelofer a haunting letter that ended, “you will have to live for both of us now”. Fearing the worst, in 2002 after the fall of the Taliban government, Nelofer searches for her lost friend. Landing in Kabul 13 years after her family left Russian-occupied Afghanistan, Nelofer unravels her past and the history of her country. The epic journey takes her to Kabul, Kandahar, and Masir-e-Sharif. Incisively weaving Nelofer’s personal story with that of Afghanistan itself, Return To Kandahar shows a country once again in the grip of warlords and the U.S “war on terror”.
Paul Jay’s Lost in Las Vegas (2001), is a film about reality and fantasy, money and morality, and the price one pays to chase a dream. Vegas is the place where the American soul is most naked and extreme. Is Vegas a bizarre distortion of American values, or is it the shape of things to come?
Bret Hart, five times’ champion of the World Wrestling Federation, sits in a hotel room – one day before the most important fight of his life. Sure, it’s just professional wrestling, but this match is different. It will be Bret’s last in the WWF, a company for whom he’s been the top guy and loyal champion for years. The owner of the company, the legendary Vince McMahon, want’s him out, only months after signing an unprecedented twenty years contract.
Now he want’s him to lose his final match as well. It’s not just another wrestling show for Bret. This fight will determine how his character ‘The Hitman’, wrestling’s favorite good guy for the last decade, will be remembered. Sitting in a hotel room, one day before the match. What Bret doesn’t know, is that he will be the target of the biggest double cross in the history of professional wrestling.
Over the span of one year, an award winning documentary film crew followed Bret Hart. They hoped for an unprecedented look behind the scenes of the WWF. What they got was the most dramatic story in the history of wrestling. HITMAN HART is a story about loyalty and betrayal, money and greed, dignity and disgrace. It’s about fathers and sons, fans and icons, and keeping one’s integrity in a world of moral uncertainty. In a word, it’s a film about being human.
