FULLY BOOKED Screening – The War You Don’t See

Combining archive, behind-the-scenes footage, and personal experience in the field,  John Pilger‘s latest film examines the media’s role in wars over the last century.

The film journeys from World War One to recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, looking at embedded and independent reporting and the relationship between the mainstream media and the increasingly sophisticated propaganda operations in play.

Pilger questions the very representation of war itself and how war is packaged for audiences at home by a media which he claims toes the official line.

Pilger says in the film:

We journalists… have to be brave enough to defy those who seek our collusion in selling their latest bloody adventure in someone else’s country… That means always challenging the official story, however patriotic that story may appear, however seductive and insidious it is. For propaganda relies on us in the media to aim its deceptions not at a far away country but at you at home…

In this age of endless imperial war, the lives of countless men, women and children depend on the truth or their blood is on us… Those whose job it is to keep the record straight ought to be the voice of people, not power.

 

Screening in conjunction with One World Media Week