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The 9/11 terror attacks continue to send shock waves through the American political system. Continuing fears about American vulnerability alternate with images of American military prowess and patriotic bravado in a transformed media landscape charged with emotion and starved for information. The result is that we have had little detailed debate about the radical turn US policy has taken since 9/11.
Hijacking Catastrophe places the Bush Administration's original justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neo-conservatives to dramatically increase military spending while projecting American power and influence globally by means of force.
At the same time, the documentary argues that the Bush Administration has sold this radical and controversial plan for aggressive American military intervention by deliberately manipulating intelligence, political imagery, and the fears of the American people after 9/11.
This update of the critically acclaimed documentary features the theatrical version of the film, along with ten new post-election interviews with prominent political observers on topics ranging from the 2004 presidential campaign to the Democratic Party's struggle to define itself in a time of war.
Narrated by Julian Bond,
Hijacking Catastrophe features interviews with more than twenty prominent political observers, including Pentagon whistleblower Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, who witnessed first-hand how the Bush Administration set up a sophisticated propaganda operation to link the anxieties generated by 9/11 to a pre-existing foreign policy agenda that included a preemptive war on Iraq.
Joining Kwiatkowski in a wide-ranging, accessible, and ultimately empowering analysis of American foreign policy, media manipulation, and their global and domestic implications, are former Chief UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, former Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams, author Norman Mailer, MIT professor Noam Chomsky, Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, defense policy analyst William Hartung, author Chalmers Johnson, and Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Stan Goff (Ret.).
At its core, the film places the deceptions of the Bush Administration within the larger frame of questions seldom posed in the mainstream: What, exactly, is the agenda that drove the administration's pre-war deceptions? How is 9/11 being used to sell this agenda? And what are the stakes for America, Americans, and the world if this agenda succeeds in being fully implemented during a second Bush term?
Sections: Intro | Blueprint for Empire | Hijacking Fear | "Things Related and Not" From 9/11 to Baghdad | Empire | Sorrows of Empire | "Bring it On" | Politics of Hope
Duration: 76 min
ISBN: 1-932869-06-9
Date Produced: 2004
Subtitles: English
Discussion Guide
Transcript
Filmmaker Info
Executive Producer: Sut Jhally
Written and Directed by: Jeremy Earp & Sut Jhally
Producer: Jeremy Earp
Editor: Kenyon King
Camera: David Rabinovitz
Sound Design: Thom Monahan
Original Music: Thom Monahan
Post-Production Supervisor: Kenyon King
Associate Producer: Bathsheba Ratzkoff
Graphic Artist: Michelle Rojas
Motion Graphics: Ulysses Design
Film Festivals
Official Selection, 2008 One World Berlin Human Rights Film Festival
Official Selection, 2005 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Official Selection, 2004 Ojai Film Festival
Official Selection, 2004 Wine Country Film Festival
Official Selection, 2004 Vancouver International Film Festival
Official Selection, 2004 Northampton Independent Film Festival
Awards
Best Documentary (tie) | 2004 Northampton Independent Film Festival
