Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Marfa Film Festival - American Psychosis

"Chris Hedges is who wrote, or made this video that I have posted before...Pulitzer Prize winner"

Pulitzer-prize winning Journalist, Author and Activist Chris Hedges, discusses modern day consumerism, totalitarian corporate power and living in a culture dominated by pervasive illusion.

Interview with Director/Producer Amanda Zackem

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

I made this short doc as part of a larger educational film series/digital activist resource I’m creating to help raise awareness about totalitarian capitalism and totalitarian corporate power in the United States. When I asked myself the question ‘What is the root cause of so much suffering in today’s America?’ The two answers I kept coming back to were greed and privatization; two issues that bleed between the corporate world and into our government more so then ever before. Our country has so much money and yet we don’t provide universal healthcare to our citizens. We destroy and pollute the environment. We don’t properly fund our educational institutions. We de-fund the humanities. We privatize prisons. This list goes on and on and what it always comes back to is greed and corporate privatization.

Because the corporate state has become so powerful, people have been boxed into being mass consumers--which is a mentality that divorces us from our true nature as human beings. We are not here to shop, we are here to help each other and the world we walk upon. Inspired by an essay written by Chris Hedges titled American Psychosis --originally published in Ad Busters -- I decided to bring his words into the visual realm.

INSERT: How does Chris know the true nature of human beings is to help each other? Obviously it's a comfortable frame for him as a seminarian. And a good one, don't get me wrong, but is it .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nature#Empirical_view .. human nature?

Chris is one of our country's leading intellectuals as well as a witness, having worked overseas as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times for over a decade for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. American Psychosis is a film that discusses consumerism, totalitarian capitalism, totalitarian corporate power and living in a world of pervasive illusion.

This film is about self-reflection on both a personal level as well as within a national context. I made this film because I want people to critically think about their lives as U.S. citizens and as Chris states, “ Who they are and where they think they’re going.” My intention is to inspire and activate US citizens to fight against corporate power, elevate one’s consciousness and create a non-privatized, non-exploitative America.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

I’d like people to use this film as a tool for self-reflection and critical thought. As Chris says in the film “You can’t talk about hope until you can see reality and reality is pretty bleak, but that’s the starting point.”
American Psychosis

American Psychosis

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

Corporate power is pervasive and invades the lives of all people, from all walks of life. It’s an American issue and a global issue, though this film specifically focuses on corporate power within the United States.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?

The original interview with Chris was an hour and I edited it down to 15 minutes.

[...]

Interview: June 2017

http://www.wearemovingstories.com/we-are-moving-stories-films/2017/6/12/marfa-film-festival-american-psychosis