Keyword: cinema

And the Oscar Goes to...the CIA

Picture: Michelle Obama announces the Best Picture Oscar to Argo courtesy Pete Souza/United States Government/Flickr. Pepe Escobar - Even in his wild, stoned to death, easy rider cuckoo times, Jack Nicholson would never have imagined he would one day tag team with the First Lady of the United States to present an Oscar for Best Picture. This is more Hunter S. Thompson than Academy territory - and hardly presidential. But it did - beautifully - make the point about the marriage between Washington and Hollywood. If George Clooney marries Sudan (but not Palestine), why not Jack schmoozing with Michelle? What next? Obama...

Movies that Justify the Use of Torture

Picture: MikeOliveri/Flickr Video What we're seeing now in the media is the justification of torture and a rehabilitation of the CIA in four new films, argues Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and Chair of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin, as he talks about Zero Dark Thirty, Manhunt, Fargo and Green Zone. Ratner was at the recently held Sundance film festival where, Manhunt, the movie about the killing of Obama Bin Laden, received a standing...