I wish my teachers had shown me documentaries like this when I was in school.
Everything I was taught in school about government and politics was how things "should be working" if everything worked as intended (3 branches of government, all perfectly balanced and accountable to the public). It never taught me how politics really works, in the real world.
Much like Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, this is the history lesson I never got as a kid, but wish I had.
This film was originally released under this title.
Films For Action's Review:
This film is a significant achievement - offering a definitive critique of the Obama administration from a reality-based perspective (Ie, a critique not based on propaganda and spin). It thoroughly deconstructs the hypocrisy of U.S. politics, democracy, capitalism and other aspects of the American brand. This film promotes no illusions, examining our present state of affairs under Obama with eyes wide open.
At once disillusioning, the film inspires and offers a great message of hope in it's evocative finale and excellent choice of music. It also points to the most immediate alternative for building a new, directly democratic and liberated world within the shell of the old (workplace democracy). For OWS, the film exemplifies the movement's bi-partisan critique of the status quo, its deep rejection of surface-level reforms or solutions, and the deep insight that comes from waking up to the way the world really is.