DOC EDGE 13 REVIEW | SHADOWS OF LIBERTY
Never have the clichéd opening scenes of sleepy, American towns waking up to the grainy voiceovers of radios and TV news broadcasts been so poignant and apt.
The documentary Shadows of Liberty exposes the history and consequences of the corporatization of the American media. It will make you question everything you know and how you know it. The message it communicates is that when you concentrate mass media in the hands of a few multinational conglomerates, you change the age of information into the age of information by design.
Its authoritative voice is the cumulative product of the strong media critics behind it, which includes Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Daniel Ellsberg (the government whistleblower who released the “Pentagon Papers”) and former CBS news anchor Dan Rather.
The low angle camera shots of skyscrapers drive home the power that five controlling entities wield over the dissemination of 90% of the American media with an iron fist – the “David and Goliath” dynamic flourishing in the land of the free. A haunting shot of a lonely desk, with the typewriter sitting in abeyance, finishes the story of Gary Webb, a journalist whose damning investigation of the link between the CIA-supported war in Nicaragua and the drugs flowing into America led to his uncanny dismissal and ridicule by mainstream media, and ultimately his suicide.
Many documentary makers simply let the words of their interviewees tug at the heartstrings of their audience with no proper attention to the symbolism of the scenery filmed in between interviews. That is, they forget their role is a dual one of journalist and filmmaker, with all the cinematography principles and techniques that includes. Not so in Shadows of Liberty, where Canadian director Jean-Philippe Tremblay and director of photography Arthur Jafa must be given due credit for remembering that non-interview footage is not just a filler in between mouth pieces, but an opportunity to enhance the story.
Through a series of chronicles from whistleblowers and journalists who dared to get information past their gatekeepers, Shadows of Liberty explores who exactly defines what is newsworthy, the media agenda as dictated by their corporate owners, commercialization of news, how the state of the American press came to be and, most importantly, the necessity of diverse opinions to democracy.
Even as a writer with knowledge of the state of modern journalism, the scope of this documentary shocked me. However, its purpose is not to perpetuate cynicism, but awareness. The concept is based on a quote from Thomas Paine, 1776: “When men yield up the exclusive privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon”. And think you will after viewing this documentary. It is a must see for today’s avid media consumers and those who believe that the scrutinizing daylight of accountability should never be extinguished in the name of monetary profit.
First published for Mac+Mae 2013.
