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Revision as of 02:50, 10 December 2013 by Earl King Jr. (talk | contribs) (Return last neutral edit and add citation connected to alleged antisemitic aspect of movie)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) Not to be confused with Zeitgeist Films.2007 film
| Zeitgeist: The Movie | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Peter Joseph |
| Written by | Peter Joseph |
| Produced by | Peter Joseph |
| Edited by | Peter Joseph |
| Music by | Peter Joseph |
| Distributed by | GMP LLC |
| Release date |
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| Running time | 122 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7,000 |
Zeitgeist: The Movie is a 2007 documentary-style film by Peter Joseph. It presents a number of conspiracy theory-based ideas, including a version of the Christ myth theory, conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks in 2001, and the claim that bankers manipulate both the media and the international monetary system.
The film was released online on June 18, 2007, on zeitgeistmovie.com. It has been criticized for factual inaccuracies and the quality of its arguments, with critics describing it as "agitprop" and "propaganda".
Background
Zeitgeist: The Movie originally began as an art project. According to the Zeitgeist website, "The original Zeitgeist was not a film, but a performance piece, which consisted of a vaudevillian style multi-media event using recorded music, live instruments and video."
Synopsis
The film opens with animated abstract visualizations, film and stock footage, a cartoon and audio quotes about spirituality by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, followed by clips of war, explosions, and the September 11 attacks. This is followed by the film's title screen. The film's introduction ends with a portion of the late comedian George Carlin's monologue on religion accompanied by an animated cartoon. The rest of the film, divided into three parts, is narrated by Peter Joseph.
Part I: The Greatest Story Ever Told
Part I questions religions as being god-given stories, stating that the Christian religion specifically is mainly derived from other religions, astronomical assertions, astrological myths and traditions, which in turn were derived from or shared elements with other traditions. In furtherance of the Jesus myth hypothesis this part states that the historical Jesus is a literary and astrological hybrid, nurtured politically. The work of Acharya S, author of The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold, was used extensively in Part I of the movie. Acharya also acted as consultant for Part I of the movie.
Part II: All the World's a Stage
Part II uses integral footage of several 9/11 conspiracy theory films and claims that the September 11 attacks were either orchestrated or allowed to happen by elements within the United States government in order to generate mass fear, initiate and justify the War on Terror, provide a pretext for the curtailment of civil liberties, and produce economic gain. These claims include assertions that the U.S. government had advance knowledge of the attacks, that the military deliberately allowed the planes to reach their targets, and that World Trade Center buildings 1, 2, and 7 underwent a controlled demolition.
Part III: Don't Mind the Men Behind the Curtain
Part III says the Federal Reserve System is controlled by a small cabal of international bankers of unspecified ethnicity who conspire to create global calamities to enrich themselves.
The section also says three wars of the United States during the twentieth century were waged purely for economic gain by these "international bankers". The film alleges that certain events were engineered as excuses to enter into war including the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
The film states that modern U.S. wars are designed to sustain conflicts in general, as this forces the U.S. government to borrow money from the bank, allegedly increasing the profits of the "international bankers". The film then goes on to claim that the Federal Income Tax is illegal.
This section also claims the existence of a secret agreement to merge the United States, Canada and Mexico into a "North American Union". The creation of this North American Union is then alleged to be a step towards the creation of "One World Government." The film speculates that under such a government every human could be implanted with an RFID chip to monitor individuals and suppress dissent.
An updated version of Zeitgeist released in 2010 removes the North American Union section among other changes.
Awards and pop culture
The film was screened on November 10, 2007, at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood as part of the 4th Annual Artivist Film Festival, where it won the Best Feature Award in the Artivist Spirit category for feature-length documentaries. In September 2008 Zeitgeist: The Movie also received a Special Acknowledgment Award at Rutger Hauer's ICFILMS Film Festival in Milan, Italy.
In June 2013, The band Black Sabbath used extensive imagery from Zeitgeist: The Movie and the Zeitgeist Film sequels in their music video "God Is Dead?".
The Hip Hop group, The Lost Children of Babylon based their album Zeitgeist: The Spirit of the Age on Zeitgeist: The Movie and Peter Joseph's film series, and gave away a free copy of the film with the album.
The film was named by The Wrap in its article "A Movie Guide to Occupy Wall Street" as representative of the issues related to the Occupy Wall Street protest actions.
Critical reaction
Conspiracy theory and propaganda
A review in The Irish Times entitled "Zeitgeist: the Nonsense" wrote that "these are surreal perversions of genuine issues and debates, and they tarnish all criticism of faith, the Bush administration and globalization—there are more than enough factual injustices in this world to be going around without having to invent fictional ones."
Other reviews have characterized the film as "conspiracy crap", "based solely on anecdotal evidence" and "fiction couched in a few facts", or disparaging reference is made to its part in the 9/11 truth movement.
Some journalists have focused on it as an example of how conspiracy theories are promulgated in the Internet age. For example, Ivor Tossell in the Globe and Mail argued that contradictions in the film are overwhelmed by passion and effective use of video editing:
The film is an interesting object lesson on how conspiracy theories get to be so popular.... It's a driven, if uneven, piece of propaganda, a marvel of tight editing and fuzzy thinking. Its on-camera sources are mostly conspiracy theorists, co-mingled with selective eyewitness accounts, drawn from archival footage and often taken out of context. It derides the media as a pawn of the International Bankers, but produces media reports for credibility when convenient. The film ignores expert opinion, except the handful of experts who agree with it. And yet, it's compelling. It shamelessly ploughs forward, connecting dots with an earnest certainty that makes you want to give it an A for effort.
Filipe Feio, reflecting upon the film's Internet popularity in Diário de Notícias, stated that "Fiction or not, Zeitgeist: The Movie threatens to become the champion of conspiracy theories of today."
Michael Shermer, founder of the Skeptics Society, mentioned Zeitgeist in an article in Scientific American on skepticism in the age of mass media and the postmodern belief in the relativism of truth. He argues that this belief, coupled with a "clicker culture of mass media", results in a multitude of various truth claims packaged in "infotainment units", in the form of films such as Zeitgeist and Loose Change.
Jane Chapman, a film producer and reader in media studies at the University of Lincoln, called Zeitgeist "a fast-paced assemblage of agitprop", an example of unethical film-making. She accuses Peter Joseph of "implicit deception" through the use of unreferenced and undated assertions, and standard film-making propaganda techniques. While parts of the film are, she says, "comically" self-defeating, the nature of "twisted evidence" and use of Madrid bomb footage to imply it is of the London bombings amount to ethical abuse in sourcing. In later versions of the movie a subtitle is added to this footage identifying it as from the Madrid bombings. She finishes her analysis with the comment:
Thus legitimate questions about what happened on 9/11, and about corruption in religious and financial organizations, are all undermined by the film's determined effort to maximize an emotional response at the expense of reasoned argument.
TheMarker characterized the evidence presented by Joseph in the movie as, for the most part, incomplete at best, and based on speculation at worst. TheMarker also wrote: "After all, the film was an art project, not intended as a coherent socio-economic analysis but to serve Joseph's creativity." TheMarker wrote that Joseph received severe criticism, and summarized the criticism by The Irish Times.
On March 17, 2009, in a New York Times article, Alan Feuer reported that Peter Joseph had indicated that he had "moved away from" his opinion on whether the September 11 attacks were an inside job perpetrated by the U.S. government, but a later clarification on the Zeitgeist Movement website clarified that Joseph was shifting his focus, not retracting his views.
Regarding the origins of Christianity
Skeptic magazine's Tim Callahan, criticizing the first part of the film (on the origins of Christianity), wrote that "some of what it asserts is true. Unfortunately, this material is liberally – and sloppily – mixed with material that is only partially true and much that is plainly and simply bogus."
Chris Forbes, Senior lecturer in Ancient History of Macquarie University and member of the Synod of the Diocese of Sydney, severely criticized Part I of the movie, stating that it has no basis in serious scholarship or ancient sources, and that it relies on amateur sources that recycle frivolous ideas from one another, rather than serious academic sources, commenting, "It is extraordinary how many claims it makes which are simply not true." Similar conclusions were reached by Dr. Mark Foreman of Liberty University.
Allegations of veiled anti-semitism
In Tablet Magazine, journalist Michelle Goldberg criticized Zeitgeist: The Movie as being "steeped in far-right, isolationist, and covertly anti-Semitic conspiracy theories", and called the Zeitgeist movement "the world's first Internet-based cult, with members who parrot the party line with cheerful, rote fidelity." She went on to write that the film borrows from the work of Eustace Mullins, Lyndon LaRouche, and radio host Alex Jones, saying that Zeitgeist, the movie portrays a cabal of international bankers purportedly ruling the world. The Zeitgeist group responded by saying the accusations were "erroneous, pejorative, derogatory and intended to silence the movement's message", and that the movement does not blame international bankers, corporate leaders or politicians as individuals, but rather the global socioeconomic system that supports their values.
Chip Berlet writes that the 9/11 conspiracy theories "are bait used to attract viewers from the 9/11 Truth Movement and others who embrace conspiracist thinking to the idiosyncratic anti-religion views of the videographer and the world of right-wing antisemitic theories of a global banking conspiracy."
Sequels and the Zeitgeist Movement
A sequel, Zeitgeist: Addendum, focuses further on the monetary system and advocates a resource-based social system influenced by the ideas of Jacque Fresco and the Venus Project. Following Zeitgeist: Addendum, Peter Joseph created an organization called the Zeitgeist Movement to promote the ideas of Fresco's Venus Project. An updated version of the original film was produced in 2010 entitled Zeitgeist: Final Edition. A third film called Zeitgeist: Moving Forward was released theatrically on January 15, 2011, and online on January 25, 2011. Peter Joseph has stated that its topics are focused on human behavior, technology, and rationality.
In April 2011, the Venus Project formally disassociated itself from Zeitgeist.
References
- "Zeitgeist: the nonsense". Irish Times. August 25, 2007 Section: Weekend, page 16
- Constant, Paul. "Beauty Is Truth.". The Stranger. September 5, 2007 Section: Features.
- Frauenfelder, Mark (August 6, 2007). "Jay Kinney reviews Zeitgeist, the Movie.". Boing Boing.
- Goldberg, Michelle (February 2, 2011). "Brave New World". Tablet Magazine.
The documentary that started it all began as an art project. "The original Zeitgeist was not a film, but a performance piece, which consisted of a vaudevillian style multi-media event using recorded music, live instruments and video," the Zeitgeist website explains.
- "The New Zeitgeist Part 1 Sourcebook (2010)".
- "Zeitgeist: The Movie Companion Source Guide" (PDF). Retrieved August 2013.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - "Zeitgeist: The Movie – Companion Source Guide, p. 102" (PDF). Zeitgeistmovie.com. Retrieved August 2013.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - Tossell, Ivor (August 17 2007). "Conspiracy theorists yelling in the echo chamber". The Globe and Mail.
- "Zeitgeist: The Movie – Q&A". Zeitgeistthefilm.com. Retrieved January 2011.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - "4th Annual Artivist Film Festival and Artivist Awards Announce the Winning Films of This Year's Festival". Artivist Film Festival and Artivist Award press release. November 5, 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
- "The 2008 Winners". I've Seen Films International Film Festival.
- "BLACK SABBATH Taps Controversial Filmmaker PETER JOSEPH For 'God Is Dead? Video". BlabberMouth. June 8, 2013.
- "Zeitgeist Film Series Creator Peter Joseph Directs New Black Sabbath Music Video "God is Dead?"". Reuters. June 7, 2013.
- "HHUG Interview with The Lost Children Of Babylon - Zeitgeist: The Spirit Of The Age". Hip Hop Underground. November 8, 2010.
- Williams, Laurene (October 7, 2011). "A Movie Guide to Occupy Wall Street". Reuters.
- ^ O'Dwyer, Davin (August 8, 2007). "Zeitgeist: the nonsense". The Irish Times. Retrieved September 16, 2010.
- Orange, Michelle (September 10, 2008). "Able Danger". The Village Voice.
- "Towers of Babble". Utne Reader. January 1, 2008.
- ^ Alan Feuer (March 17, 2009). "They've Seen the Future and Dislike the Present". The New York Times. Retrieved March 17, 2009. Cite error: The named reference "NYT20090317" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- Tossell, Ivor (August 17, 2007). "Conspiracy theorists yelling in the echo chamber". Globe and Mail. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
- Feio, Felipe (February 18, 2008). "Teoria da conspiração no 'top' do Google Video (Conspiracy theory is the 'top' Google Video)". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Retrieved September 16, 2010.
- Shermer, Michael (July 2009). "What Skepticism Reveals about Science". Scientific American.
- Chapman, Jane (2009). Issues in Contemporary Documentary. Polity Press. pp. 171–173. ISBN 978-0-7456-4009-9.
- ^ Quotations and citations in this Misplaced Pages article are based on the translation from Hebrew to English of The Filmmaker Who Helped Recruit Millions for the Global Protests of the Bottom 99%, original Hebrew article by Asher Schechter, TheMarker (Israel), January 19, 2012.
- Callahan, Tim (2009). "The Greatest Story Ever Garbled". Skeptic. Vol. 28, no. 1.
- "Zeitgeist: Time to discard the Christian story?". Interview at the Centre for Public Christianity, Sydney, Australia.
- "Challenging the Zeitgeist Movie: Alleged Parallels between Jesus and Ancient Pagan Religions". Evangelical Philosophical Society. 2011.
- Goldberg, Michelle (February 2, 2011). "Brave New World". Tablet Magazine.
The first Zeitgeist documentary borrowed from the work of Eustace Mullins, Lyndon LaRouche, and Alex Jones to rail against the cabal of international bankers that purportedly rules the world.
- Discussion of the Zeitgeist movement with Peter Joseph, TheMarkerTV (Israel), Jan. 19, 2012. Interview conducted in English, following a brief introduction to Joseph and the movement in Hebrew.
- "The Zeitgeist Movement – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)".
- "Loughner, "Zeitgeist - The Movie," and Right-Wing Antisemitic Conspiracism". Retrieved June 3, 2012.
- Travis Walter Donovan (March 16, 2010). "The Zeitgeist Movement: Envisioning a Sustainable Future". The Huffington Post.
- Joseph, Peter. Project Q & A, zeitgeistmovie.com, accessed March 21, 2011.
- Zeitgeist: Moving Forward Official site Retrieved on January 26, 2011
External links
Categories:
- 2007 films
- Films about conspiracy theories
- Bible conspiracy theories
- 9/11 conspiracy theories
- 2000s documentary films
- American documentary films
- Documentary films about conspiracy theories
- The Zeitgeist Movement
- Documentary films about religion
- Documentary films about the September 11 attacks
- Internet documentary films
- Documentary films about globalization
- Christ myth
- Documentary films about Jesus
- Documentary films critical of Christianity
- Pseudohistory
- Propaganda films
- American films