Michael Parenti

Known for Acting

9/30/1933(Age 92)

New York City, New York, USA

Biography

Michael Parenti is an internationally known award-winning author and lecturer. He is one of the nation’s leading progressive political analysts. His highly informative and entertaining books and talks have reached a wide range of audiences in North America and abroad.

Known For (14 credits)

7.2

Movie

Poverty, Inc.

2015

Poverty, Inc. explores the hidden side of doing good. From disaster relief to TOMs Shoes, from adoptions to agricultural subsidies, Poverty, Inc. follows the butterfly effect of our most well-intentioned efforts and pulls back the curtain on the poverty industrial complex - the multi-billion dollar market of NGOs, multilateral agencies, and for-profit aid contractors. Are we catalyzing development or are we propagating a system in which the poor stay poor while the rich get hipper?

7.0

Movie

The Weight of Chains 2

2014

'The Weight of Chains 2' is a documentary film largely dealing with the effects of the Washington Consensus economic doctrine on the newly established former Yugoslav republics, but also with neoliberalism as an economic concept. Through interviews with Noam Chomsky, Oliver Stone and many others, the author, Serbian-Canadian Boris Malagurski, attempts to analyze why so many people in the Balkans are disappointed with the systems imposed after the fall of socialism and how capitalism could be improved. Looking at the examples of Ecuador and Iceland, the film tries to uncover alternatives to the prevailing orthodoxies of Western economic dictates and help developing nations find their own way to shape their economies and their countries.

8.0

Movie

Fall and Winter

2013

Fall and Winter is an epic and spectacularly photographed journey across the U.S. in search of what is causing our unfolding global crisis. Pollution, droughts and diminishing resources now threaten the very engine driving these catastrophes; civilization itself. Massive dislocations are manifesting in our lifetime, and our world will never be the same.

Movie

Project Censored the Movie

2013

'Project Censored: The Movie' explores media censorship in our society by exposing important stories that corporate media fails to report/under report. Using the media watchdog group, Project Censored, as their road map, two fathers from California decided to make a documentary film that will help to end the reign of Junk Food News that Corporate Media continues to feed the American people.

Movie

Rise Like Lions

2011

Scott Noble's film Rise Like Lions takes the people, actions, and words from the camps and streets of Occupy Wall Street and provides a radical, compelling and inspiring account of what the movement is about. Watch it. Share it. Do it!

7.2

Movie

The Weight of Chains

2010

The Weight of Chains is a Canadian documentary film that takes a critical look at the role that the US, NATO and the EU played in the tragic breakup of a once peaceful and prosperous European state - Yugoslavia. The film, bursting with rare stock footage never before seen by Western audiences, is a creative first-hand look at why the West intervened in the Yugoslav conflict, with an impressive roster of interviews with academics, diplomats, media personalities and ordinary citizens of the former Yugoslav republics. This film also presents positive stories from the Yugoslav wars - people helping each other regardless of their ethnic background, stories of bravery and self-sacrifice.

7.0

Movie

Psywar

2010

This film explores the evolution of propaganda and public relations in the United States, with an emphasis on the elitist theory of democracy and the relationship between war, propaganda and class. Includes original interviews with a number of dissident scholars including Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Peter Phillips (Project Censored), John Stauber (PR Watch), Christopher Simpson (The Science of Coercion) and others. A deep, richly illustrated study of the nature and history of propaganda, featuring some of the world’s most insightful critics, Psywar exposes the propaganda system, providing crucial background and insight into the control of information and thought.

Movie

Michael Parenti

2006

This collection captures two of historian, political scientist and Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer Michael Parenti's most intriguing and accessible lectures. In "How I Became an Activist for Social Justice," Parenti recalls his own political awakening during the throes of the Vietnam War. In "Empire," he discusses the United States' growth into an empire of global proportions that casts an equally wide net of political influence.

Movie

Liberty Bound

2004

Liberty Bound takes an entertaining look at America's ongoing struggle to keep a comfortable balance between democracy, capitalism, and fascism. This is a film about historic events that shape history. It is a film about courage and fear; ignorance and knowledge; propaganda and rhetoric. Through original footage, archived footage, and interviews with people such as Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, and Michael Ruppert, Liberty Bound explores the state of the union and its ostensible move toward fascism. We talk with people who have been interrogated by the Secret Service and threatened with arrest for doing such benign things as sending an email, turning around during a Bush speech, and having a philosophical discussion on a train.

Movie

Showdown in Seattle: Five Days That Shook the WTO

1999

1999 documentary film, first broadcast in daily half-hour installments, about the November 1999 protests against the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle, Washington.

Movie

Reflections on the Overthrow of Communism

1996

Dr. Michael Parenti discusses "Reflections on the Overthrow of Communism" in Santa Rosa, California, March 1996.

6.9

Movie

The Panama Deception

1992

This winner of the 1993 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature details the case that the 1989 invasion of Panama by the US was motivated not by the need to protect American soldiers, restore democracy or even capture Noriega. It was to force Panama to submit the will of the United States after Noriega had exhausted his usefulness.