FILMS and PODCASTS
- Associate Producer/Host, "Podcast from the Prairie" with Wes Jackson, produced by Michael Johnson and Perennial Films. Episode 1, “Intellectual Grounding." Episode 2, “Respecting Your Tools." Episode 3, "Mad about Science." Episode 4, “Methodism in My Madness." Episode 5, “The Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man." Episode 6, "Hogs Are Up: Stories of the Land, with Digressions." Episode 7, "The Restless and Relentless Mind of Wes Jackson, as Explained by Robert Jensen."
- Producer, “Abe Osheroff: One Foot in the Grave the Other Still Dancing,” directed by Nadeem Uddin (Media Education Foundation, 2009, 46 mins.). For most of Abe Osheroff’s 92 years, he was an activist. Whether he was on the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, walking the picket lines of the U.S. labor movement, marching for civil rights in Mississippi, or working for human rights in Nicaragua, Osheroff threw himself into the political arena with rare energy and enthusiasm. In this powerful film, Osheroff reflects on the meaning of activism, the reasons he took political action, and his lifetime commitment to “radical humanism.” Osheroff’s wisdom resonates with special force today, as new waves of social protest sweep the globe. An extended interview Jensen conducted with Osheroff is online here.
- Senior Consultant, “The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality and Relationships,” produced and directed by Miguel Picker and Chyng Sun (Media Education Foundation, 2008, 55 mins.). Once relegated to the margins of society, pornography has become one of the most visible and profitable sectors of the cultural industries in the United States. The film features the voices of consumers, critics, and pornography producers and performers. The film paints both a nuanced and complex portrait of how pleasure and pain, commerce and power, and liberty and responsibility are intertwined in the most intimate aspects of human relations.
- Commentator, "Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire," written and directed by Jeremy Earp and Sut Jhally (Media Education Foundation, 2006, 76 mins.). The 9/11 terror attacks sent shock waves through the American political system. Continuing fears about American vulnerability alternate with images of American military prowess and patriotic bravado in a transformed media landscape charged with emotion and starved for information. The result is that we have had little detailed debate about the radical turn US policy has taken since 9/11. Hijacking Catastrophe places the Bush Administration's original justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neo-conservatives to dramatically increase military spending while projecting American power and influence globally by means of force. The film can be viewed free online.
- Commentator, "Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land: U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," produced and directed by Sut Jhally and Bathsheba Ratzkoff (Media Education Foundation, 2003, 80 mins.). The film provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.