Christopher Hitchens

As the country continues to engage in foreign wars, PHIL OCHS: THERE BUT FOR FORTUNE is a timely tribute to an unlikely American hero whose music is as relevant today as it was in the 1960s. Ochs, a folk singing legend, was moved by the conviction that he and his music would change the world. He loved his country and fought to honor it, in both song and action. Wielding only a battered guitar, a clear voice and the quiver of his razor sharp songs, he tirelessly fought the good fight for peace and justice throughout his short life. PHIL OCHS: THERE BUT FOR FORTUNE is buoyed by these anthems and melodies from humorous to haunting and throughout the film play the role of narrator, giving contextual depth to the unfolding saga of Ochsí complex political and personal life. In the film, Joan Baez, Tom Hayden, Pete Seeger, Sean Penn, Peter Yarrow, Christopher Hitchens, Ed Sanders, and others who knew or were inspired by Ochs tell stories of political passions that were equal parts idealism, conviction and fantasy mixed together with a big ego and often wild disorganization.

Fiercely devoted to championing peace and social justice, folk singer Phil Ochs rose to fame at the height of the 1960s protest movements, yet his incisive lyrics and resonant melodies remain relevant for audiences today. This film tells his story.

Is Henry Kissinger, Nobel Laureate and the most famous diplomat of his generation, also a war criminal? Provoked by the Christopher Hitchens book (The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Verso, 2001), filmmakers Eugene Jarecki and Alex Gibney construct a documentary that is both brilliant legal brief and chilling psycho-drama. Confronting the charges that Kissinger undermined LBJ’s Vietnam peace talks (in order that Nixon be elected), engineered the secret bombing of Cambodia, orchestrated the coup that toppled Chilean President Allende, and approved Indonesia’s use of U.S. arms to massacre 100,000 East Timorese, The Trials of Henry Kissinger explores how a young boy who fled Nazi Germany grew up to become one of the most powerful men in U.S. history. The Trials of Henry Kissinger also tackles the question of whether principles of international law applied by Americans to their enemies are also applicable to Americans ¾ or whether such laws are only written for the losers of conflicts. The film caused a sensation when it played at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in 2002 and was a national hit in its 2003 theatrical run. Featuring previously unseen footage, newly declassified government documents, and revealing interviews with both ardent Kissinger supporters such as Alexander Haig, Brent Scowcroft and William Safire, and detractors like Seymour Hersh, William Shawcross, and Christopher Hitchens, The Trials of Henry Kissinger is “a movie that informs and fascinates – truly stranger than fiction.” (Newsday)

This riveting documentary depicts former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as a warmonger responsible for military cover-ups in Vietnam, Cambodia and East Timor, as well as the assassination of a Chilean leader in 1970. Based on a book by journalist Christopher Hitchens, the film includes interviews with historians, political analysts and such journalists as &NFi;New York Times&NFi_; writer William Safire, a former Nixon speechwriter.