National Bird

Oct 14, 2016

1h 32m

★ 6.7

Overview

Sonia Kennebeck takes on the controversial tactic of drone warfare, and demands accountability through the personal accounts—recollections, traumas, and responses—of three American military veterans whose lives have been shaken by the roles they played in this controversial method of attack.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Ten Forward Films

ITVS

Independent Lens

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

NDR

Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein

Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film

National Bird Trailers

Cast

Self

Jesselyn Radack

Self

Heather Linebaugh

Self

Daniel Hale

Self

Lisa Ling

Self

Asma Nazihi Eschen

Self

Stanley McChrystal

Self

Kim Dunbar

Self

Allen Capron

Self (Archive Footage)

Barack Obama

David Bond lives in one of the most intrusive surveillance states in the world. He decides to find out how much private companies and the government know about him by putting himself under surveillance and attempting to disappear, a decision that changes his life forever. Leaving his pregnant wife and young child behind, he is tracked across the database state on a chilling journey that forces him to contemplate the meaning of privacy and the loss of it.

7.4

The Social Dilemma

Jan 26, 2020

This documentary-drama hybrid explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations.

7.2

The Bloody Hundredth

Mar 14, 2024

Meet the real-life airmen who inspired Masters of the Air as they share the harrowing and transformative events of the 100th Bomb Group.

3.0

Final Warning

Jan 1, 1995

Host Grant Jeffrey discusses how technology and government activities are changing the way our information is handled. How is this shaping our lives?

0.0

Watched

Apr 20, 2017

This short 19-minute documentary is an intimate and moving exploration of the profound and far-reaching impact of surveillance on Muslim American individuals and communities. Premiering at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, WATCHED is told through the personal experience of two women, both coming of age in New York. The film charts the devastating toll of surveillance and reveals the scars it leaves behind.

5.0

Camera Sleuth

Apr 28, 1951

In this Pete Smith Specialty short, we see how real-life investigator Jo Goggin used a motion picture surveillance camera to gather evidence and disprove a fraudulent insurance claim.

6.8

Nothing to Hide

Sep 6, 2017

NOTHING TO HIDE is an independent documentary dealing with surveillance and its acceptance by the general public through the "I have nothing to hide" argument. The documentary was produced and directed by a pair of Berlin-based journalists, Mihaela Gladovic and Marc Meillassoux. It was crowdfunded by over 400 backers. NOTHING TO HIDE questions the growing, puzzling and passive public acceptance of massive corporate and governmental incursions into individual and group privacy and rights. After the emotion initially triggered by the Snowden revelations, it seems that the general public has finally accepted to live in a monitored digital world.

8.0

The Maze

Sep 12, 2017

THE MAZE dissects the terror-attacks since Paris Bataclan in November 2015 and looks for common patterns. Why was intelligence failing? And why keep our governments pushing for more of the same? A road movie into surveillance reforms, power, money and cover-ups. A search for a way out of this maze - with a glimpse of hope on the horizon.

0.0

Cree Code Talker

Oct 1, 2016

CREE CODE TALKER reveals the role of Canadian Cree code talker Charles 'Checker' Tomkins during the Second World War. Digging deep into the US archives it depicts the true story of Charles' involvement with the US Air Force and the development of the code talkers communication system, which was used to transmit crucial military communications, using the Cree language as a vital secret weapon in combat.

4.7

Railway Station

Jan 1, 1980

Warsaw's Central Railway Station. 'Someone has fallen asleep, someone's waiting for somebody else. Maybe they'll come, maybe they won't. The film is about people looking for something.

0.0

AREA 51: I Was There

Jun 18, 2011

Step inside one of the most notorious places on the planet in Area 51: I Was There. Made famous by The X Files and generations of conspiracy theorists, only a select few have been to Area 51, and even fewer have spoken of what lies inside. But now you can venture beyond the perimeter fence to discover some of its incredible secrets in our ground-breaking special, Area 51: I Was There. Area 51 was established by the CIA in 1955 to develop classified military projects. Since then the base has gained worldwide notoriety. Satellite images of the area show seven runways and over 25 hangars, and many claim it is here that the US government carries out experiments on everything from UFOs to aliens themselves. Indeed, many insist that the true purpose of the site is to reverse-engineer alien spacecraft recovered from the infamous Roswell crash site. Yet, officially, Area 51 doesn't even exist...

0.0

In, out and about

Jun 18, 2024

An exploration of the interconnected experiences of queerness and illness, this film navigates personal and collective journeys through medical spaces, sexual violence, and survival, displays the profound impact on body and identity.

6.6

The Memphis Belle

Apr 13, 1944

This WW2 documentary centers on the crew of the American B-17 Flying Fortress Memphis Belle as it prepares to execute a strategic bombing raid on Nazi submarine pens in Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

7.9

Big Brother: A World Under Surveillance

Mar 11, 2020

Under the pretext of fighting terrorism or crime, the major powers have embarked on a dangerous race for surveillance technologies. Facial recognition cameras, emotion detectors, citizen rating systems, autonomous drones… A security obsession that in some countries is giving rise to a new form of political regime: numerical totalitarianism. Orwell's nightmare.

6.5

To Make Sure?

May 14, 2007

Journalist Sandra Harkow produces a promotional film for the RFID industry. Through a time traveler, she learns about the dark future triggered by RFID chips. Her encounter with the time traveler makes her prick up her ears and she researches the radio chips. The so-called docu-fiction style, which coherently combines real interviews with film scenes, gives the viewer the impression of being part of this reality.

4.1

Abendland

Mar 31, 2011

Some things can be seen more clearly at night.. . A film poem about a continent at night, a culture on which the sun’s going down, though it’s hyper alert at the same time, an “Abendland” that, often somewhat self-obsessively, sees itself as the crown of human civilization, while its service economy is undergoing rapid growth in a thoroughly pragmatic way. Nikolaus Geyrhalter takes a look at a paradise with a quite diverse understanding of protection. Night work juxtaposed with oblivious evening digression, birth and death, questions that await answers in the semi-darkness, a Babel of languages, the routine of the daily news, and political negotiation: All this has been captured in images with a wealth of details that make us look at things in a new way. The longer you consider a word, the more distant is its return gaze: ABENDLAND.

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0.0

There is a Way

Aug 15, 1966

A US Air Force produced film that follows a group of F-105 pilots as they pass their hundredth mission during the Vietnam War.

6.7

The Cold Blue

May 23, 2018

A meditation on youth, war and stunning bravery, featuring footage, taken from the National Archives, from the documentary filmed in 1943 by legendary Hollywood director William Wyler about the famous Memphis Belle flying fortress and the gripping narration from some of the last surviving B-17 pilots.

6.9

MLK/FBI

Sep 15, 2020

Based on newly declassified files, the film explores the US government’s surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr.

7.8

The World According to Xi Jinping

Dec 13, 2018

Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, China is on its way to becoming the leading world power of the 21st century. What goals is the mysterious autocrat, who was deeply influenced by Maoism in his youth, pursuing? What drives him? In terms of domestic policy, Xi is striving for the "perfect dictatorship"; in terms of foreign policy, he wants to rewrite the international rules.