THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES

Friday, June 10 - Thursday, June 16
Nightly at 7:00pm with additional Wed, Sat & Sun matinees at (12:00 noon) & 3:30. Admission=$10.00 http://www.roxie.com


SF Indie Fest presents
The Power of Nightmares:The Rise of the Politics of Fear

SF Indie Fest presents this uncut, BBC series of documentary films about how fear has come to dominate politics not only in America, but throughout the world, and how much of that fear is based on illusion. The films tell the story of the rise of today’s nightmare vision of a hidden, organized network of terror and show clearly how much of that threat has been distorted and exaggerated by politicians. In an age disillusioned with optimistic political visions of the future, politicians have stumbled on a new force that can restore their power and authority, the fear of a hidden and organized web of evil which they can protect their people from. These films show how that fantasy was created, and why, by telling an epic story that starts in America in 1949 and ends in the present day. At the heart of the story are two groups, the American Neoconservatives and the Radical Islamists. Both these groups were idealists born out of the failure of the post-war liberal optimism, and both had very similar explanations for why that failure had occurred. Both groups did change the world, but not in the way either intended. Their actions over the last thirty years have led to today’s strange fantasy of fear which has spread through all levels of government, the security services and the international media. A fantasy that no-one questions because those with the darkest nightmares have become the most powerful. England. 2004. Runningtime: 180 minutes. ADMISSION=$10.00. Showtimes: Nightly at 7:00pm with additional Wed, Sat & Sun matinees at (12:00 noon) & 3:30.

"Adam Curtis has created a controversial, myth-shattering three-part BBC series to top his magnificent Century of the Self… It is necessary for every citizen to see The Power of Nightmares—and probably more than once."
- David Thomson.

"A superb, eye-opening and often absurdly funny deconstruction of the myths and realities of global terrorism" -- Scott Foundas, Variety

"Highly detailed, scrupulously researched, and littered with revealing interviews, it derives a great deal of its impact from an idiosyncratic collage of archival footage, television clips, and excerpts from old movies." -- Chris Darke, Film Comment

Feign of Terror -- Adam Curtis, Village Voice