Subscription 790/year or 190/quarter

Fake news = false reality

Our New President
Regissør: Maxim Pozdorovkin
( USA/Russland)

A new documentary looks at Trump's election campaign and the significance of fake news through Russian media clips.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

One of the most bizarre of a number of media-produced allegations of America's top political players is that Hillary Clinton's contact with the remains of an old Siberian "mummy princess" cost her the last presidential election. Maxim Pozdorovkin's documentary Our New President, which premiered during the Sundance festival, opens with footage from Russian news broadcasts of the then US first lady who landed at Novosibirsk airport in 1997, accompanied by grim, dramatic sound effects. A Moscow-based news channel explains that she was bewitched by a mummified royal person who usually deals with natural disasters, but who, according to shamans, decided to unleash the Monica Lewinsky scandal, campaign-devastating fainting attacks and cough bullets. It's a supremely surreal beginning for a movie that consists entirely of a collection of footage from Russian television and YouTube snippets surrounding the election of Donald Trump and sweeping with dozens of misinformation. As the film ends, our understanding of the extent of the "fake news" crisis has been strengthened – as is the understanding of how unrestricted truth-tapping impairs the traditional media's ability to maintain democracy.

The power of the media

Among the earlier documentaries of the Russian director Pozdorovkin are Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, which followed the lawsuits against today's most famous anti-Kremlin activists and drew parallels to Soviet-era spectacle cases against dissidents. That film opened with a statement from political playwright Bertolt Brecht: "Art is not a mirror that reflects society, but a hammer to shape it." When Pozdorovkin with Our New President turns the attention of opposition artists to state actors who imagine themselves, he derives an opening quote from science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick to summarize the current power of Russia's media to disorientate; perhaps they are the ones who have now taken over in shaping citizens' ideas: “False reality will create false people. Or, fake people will create false reality. ”In the intense struggle to control public narrative, the funds are now far more cunning than naked strength.

Although we can see which side Pozdorovkin is on, he uses no superior narrator to guide us through the chaotic accumulation of clips. This is a wise choice, though it requires deeper background knowledge of the Russian hacker scandal in the US presidential election than viewers with a more limited insight into news may have. Our inability to hang ourselves on any reliable "outside" in the form of an anchor of supposed objectivity that could help us judge this gallery of distorting mirrors forces us to experience a mediated world without any hierarchy of information – to to dive into this dizzyingly absurd jumble.

Putin himself often appears in TV and smiles confidently that he was the brain behind a joke that has fooled us all.

And there are plenty of absurdities. Along with the history of the mummy curse, here we get speculation about star maps and conspiracy theories, as well as sensational claims about business-as-usual in Washington: that Hillary is "retarded" and regularly causes opponents to be fired; that the US government starts every day with a dose of cocaine; that a chemical weapons attack in Syria was staged as a provocation. That Trump owes Putin the election victory in 2016 is another allegation Russian news media has embraced. Now that the interference in the election has been confirmed by US intelligence, and the arena of opportunity has expanded to include the incredible, the mix of bizarre truths and reckless lies has reinforced our sense of meaninglessness and exhaustion in the face of the news stream. Matters and rational arguments have faded into the background; The news is now show.

News agencies like state puppets

A movie still from Our New President by Maxim Pozdorovkin, an official selection of the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. All photos are copyrighted and may be used by press only for the purpose of news or editorial coverage of Sundance Institute programs. Photos must be accompanied by a credit to the photographer and / or 'Courtesy of Sundance Institute.' Unauthorized use, alteration, reproduction or sale of logos and / or photos is strictly prohibited.

Our New President provides an insightful overview of how Putin, after coming to power, has consolidated Russia's news organizations in the role of state puppets. Dmitry Kiseljov, a figure who plays a prominent role as head of the state-funded television network RT (formerly Russia Today), refutes the fact that his organization has spread pro-Kremlin disinformation, saying about the channel's news coverage: "If it's propaganda, it's propaganda He does, however, tell his news editor that the era of "independent, political journalism is over," stamping objectivity as a "myth," and announcing that the "editorial line will be based on love for Russia." It is an alarmingly candid admission of disdain for the core values ​​of a free press, and underlines that this nation's media leaders hardly have to pretend their sleazy tabloid serving is in the service of truth. A St. Petersburg troll factory with sooty windows is shown, the young employees come to their shifts to flood social media with messages from fake accounts supporting Russian actions in Ukraine or defending Trump's presidency. Games that serve Russian political interests are a daily diet.

Putin himself often shows up in the TV channel and smiles smugly as if he were the brain behind a joke that has fooled us all. Trump, too, is in attendance. He may be appreciated as valuable to the Russian state, but he is also portrayed as a master fool for the same reason (recording the compulsory relocation of objects lying in front of him on any table is one of many laugh-out-loud clips which underscores his questionable fitness in office). Our New President is nearing the end with the inclusion of the two presidents meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg. Journalists are pushing to get into space as paparazzi, flashlights flare up and point to a disturbing truth about our complicity in today's media show: All this may be a circus, but it's a circus we don't get enough of.

Carmen Gray
Carmen Gray
Gray is a regular film critic in Ny Tid.

You may also like