Olivier Azam

At a time when powerlessness and resignation carry the day, Noam Chomsky's work is a radical antidote for all those who want to put an end to the factory of powerlessness and its intellectual media star watchdogs. Theoretician of language, born in Philadelphia in 1928, Noam Chomsky revolutionized linguistics with the "generative grammar." But Chomsky is also a political analyst involved in all political struggles for decades. His clear analysis and rational ideological mechanisms of our societies is a crucial resource for critical thinking today.

An impressive roster of celebrities -- including Lili Taylor, Paul Robeson, Sarah Jones, Brian Jones, John Sayles and Wallace Shawn -- lend their voices to this performance of readings inspired by Howard Zinn's best-selling book. Segments bring to life Tecumseh's speech to the Osages, Frederick Douglass' thoughts about July 4 and Paul Robeson's Unread Statement before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

From falsehood to mystification to manipulation and false impartiality, the whole logic of disinformation and brutality is brought to light. When the king of the media and his politico-journalistic buffoons are sifted by a radical counter-audiovisual power, the discredit of the "elites" sanctioned by the referendum of May 29, 2005 is better understood. With this film, Zalea TV's team had decided to laugh about it and make them laugh, even if at bottom these discoveries were rather disturbing. By staging a series of very simple techniques of "self-defense", this film is an invitation to self-disengage permanently. The use of the TV-B Gone, an instrument whose sole function is to turn off the television, appears here as the ultimate resort to media criticism.

Second part of a documentary that delves into the links between Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and Zinn's own life.

Between 1900 and 1920 more than 14 million immigrants arrived in the US, like Howard Zinn's parents. They came fleeing poverty or war, or racism, or religious persecution. They dreamed of a promised land, of wealth, or simply of a better life.