Business & Personal Finance

Trying to find a good movie to watch can be difficult.  So, to save you some time here are a few movies, in no particular order, that I found to be informative, exciting and, at times, as thrilling as a crime novel:

   This DVD pulls back the curtain on the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry to expose the ways that illness is used, manipulated, and in some instances created, for capital gain.  Focusing on the industry's marketing practices, media scholars and health professionals help viewers understand the ways in which direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising glamorizes and normalizes the use of prescription medication, and how it works in tandem with promotion to doctors.

In the devastating aftermath of the economic meltdown, The Warning sifts through the ashes for clues about why it happened and examines critical moments when it might have gone much differently.  Looking back into the 1990's, Frontline discovers early warnings of the crash and uncovers an intense battle between high-ranking members of the Clinton administration vs. one woman trying to sound the alarm about the need to regulate the emerging, highly complex, and lucrative derivatives markets, which would become the ticking time-bomb within the American economy.

 Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce? This timely documentary is a behind-the-scenes  look into the unregulated and unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our water.  From the plastic production to the ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this inspiring documentary trails the path of the bottled water industry and the communities which were the unwitting chips on the table.

       This documentary dives into the bustling world of late nights, long hours and hard partying to chronicle the rise of a new force in Indian society–the telemarketers. Fast-paced, gritty and fun, this film is a compelling insider's look at youth culture in India. "Here you'll learn accent coaching to sound less ethnic, enjoy culture lessons that feature a viewing of "Crocodile Dundee" and discover that if you can keep the customer on the phone to say no six times, you've almost got your sale.  Watching the highs and lows of the business is compelling, as is the look at Western consumer  values corrupting Indian youth." (NOW magazine)

 Our civilization's addiction to oil puts it on a collision course with disaster.  Compelling, intelligent, and highly disturbing, this film visits with the world's top experts and comes to a startling but logical conclusion–our industrial society, built on cheap and readily available oil , must be completely re-imagined and overhauled.  The world's oil supplies are peaking and the crisis of global shortage looms; we are running out of oil and we don't have a plan.

 Available in nearly 200 countries, Coca-Cola sells an average of one billion bottles, cans and glasses of their product daily, with archrival Pepsi close on its heels. This documentary looks at the development of these two industry giants and the story of their legendary rivalry. Discover the changes the Coca-Cola formula has undergone over the years–including the controversy over its once high cocaine content–and find out how a massive business blunder by Coca-Cola allowed Pepsi to step into the spotlight.

This documentary brings to life the story of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant anarchists who were accused of a murder in 1920 and executed in Boston in 1927 after a notoriously prejudiced trial.  Their ordeal came to symbolixe the bigotry and intolerance directed at immigrants and dissenters in America.  Millions of people around the world protested on their behalf, and now 80 years later, their story continues to have great resonance, as civil liberties and the rights of immigrants are again under attack.

One of the greatest scandals in American corporate history, this DVD draws upon the wealth of insider interviews and archival material to show how Enron, once the nation's seventh largest corporate entity, essentially faked its bookkeeping to report profits that never existed. Using various techniques Enron executives tried to hide massive losses that eventually toppled the company and left 20,000 employees jobless.