SDI Archives

Fifteen years ago the world was still reeling from a terrorist attack on a scale previously unthinkable. The destruction of the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon attack on 11 September 2001 resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths and 6,000 injuries. Everybody old enough remembers watching the footage: smoke and ash billowing through Manhattan, people jumping from unimaginable heights, the second tower going down.

In the wake of 9/11 came invasion and never-ending war; many, many more deaths than the event itself caused. The erosion of civil liberties and privacy, not just in the US but across the world, followed suit, as government surveillance expanded even further.

The US government is vast. Its spying capabilities are vast too, and their precise nature – as well as what happens to you if you whistleblow about it – are the topics of upcoming film A Good American.

But you can’t really talk about the NSA without talking eventually about GCHQ, the UK equivalent. The Snowden leaks in 2013 showed how closely the two countries had collaborated in developing mass surveillance programs aimed at their own populations; but just two days ago, further leaks showed that the ‘collect it all’ ethos which came to dominate the American agency originated in the English countryside.

Still from A Good American: NSA's Bad Aibling listening post (now BND)

So in this third post on the issues raised in A Good American, we’re looking at the NSA’s friends in Britain, and how the UK’s current approach contrasts with developments in Europe. Three years since the first documents showing the extent of mass surveillance were leaked by Edward Snowden, even the US government has rolled back some of its spying, though not nearly far enough for many civil liberty advocates. The EU, meanwhile, has been getting tougher on companies sharing EU citizens’ data with the US.

But in the UK, where privacy protections are already poor, the government is apparently determined to increase mass surveillance to unprecedented levels.

In our first post in the run-up to the premiere of A Good American, we introduced ThinThread: the most powerful surveillance tool you’ve probably never heard of. This groundbreaking model of digital information mapping was, its proponents argued, proof that you can track the bad guys without infringing the privacy of the innocent.

Coming up with this solution did not win Bill Binney and his NSA colleagues any accolades though. Instead, their programme was scrapped and their homes were raided by the FBI, and the government began spying on its citizens in an unprecedented way.

The reasons would appear to be depressingly familiar – according to the whistleblowers, it was money, greed and corruption that led the US government down this path.

In the first of a series of posts on the upcoming film A Good American, we look at the extraordinary surveillance program that caused NSA analyst-turned-whistleblower Bill Binney so many problems. What, exactly, was ThinThread?

Bill Binney was the best codebreaker in US history. After the Cold War, he developed a revolutionary surveillance tool called ThinThread that was cheap and efficient, and didn’t invade anyone’s privacy. He developed it right up until the NSA scrapped it - three weeks before 9/11. In its place NSA chose a surveillance system that generated profit and spied on its own citizens instead of its enemies. This system remains in place today.

A Good American tells one of the most important stories of the information society, and dissects the inner workings and ties of a politico-economic network whose reach goes way beyond America.

Director/DOP/Producer - Friedrich Moser
Senior Producer - Michael Seeber
Editing - Jesper Osmund, Kirk von Heflin
Music - Christopher Slaski, Guy Farley
Production Company - blue+green communication
Length - 101 Minutes
Date of Premiere - 2016-01-07
UK Distribution - Scottish Documentary Institute

Watch the trailer here.

Visit the film's website here.

Book your screening of A Good American here. (Available from 23rd September 2016 onwards.)

Bikes vs Cars depicts a global crisis that we all deep down know we need to talk about: climate, Earth's resources, cities where the entire surface is consumed by the car. An ever-growing, dirty, noisy traffic chaos. The bike is a great tool for change, but the powerful interests who gain from the private car invest billions each year on lobbying and advertising to protect their business. In the film we meet activists and thinkers who are fighting for better cities, who refuse to stop riding despite the increasing number killed in traffic.

Director - Fredrik Gertten
Producer - Margarete Jangård, Erin Kamlert
Cinematography - Kiki Allegier, Janice D'Avila
Editor - Benjamin Binderup
Sound Design - Alexander Thörnqvist
Music - Florencia Di Concilio
Production Company - WG Films
Length - 91 Minutes
Date of Premiere - 2015-03-06
UK Distribution - Scottish Documentary Institute

Watch the trailer here.

Visit the film's website here.

Book your screening of Bikes vs Cars here.

Can a computer model predict the world economy? Martin Armstrong, a former US-based trillion dollar financial advisor, developed a computer model based on the number pi and other cyclical theories to predict economic turning points to incredible precision. In the early 80s he established his financial forecasting and advising company Princeton Economics. His forecasts were in great demand worldwide.

As Armstrong's recognition grew, prominent New York bankers invited him to join "the club" to help them in market manipulation. Martin refused. Later that same year, 1999, the FBI stormed his offices, confiscated his computer model, and accused him of a $3 billion Ponzi scheme. Was it an attempt to silence him and prevent him from initiating a public discourse on the real Ponzi Scheme of debts that the world has been building up for decades?

Armstrong predicts that a sovereign debt crisis will start to unfold on a global level after October 1st 2015 - a major pi turning point that his computer model forecasted many years ago.

Watch the trailer here.

Visit the film's website here.

Book to host your own screening of The Forecaster here.

In a time of recession, three Greeks try to take control of their own destinies. Could this crisis give us an opportunity to re-invent ourselves and our society?

We follow Giorgos in his search to find the strength to overcome his difficulties and put his life back together after he became homeless. We watch Grigoris move his family from the city in search of a better life. Lastly, we meet Ilias, an influential figure in the activist volunteer group behind the "potato movement" that challenges the commercial foods supply chain, practising solidarity and direct democracy, and making an impact on society as a whole.

As the economic crisis deepens, Greece is at the forefront of change, and the initiatives implemented there could soon be seen in many other countries. Our protagonists are here to give us courage and strength.

Director and Producer - Elena Zervopoulou
Cinematography - Elias Adamis and Elena Zervopoulou
Editor and Sound Design - Kenan Akkawi
Music - Drog_A_Tek
Production Company - One Vibe Films
Length - 78 minutes
Date of Premiere - 2014-03-16
UK Distribution - Scottish Documentary Institute

Watch the trailer here.

Visit the film's website here.

Book your screening of Greece: Days of Change here.