4 ms·

No one would see it. No platform/distributor would touch it, similar to what happened with Bryan Fogel's work the Dissident [1], about the assassination of Jama

by rkk3 5y ago

No one would see it. No platform/distributor would touch it, similar to what happened with Bryan Fogel's work the Dissident [1], about the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. Also 1989 is certainly a horror story reminiscent of Chernobyl, but it's a lot more complex than the cartoonish evil treatment it receives in the west. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dissident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dissident

scotty79 5y ago
"In its first weekend of home release, the film was the third-most rented title at the iTunes Store and eighth on Apple TV." Are you sure that nobody else is publishing it and if that's the case it's not some kind of usual all American copyright exclusivity deal not political suppression? Copyright can look a lot like totalitarian control sometimes.
- rkk3 5y ago
  The home Rental market is significantly smaller than home streaming. Icarus has over 700 Million Views [1] where as this one was the third most rented title for a week on Itunes, so yes relatively speaking no one is watching it. The platforms did not want his content, even though he is an academy award winning documentary director. You can read his interview with Variety below. 1. https://variety.com/2021/film/news/the-dissident-saudi-arabia-netflix-bryan-fogel-icarus-1234886662/ https://variety.com/2021/film/news/the-dissident-saudi-arabi...
- mngnt 5y ago
  From the gp-linked wikipedia article: "The film struggled to find a distributor for eight months and was not able to run on a large streaming platform like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. It is widely believed this was due to those platforms' fear of offending the Saudi Arabian government and possibly losing subscribers. Fogel showed disappointment at The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos’ decision to acquire UAE e-commerce site Souq.com shortly after he refused to release The Dissident on Amazon Prime Video." He tried to get it published by other means, but money. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/business/media/dissident-jamal-khashoggi-netflix-amazon.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/business/media/dissident-...
divbzero 5y ago
> Also 1989 is certainly a horror story reminiscent of Chernobyl, but it's a lot more complex than the cartoonish evil treatment it receives in the west. The complexity is what would make such a film compelling. What are the subtleties glossed over in the typical account of the terrible event? In a completely different context, I recently watched and listened to accounts of 9/11 from a wide variety of perspectives. What made them captivating were aspects of what happened that I wasn’t aware of before.

by rkk3 5y ago

scotty79 5y ago

"In its first weekend of home release, the film was the third-most rented title at the iTunes Store and eighth on Apple TV." Are you sure that nobody else is publishing it and if that's the case it's not some kind of usual all American copyright exclusivity deal not political suppression? Copyright can look a lot like totalitarian control sometimes.

rkk3 5y ago
The home Rental market is significantly smaller than home streaming. Icarus has over 700 Million Views [1] where as this one was the third most rented title for a week on Itunes, so yes relatively speaking no one is watching it. The platforms did not want his content, even though he is an academy award winning documentary director. You can read his interview with Variety below. 1. https://variety.com/2021/film/news/the-dissident-saudi-arabia-netflix-bryan-fogel-icarus-1234886662/ https://variety.com/2021/film/news/the-dissident-saudi-arabi...
mngnt 5y ago
From the gp-linked wikipedia article: "The film struggled to find a distributor for eight months and was not able to run on a large streaming platform like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. It is widely believed this was due to those platforms' fear of offending the Saudi Arabian government and possibly losing subscribers. Fogel showed disappointment at The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos’ decision to acquire UAE e-commerce site Souq.com shortly after he refused to release The Dissident on Amazon Prime Video." He tried to get it published by other means, but money. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/business/media/dissident-jamal-khashoggi-netflix-amazon.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/business/media/dissident-...

divbzero 5y ago

> Also 1989 is certainly a horror story reminiscent of Chernobyl, but it's a lot more complex than the cartoonish evil treatment it receives in the west. The complexity is what would make such a film compelling. What are the subtleties glossed over in the typical account of the terrible event? In a completely different context, I recently watched and listened to accounts of 9/11 from a wide variety of perspectives. What made them captivating were aspects of what happened that I wasn’t aware of before.