Tag: Netflix

A new Netflix documentary called “The Great Hack” is looking at how your online data is used to influence public opinion and elections. The director, Jehane Noujam, and producer, Karim Amer, join Stephanie Ruhle to discuss online data and privacy…

(Mild spoilers below.) The series is set in Korea's Joeson period, a medieval dynasty that lasted some 500 years (1392-1897). The current king has been ill with smallpox (supposedly) and confined to his palace, with only his physicians, royal guards, and young pregnant wife, Queen Cho (Kim Hye-jun), allowed to see him. The queen's father, Cho Hak-ju, heads up the Haewon Cho clan, who have been gradually eroding the king's power and influence with an eye toward replacing the crown prince (born to a concubine) with a legitimate heir—assuming the queen gives birth to a son. The suspicious crown prince heads out to the provinces to find out what the physician did to his father, accompanied by a loyal servant, Mu-Yeung (Kim Sang-ho). The zombie king kills the physician's young assistant, and the body is brought back to his clinic in the remote village of Dongnae, where the people are starving. The head nurse, Seo-bi (Bae Doo-na) is horrified to find that this turns all of them into flesh-eating monsters, along with anyone they bite. Seo-bi and Yeong-Sin didn't eat the stew, so they don't turn. Writer Kim Eun-Hee has said that he originally planned to adapt his webcomic into a "webtoon," where the crown prince would be much younger, but he seems pleased with how this fleshed-out, live-action drama turned out. The production values are stunning, bringing the historical period to life in rich detail, although doing so pushed the series well over budget and beyond the planned four-month production period.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is about to get on the board in a big way at the Sundance Film Festival, near a deal on one of the buzziest documentaries to play Park City. Netflix is closing on Knock Down the House, the Rachel Lears-directed film that followed the campaigns of four progressive women who ran against incumbents in the elections last fall, shaking up the status quo and bringing fresh blood into Congress. One of the main figures in the film is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who ran as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and was elected to New York’s 14th District and became at age 29 the youngest woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress. Ocasio-Cortez was expected to come to Sundance, but had to cancel the trip because of the turbulence of the government shutdown which was just coming to an end. The other progressive challengers whose campaigns are studied are Cori Bush, Amy Vilela and Paula Jean Swearengin, and the film drew raves and multiple bidders. Bush was a former nurse from St. Louis who was moved to run after becoming involved in protests of the murder of Michael Brown, and she challenged Rep. Lacy Clay, an old-school black Southern Democrat whose father held the office before him. Vilela was a chief financial officer in Nevada who took on Steven Horsford, a pol heavily backed by PAC-money interests. Vilela was moved to run after the death of her daughter, who passed away soon after a hospital refused to treat her when she couldn’t provide proof of insurance. Swearengin is a coal miner’s daughter who ran because she loathed seeing her community blighted by health problems and poverty created by the dependence on the coal industry in West Virginia. Cinetic Media brokered the deal.

5 1: Can big tech stocks recover? Apple even breached the $1trn trillionmark, with Amazon close behind. Tech companies, in the eyes of many, are simply getting too big and powerful. In Ireland, tech firm’sfirms’ political importance came to the fore when some of the biggest internet firms took an unprecedented decision not to allow campaigning ads in the weeks preceding the country’s abortion referendum in May. 3: When Chinese tech firms ran into political trouble Huawei is now Ireland’s third-largest smartphone manufacturer and second in the world after Samsung. The reason, they say, is that Huawei has close links to Chinese authorities. Huawei comes in for particular atttention because it’s such a big player in communications network infrastructure. British Telecom will now move Huawei kit away from “core” network functions in rolling out 5G infrastructure, the Financial Times reported. The Chinese government was outraged by the detention, interpreting it as a direct assault on Chinese interests. This might dash hopes for connections to rural homes by the end of 2019, something that had been on the cards until the controversy around Mr Naughten’s meetings blew up at the tail end of 2018. disruption.

While the topics of the nominated films varied widely from civil war in the Balkans to American politics in the 1960s, many saw the main messages of their work reflected in current political times. The Independent Documentary Association held its 34th Annual Documentary Awards on Saturday night at the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles. The ceremony was hosted by Rikki Lake and presenters included Barry Jenkins, Kathy Bates and Emily Deschanel. While the topics of the nominated films varied widely from civil war in the Balkans to American politics in the 1960s, many saw the main messages of their work reflected in current political times. Dawn Porter, director and producer of the Netflix documentary series Bobby Kennedy for President, told The Hollywood Reporter what the project has to say about America today. “1968, the year that Kennedy was assassinated, was one of the most tumultuous times in American history," Porter said. "Our collective feeling is if we can get through that, the Vietnam, war, civil rights and riots all over the country, we can survive a difficult administration. We have been here before and we have survived.” Golden Globe-winning actor Jeffrey Wright, who is a producer on We Are Not Done Yet, a short documentary film that profiles veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as they rebuild their lives and contend with PTSD, told The Hollywood Reporter why this was a story that he felt needed to be told. I don’t think there are too many people in our country who have actually heard the voices of the men and women who have served in those wars," he said. The evening’s other big winners included three-time Academy Award winning filmmaker Julia Reichert, who was given the career achievement award, and the Netflix docuseries Wild Wild Country, which won for best limited series.

Are you a fan of the HBO series "Game of Thrones"? The book is one of few in academic research to explore the connection between popular entertainment and political beliefs. It expands on Gierzynski's 2013 book, "Harry Potter and the Millennials: Research Methods and the Politics of the Muggle Generation," which found that the books and films about the boy wizard influenced the political perspectives of those who grew up with them. And fiction captivates viewers on a more visceral level than news, allowing for greater influence, Gierzynski says. Many movies and TV shows contain political subject matter: "House of Cards" is about an unscrupulous congressman; much of science fiction features a president making decisions about an alien invasion. One of those themes is "belief in a just world," the focus of Gierzynski's study using "Game of Thrones." As Gierzynski writes, "The findings indicate that there appears to be a causal linkage between exposure to these shows and the belief in a just world - exposure to the repeated lessons of 'Game of Thrones' that the world is cruel and unjust seems to have dampened the tendency to believe the opposite, that the world is just." Gierzynski and his students conducted a similar study for "House of Cards," determining its influence on cynicism about political leadership, which in turn could discourage the viewer from seeing the value of political engagement or even the need to vote in elections. Gierzynski himself is a science fiction fan. "No one questions the fact that 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' had a huge impact on people's views about slavery and racism," he says.

Time's Up For The Trump family On Thursday, June 14, the Attorney General of New York, Barbara Underwood, filed a lawsuit to bar the Trump family from getting involved with any charities. In addition, at Mr. Trump's behest, the Trump Foundation illegally provided extensive support to his 2016 presidential campaign by using the Trump Foundation's name and funds it raised from the public to promote his campaign for presidency, including in the days before the Iowa nominating caucuses." Is time up for the Trump family shenanigans? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2018 ....Schneiderman, who ran the Clinton campaign in New York, never had the guts to bring this ridiculous case, which lingered in their office for almost 2 years. The Justice Department found that James Comey, the ex-FBI director turned author, was insubordinate in his investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, which he publicly discussed while she was running against Trump for president. "We found that it was extraordinary and insubordinate for Comey to do so, and we found none of his reasons to be a persuasive basis for deviating from well-established Department policies." The IG found no evidence of political bias in the investigation. I respect the DOJ IG office, which is why I urged them to do this review. — James Comey (@Comey) June 14, 2018 Trump Wasn't a Fan of AT&T Hopping in Bed With Time Warner Time Warner believes that the AT&T Inc. (T - Get Report) merger was somewhat political. TextColorWhiteTransparencyOpaqueBackgroundColorBlackTransparencyOpaqueWindowColorBlackTransparencyTransparent Font Size50% Text Edge StyleNone Font FamilyProportional Sans-Serif Advertisement The Department of Justice claimed that an acquisition of Time Warner Inc. (TWX - Get Report) by AT&T violated antitrust laws and took the company to court.

In one of the more high-profile production deals we’ve ever seen, Netflix earlier this month inked a deal with both Barack and Michelle Obama. The deal was officially signed with Higher Ground Productions, the Obama’s production company. While programming specifics remain somewhat vague, Netflix did note that the deal would have the Obamas oversee production across a number of different genres, including television shows and documentaries. Of course, with politics being what it is, some folks on the right were a little miffed at the news and expressed some concern that the Obamas would use Netflix’s massive platform to exclusively promote partisan viewpoints and politically oriented programming. Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, however, recently said that such concerns are unfounded. While speaking at an event in New York this week, Sarandos said that “there’s no political slant to the programming.” Sarandos, whose remarks were originally relayed via our sister-site Variety, added that the Obama’s production company will focus on entertainment programming as opposed to political programming. That said, Sarandos allowed that “it’s hard to argue that there’s not a left lean to the creative community.” But he insisted that the original content Netflix greenlights and distributes is “an aggregation of all those storytellers,” not reflecting “the politics of me” or Netflix chairman and CEO Reed Hastings. When news of Netflix’s deal with the Obamas first broke, there was some surprise that the former first couple didn’t opt to sign a deal with Apple, especially given Apple’s massive hoard of cash. It’s worth noting, though, that Sarandos has long had a personal relationship with the Obamas. In fact, Sarandos’ wife — Nicole Avant — was the United States Ambassador to the Bahamas for about two years during the Obama administration.

Even months after it was first reported, details about Barack and Michelle Obama’s wide-ranging Netflix deal are still being held tightly under wraps. But questions have arisen. What kinds of projects will they make? And will the deal be an extension of their political work? There is, at least, an answer to the last question: apparently not, according to Netflix head Ted Sarandos. During an interview at the Paley Center for Media on Tuesday, Sarandos shared a sliver of an update that indicated Democratic talking points will have no place in the former First Family’s Netflix projects. “This is not the Obama Network,” Sarandos said, per Variety. “There’s no political slant to the programming.” Watch Now: Everything Terry Crews Does in a Day To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that : 0%: 0% The Obamas have signed on to create a variety of potential projects that fall into entertainment programming, including scripted films and TV shows, unscripted lifestyle content, and docuseries, according to Variety. Per The New York Times, the Obamas also want to focus on sharing inspirational stories. Another possible idea, per the Times, is one in which the former First Lady chats about topics like nutrition, a key issue during her time in the White House.

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