Should you be enjoying ‘The Trap’ (first episode available low res at http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2007/03/11/1_fuck_you_buddy.rm h/t Blairwatch comments) and want more documentary goodness form Mr Curtis his previous two series are available on the web.
(ICH are smaller files, lower res)
Century Of The Self
The Information Clearing House
The Power Of Nightmares
His older shows are not online, only short clips or trailers, this is a shame I hope people who may have copies of ‘The Mayfair Set’, ‘Pandora’s Box’, & ‘The Living Dead’ get sharing.
UPDATE: Big file size but best quality of both Nightmares and Self here. h/t The Tin Drum.
20 April, 2007 at 2:03 am
The Mayfair Set appears to have made it onto Google Video and I’m almost sure i saw Pandora’s Box on YouTube in 44 minute chunks. Let me know if you come by ‘The Living Dead’ anywhere.
27 September, 2007 at 11:45 am
Did anyone have a source for the Living Dead?
John
27 September, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Not so far, Living Dead is as yet the missing Grail! Certainly some copies exist but no one has uploaded them to the web, but stay tuned that could change.
5 April, 2008 at 11:30 am
Pandora’s Box is here:
http://www.archive.org/details/Pandoras_Box_DVD_1_of_3
“Pandora’s Box was a six part 1992 BBC documentary television series written and produced by Adam Curtis, which examines the consequences of political and technocratic rationalism.” (Wikipedia)
Full Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora%27s_Box_%28television_documentary_series%29
http://www.archive.org/details/The_Mayfair_Set_Part_1
This is a documentary series on how City of London bankers systematically dismantled British industry from the 1960s-90s and removed the power of the state to protect people from the greed of the market.
5 April, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Thanks Abdassamad Clarke. Hopefully The Living Dead will turn up again soon.
17 April, 2008 at 6:12 am
And this is the best site for the Power of Nightmares, with some pretty good quality hi-res copies as well as smaller files:
http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares
17 April, 2008 at 6:15 am
The Power of Nightmares
“In the past, politicians promised to create a better world. They had different ways of achieving this, but their power and authority came from the optimistic visions they offered their people. Those dreams failed and today people have lost faith in ideologies. Increasingly, politicians are seen simply as managers of public life, but now they have discovered a new role that restores their power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us: from nightmares. They say that they will rescue us from dreadful dangers that we cannot see and do not understand. And the greatest danger of all is international terrorism, a powerful and sinister network with sleeper cells in countries across the world, a threat that needs to be fought by a War on Terror. But much of this threat is a fantasy, which has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It’s a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services and the international media. This is a series of films about how and why that fantasy was created, and who it benefits. At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists. Both were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world, and both had a very similar explanation of what caused that failure. These two groups have changed the world, but not in the way that either intended. Together, they created today’s nightmare vision of a secret organized evil that threatens the world, a fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. And those with the darkest fears became the most powerful.”
By the way, archive.org has copies of the Century of Self, which is essential watching.
17 April, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Thanks Abdassamad Clarke, if you come across “The Living Dead” by Curtis please let me know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Dead_(television_documentary_series)
It was on the web briefly then disappeared, I only saw one episode of it when it was broadcast.
23 April, 2008 at 6:43 am
Likewise, I am looking for the Living Dead. But after much trawling through Google searches (Scroogle actually) I have not come across it. I wonder why?
Regards,
Abdassamad
23 April, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Hey Abdassamad, yep it’s the mysterious one. Obviously they are all problematic for official dvd releases as all the music and film rights would need loads of work, I think maybe the living dead was an early work so fewer people would have been aware so it would have been recorded less so less chance of a copy being around to be uploaded some years later. I am unaware of a specific reason it is not around like the others.
2 June, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Possibly, but Pandora’s Box is from 1992, three years earlier than the Living Dead, and even though it is 6 episodes it is available. Anyway, I do not have any reason to think there is skulduggery, but am just curious as to why it is hard to find, and interested to find a copy.
2 June, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Ah yes, good point, maybe the title is a problem, it always gets mistaken for a zombie movie, so maybe people didn’t watch it! I know my old university only have one episode so no help there. Seems to have just fallen through the cracks.
23 June, 2008 at 12:39 am
Have seen Century of the Self, The Trap and The Power of Nightmares. All are some of the greatest documentaries I have ever seen. I would love to get my hands on the Living Dead. Sounds like an interesting film.
23 June, 2008 at 1:07 am
Hey Paul, Yes they are all a breath of fresh air and operate at a level of wit, intelligence and sophistication almost extinct in the mass corporate media. Yes, The Living Dead has become like the Holy Grail of Curtis docos, one day it shall be rediscovered!
16 August, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I’m still looking for:
“The Living Dead”
“25 Million Pounds”
“The Way of the Flesh”
I have been able to find all the others on-line in various forms.
Does anyone know where these can be located?
9 September, 2008 at 9:05 am
http://tom-may.livejournal.com/2007/04/05/
I found this site, he says he has a copy of the living dead, maybe someone could email him about it.
9 September, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Thanks Bill, I will see what can be done.
22 September, 2008 at 5:09 pm
How did you get on Rick? Did you contact him?
23 September, 2008 at 12:10 am
I admit it escaped me Bill but I have contacted him now, so waiting with baited breath is in order!
4 October, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Any luck with this? The Wikipedia article for The Living Dead seems pretty thorough, presumably the person/people that wrote it have access to a copy, did anyone try to contact them?
4 October, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Hey Philip, I have emailed Tom May via his livejournal and so far no reply, I’ll look into the wiki. After that I have one last thing to try…
4 October, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Good luck… incidentally do you have the capability to convert a VHS tape into internet-ready electro-pictures. I’d say there’s a good chance that if you track down a copy it’ll be a VHS copy, and I don’t know about you but my laptop doesn’t even have a floppy-disk drive, let alone a gaping six inch slot in its side!!!
5 October, 2008 at 12:57 am
Yes I do, digitising is easy, although the subsequent encoding to a smaller web file makes my mac feel its age but it’s not a problem.
Yeah, I reckon a VHS drive would bulk up the average laptop, I remember old vhs cams that were a big shoulder cam plus a recording deck like a small suitcase. I still keep a usb ext floppy drive but haven’t used it in ages, (1.4 mb seems a tad small these days!).
5 October, 2008 at 1:20 am
Yeah, but there’s still something appealing about analog technology, I dunno maybe its that it feels less invasive then the new digital technologies. Playing an Amiga or operating a top-loading video player feels today as comforting as snuggling up with a hot-water bottle or getting a hug from your mum…..
5 October, 2008 at 8:56 am
Does my mum hug you a lot? (hey see what I did there? I’ll be here all week, try the veal)
Ahh, nostalgia, although an Amiga, rather on the digtal side, even then the zeros and ones were infiltrating our vacuum tube analog worlds. I think analog stuff is somehow more organic to us because it is often more obvious how it works, you can even make a rudimentary device, (a needle and paper cone can get music from a record, a pinhole camera and basic chemicals will make a photograph) whereas digital requires complex manufacturing for even basic components estranging us from the technology, the processes. However it does hold much greater promise as a tool (or overlord once it begins thinking and reproducing itself).
5 October, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Hey, don’t knock my imprecise grammer… its organic, analog even! Anyway, saying “getting a hug from one’s mum(my)” sounds totally buorgeios…
Yup, the future certainly looks bleak… I’d imagine it to be filled with capitalist terminators; they’re sort of like normal terminators except with top-hats, walking sticks and snooty accents!
5 October, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I say mater, one requires a hug- yes a bit much.
So rather than -I’ll be back.
We’ll hear- I shall return presently and give you a sound thrashing, peasant!
6 October, 2008 at 8:54 am
I have very good copies of all three episodes, taken originally on VHS and transferred to hard disk, from which I can easily make DVD copies, but I lack both time and software to get them into a format in which I could make them available on BitTorrent. If someone on this list who lives in Britain and is prepared to do the donkey work will contact me, I’ll happily send him/her a DVD. john@whitings-writings.com
I also have a copy of “The Great British Housing Disaster” (1984) which isn’t even in the Wickipedia article. I could include it on the same DVD.
6 October, 2008 at 8:56 am
. . . of “The Living Dead”, in case that wasn’t clear.
7 October, 2008 at 8:02 am
John, I’ve emailed you and hopefully we can work this out and soon the material will be roaming free on the web. Thank you, it feels like we’ve found the Holy Grail!
10 October, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Its like waiting for Christmas…
Thanks to everyone who made this work.
10 October, 2008 at 10:33 pm
All I’m saying is…give it a week and google vid will be the place to be. JW is King!
11 October, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Yeah, I can’t wait. I stumbled upon this blog while looking for a copy of the living dead. Thanks to all who are working to get his amazing work on the tubes.
14 October, 2008 at 2:29 am
[...] 1995 three parter has been notable by its absence from the web, but now thanks to what went on here (thank you JW) I am proud to present for your viewing [...]
14 October, 2008 at 4:01 pm
[girly screms]…….Aaaaaaahhh!!!……[girly screams] IT’S ADAM CURTIS!!!!!! [faints]
19 May, 2009 at 11:45 am
Adam Curtis docs are my favorite. I found the streaming version of ‘The living dead’ here http://www.documentary-log.com/watch-online-d/298/the-living-dead/
But I would definitely recommend you to buy them on dvd.
Cheers,