Brandon Turbeville
February 23, 2018
Perception management has long been a facet of the dominant minority (aka “Deep State”) that controls the military, political, financial, and industrial sectors of life in the Western world. Perception management is not only undertaken by political discourse in the political realm but even more so by the media that is supposed to be tasked with presenting the public with factual information but today functions solely as a propaganda arm of the Deep State apparatus. Indeed, the mainstream corporate media frames, shapes, and creates issues for the public to debate and cleverly guides them to the desired conclusions.
In addition to mass “news” media, however, television shows, movies, dramas, sitcoms, and documentaries all play a part in shaping the perceptions of the public in regards to current events as well as to the world around them, both locally and far away.
To control and manage the perception of hundreds of millions of people is quite a task and requires a massive network of corporations, industry, financiers, intelligence, and political coordination, however, and this leads many to believe it is impossible to achieve. That lack of understanding of just how much American media/entertainment is manipulated only serves to make the target population more susceptible to the propaganda.
One small peak into the world of mass perception management can be witnessed when looking into the recent documentary volley fired by the pro-war, anti-Syria Hollywood, National Geographic, BBC machine regarding Syria and the White Helmets. The goal of these documentaries is to paint the White Helmets as selfless, unarmed, non-political heroes rescuing innocent people from the rubble left behind by Assad and Putin’s bombs, the latter being aimed at civilians alone. The reality, of course, is something quite different.
“The function of these movies – is to ensure that the Al Qaeda affiliated White Helmets come up smelling of roses from the rubble of areas of Syria occupied by terrorist and extremist groups lorded over by Nusra Front (Al Qaeda in Syria),” writes journalist and expert on the White Helmets, Vanessa Beeley.
Beeley’s work is extremely important in understanding what is happening on the ground in Syria and I would highly recommend accessing her articles, interviews, and lectures which can be found across the internet, 21st Century Wire, and TheWallWillFall.org.
One such article, “White Helmets: Channel 4, BBC, The Guardian – Architects of ‘Humanitarian’ War,” is profound in its expose’ not only of the White Helmets fraud but of the documentary/news machine that promotes them. In that article, Beeley draws attention to the smattering of “documentaries” flooding the viewing market at around the same time promoting the White Helmets, pushing the NATO/US coalition narrative, and demonizing the Syrian Government, Russia, and Bashar al-Assad. She writes,
As if on cue, a vast number of documentaries have flooded the media market. The huge majority have conveyed a very one-sided perspective of the conflict in Syria and have, almost invariably, supported the US Coalition regime change narrative, which has prolonged the destabilization project in the region for the last seven years. Are these documentaries any more accurate than the corporate media they might replace?
For example, on April 5, 2017, National Geographic released a preview of its film, Hell on Earth: The Fall Of Syria And The Rise of ISIS, by filmmaker Sebastian Junger and producing partner Nick Quested. This film was prematurely released to coincide with the alleged and controversial Khan Sheikhoun chemical weapon attacks in Syria, on April 4th. However, as Paul Larudeerevealed, the film preview was a fraudulent misrepresentation of the war in Syria:
“The [opening] scene shows a missile destroying a residential building with a thunderous explosion. Imposed over the footage are the words, ALEPPO, SYRIA…[…] The original source footage comes from 2014, and is from the Israeli operation that took more than 2,200 Palestinian lives that summer”
“Shifting public perception” is, indeed, one of the roles of modern documentary makers, who, in many instances, take their funding from the same Time Warner, AOL and Walt Disney media investment pools in order to produce heart-stopping, emotion-wringing perception-changers for a western public whose opinions on state foreign policy is undoubtedly, hugely influenced by these ostensibly ‘factual’ documentaries.During the 7 year-long US Coalition-engineered, financed and armed Syria project, very few organisations have been so feted in political, media and Hollywood circles, as the NATO member-state-financed White Helmets.
Last year’s Oscar award for the Netflix documentary on the White Helmets is followed by the 2018 nomination for Last Men in Aleppo, the latest glossy, emotionally-charged promotional movie, featuring members of the alleged “first response” group doing what they do best – clambering over rubble, terrorist cheerleading and gazing skywards at imaginary helicopters.
The function of these movies – is to ensure that the Al Qaeda affiliated White Helmets come up smelling of roses from the rubble of areas of Syria occupied by terrorist and extremist groups lorded over by Nusra Front (Al Qaeda in Syria).
The admitted source of a number of these films should make viewers question their motives at the very least. One such organization, the Syria Campaign, is funded by an oil magnate that seeks to gain by the fall of the Syrian government, and the organization itself functions as media wing for the White Helmets. Many of the films that it boasts of creating are thus nothing more than marketing propaganda for al-Qaeda/Nusra’s own propaganda wing known as the White Helmets.
Beeley mentions this in her article when she writes,
Syria Campaign is effectively the White Helmet PR agency, seed-funded by UK resident and Syrian oil magnate, Ayman Asfari, who, incidentally, has also financed Theresa May’s Conservative government and is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office in the UK, having been already sanctioned in Italy for insider trading. He can, most certainly, be described as an interested party in the outcome of the Syrian conflict with openly declared political ambitions once the UK FCO-endorsed “regime change” is secured – plans that have been thwarted by a secular Syrian resistance with the support of their regional and geopolitical allies.
According to one of their many job offers, Syria Campaign have focused their advocacy efforts on the White Helmet organisation (emphasis added):Created award-winning films that have been viewed by tens of millions of people and shown in the White House. Generated thousands of media stories about Syria around the world. Unlocked tens of millions of dollars in aid through targeted advocacy. Placed key aspects of the conflict at the top of the political agenda. Raised millions of dollars in direct support for life-saving Syrian heroes. Built a community of more than 500,000 people across the world taking action in solidarity with Syria’s heroes.
In this push for mass perception management, Beeley, in her article, pinpointed what she believes are the three main defenders and peddlers of the White Helmets mythology. The Guardian, BBC, and Channel 4 are the outlets she focuses on, acknowledging many more like CNN and the Huffington Post. However, the British outlets mentioned above are those that she deems the most heavy purveyors of the White Helmets myth, a hypothesis which most likely bears out to be true. I highly recommend reading Beeley’s article to get a grasp of some of the individual players in each of these outlets as well as the scale to which they have gone in order to promote and defend the White Helmets.
But while these outlets promote and defend the White Helmets one question remains as to who is producing and funding them? Beeley’s article provides some answers. The first organization she mentions is DocSociety, formerly known as BritDoc, which is based in both New York and the UK. According to the organization, it is a “non profit, founded in 2005, committed to enabling great documentary films and connecting them to audiences globally.”
Three interesting aspects to DocSociety are found on their website which states that it grants 500,000 pounds per year, along with the Bertha Foundation and “others.” It also mentions its GoodPitch “Where the world’s best social change filmakers meet new allies and partners: $29m raised at 34 Good Pitch events” as well as its Impact Award that is provided to films “making the greatest social impact.”
Also mentioned on the DocSociety website and perhaps filed under the “others” category is the Threshold Foundation which states that “The Threshold Foundation looks to support documentaries that address the most important issues facing the world using a plan of action that is powerful, innovative, and unexpected.”
Other supporters of DocSociety include the Ford Foundation.
Beeley writes of DocSociety and the Threshold Foundation:
Joanna Natasegara and Orlando Einseidel of Violet Films and Grain Media, respectively have collaborated on a number of projects, most notably in 2014 on Virunga (based in the Congo) and then in 2016 when they directed and produced the Netflix White Helmet “documentary”. In reality, they sat on the Turkish side of the border with Syria and had the footage supplied to them by the White Helmets with no verification process to ascertain the authenticity or context of the material they converted into the Oscar winning promotional feature film.
. . . . .
Virunga was made two years before the White Helmets and was also heavily promoted by both Doc Society and Good Pitch.
. . . . .
The post production team that worked on the Netflix White Helmets movie was a company called Molinare – “I have the privilege of leading our highly talented and dedicated creative teams, and am constantly amazed by what the team can achieve in post to make a production look and sound its absolute best.” ~ Julie Parmenter, Managing Director. Molinare is also featured on the “Good Pitch” page of Doc Society as is Violet Films.
“We were extremely proud to be included in the prestigious Sundance Institute / Britdoc run ‘Good Pitch‘ event held at the Royal Institution. We were there to pitch to over 400 people about a very exciting project we’re working on.” ~ Grain Media June 2013It is worth noting that both Grain Media and Violet Films work closely with the BBC, The Guardian, Al Jazeera and Channel 4 on a number of projects.
The Threshold Foundation
. . . . .
Doc Society submits films to the Threshold Foundation that they consider worthy of a grant. One such film was the Netflix White Helmets documentary.
In October 2016, I received a confidential email from someone who was concerned about an NGO’s funding going to the White Helmet film – “It has become clear to me that at minimum the White Helmets are for regime change as they themselves call for a no fly zone which is an act of war, at worst a totally fraudulent organization and the centerpiece of a public relations campaign of deception”. Shortly after I received this email, the following statement appeared on the Threshold Foundation website:
Beeley’s article contains a picture and file of the statement, the relevant passage being the part where Threshold states, “We have since learned that the subject of the film (the White Helmets organization) and others involved in this film are advocating for strategies that could entail international military force and escalated violence. Given that military force and violent strategies do not align with Threshold values, we state that while we support the work of the filmmakers, we do not support militaristic responses.”
Beeley continues,
The other day, while in the midst of my research into Doc Society, I went back to the Threshold Foundation website and found that the statement had been removed and replaced with a congratulatory statement on the White Helmet Oscar success. The Wayback machine showed me that the statement had been removed during March 2017, so just after the White Helmets had been given the Academy award for whitewashing Al Qaeda in Syria.
The statement is still available on Google Drive.
What coercion was brought to bear upon the Threshold Foundation to maintain their unwavering support for the White Helmet construct? Was the statement published by a rogue element within the organisation who objected to the White Helmets being a “centrepiece” in the “humanitarian war” designed to reduce Syria to another failed state, like Libya? We may never know.
Last Men In Aleppo
On to the discussion of the now famous “Last Men In Aleppo” film that was turned into the most recent trendy propaganda piece. According to Beeley, GoodPitch was instrumental in promoting the film which was directed by Firas Fayyad, a man who claims to be an “exiled” Syrian currently living in Denmark. “Good Pitch has managed the entire incubation and delivery process for this film,” Beeley says.
It’s undeniable that Fayyad and his film went from obscure to Oscar nominee in an incredibly short amount of time. DocSociety is largely to thank for that. This is because, according to Beeley’s research, GoodPitch put Fayyad into contact with Danish Larm Films and Aleppo Media Centre, a French Foreign Office operation that has produced and provided a large portion of the pro-al-Qaeda narrative coming from East Aleppo, most notably Omran Daqneesh, the little boy seen covered in dust with a trail of blood running off his head who was filmed being put into an ambulance by White Helmets terrorists. That incident has since been thoroughly debunked by alt media journalists like Beeley, Eva Bartlett, myself, and the boy's father as a cynical and dangerous propaganda stunt. GoodPitch helped take Fayyad’s film from an idea to reality, staying with the film and the filmmaker and helping both every step of the way.
Beeley comments on the reason GoodPitch might have for midwifing the Last Men In Aleppo (LMIA) film. She writes,
Soren Jespersen, the producer of LMIA:
“We hope that our film will bring the suffering of the civilian population in Aleppo onto the agenda and hopefully put some pressure on the politicians, diplomats and the people in power to actually do something. Good pitch is a network and a connection to people who are experts or have access to people in power and can help us get our film screened in important places – so, Good Pitch is very much about meeting the right people. They get things done.”
“Doing something” means NATO-enforced ‘No Fly Zones’ and escalated “humanitarian” conflict. It means the protraction of the war for the Syrian people. It means the derailing of any peaceful or diplomatic resolution in Syria and the region.. . . . .
Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland at the Good Pitch Europe Programme 2017:“We believe change is needed, we know change is needed and one way to bring about change is to tell a good story”
That transformational narrative is so relied upon by those invested in “humanitarian R2P wars” that have led to the serial devastation of sovereign nations from Libya to Iraq to Syria and beyond.
The film went on to have its world premier at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the World Documentary Grand Jury Prize in January, 2017. Then, it moved on to win the CPH:DOX Festival “Top Prize” in March, 2017, the prize for “Most Innovative Documentary” at the POV Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards in October, 2017, and an Oscar nomination in March, 2018.
As Beeley writes, “I believe it’s safe to conclude that there is a vast, well-financed PR machine operating behind the scenes of the White Helmet organisation, whitewashing their discredited image and mapping out their political, media and Hollywood trajectory – in lock-step with the PR campaign is a media defence force headed up by Channel 4, The BBC and The Guardian. The hub of the film and PR sector is Doc Society.”
DocSociety Partners
As mentioned above, DocSociety keeps some very questionable company. Beeley writes,
Founding partner is Channel 4 and major partners are the BBC, Ford Foundation and Bertha Foundation.
Only The Guardian is missing, or is it?
. . . . .
“The Guardian is partnering with Bertha Foundation to tell international documentary film stories with global impact. We are commissioning a series of 12 short documentary films from independent filmmakers. The series covers global stories with a focus on films that have the ability to advance the contemporary issues they address and raise awareness of people and movements making a difference in the world.” (Emphasis added)
The Last Men in Aleppo won the Sundance Film Festival Award 2017, hardly surprising, considering that Sundance is also a major partner of Doc Society:
. . . . .
Robert Redford is President and Founder of the Sundance Institute.
“The Sundance Documentary Film Program supports non-fiction filmmakers worldwide in the production of cinematic documentaries on contemporary themes. Established in 2002 with founding support from Open Society Foundations“.
Add to that the Bertha Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, CNN Films and National Geographic, among others.
. . . . .
We find that the Open Society Foundation sponsors of the Sundance Institute are also fans of the Good Pitch concept, “made by Doc Society”:
“Good Pitch has created a community of like-minded change makers who believe in the power of using stories to drive social justice throughout the world”
For those who may be surprised that the famous Sundance Festival are closely linked to George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, taking a look at the way in which Sundance has praised the White Helmets films should erase any doubt as to their linkage. After all, the OSF apparatus has been widely supportive not just of the White Helmets but of terrorists in Syria as a whole.
As Beeley writes in her article, quoting the Sundance Festival itself,
A review of the Sundance Film Festival described the three ‘Syrian’ entries as “three documentaries on the ravaging of Syria“, naturally there is no reference to the ravaging of Syria by the US/UK nurtured terrorist groups who have infested this sovereign nation, financed, armed,equipped and promoted by 74 UN member states, the Gulf States and Israel. Last Men in Aleppo achieved its primary objective:
“Last Men in Aleppo follows the White Helmets during the last months of that bombed-out city’s existence, as they go about their heroic task of scanning the skies for Russian and Syrian bombers, racing in jury-rigged trucks to newly collapsed buildings, and digging through the rubble to pull out the few living and many dead. In the evenings they worry about getting their own families out of Syria and about the family members who are already refugees in Turkey and Western Europe. They are some of the most amazing people you will ever see on the screen.”
Having visited Syria numerous times, including Aleppo, Beeley was particularly angered at the way that Nusra Front crimes against the people of Aleppo had been whitewashed. Even more so, how Nusra Front terrorists were then painted as selfless humanitarians. Indeed, I highly recommend accessing her article to read the concluding paragraphs which include her powerful condemnation of this terrorist propaganda construct created in the West.
This tangled web of NGOs, "societies," foundations, and corporations, is only one small peak into one small aspect of the world of perception management. It is important that Americans and Westerners in general understand that the Media Industrial complex as well as the Entertainment Industrial Complex do not have their best interests at heart. In fact, the reality is quite to the contrary. These networks exist for the sole purpose of creating a reality in the minds of the general public that, irrespective of the truth, can be used to then control the direction and even the thought processes of masses of people. In this case, the desired goal is to convince the population of the western world that the White Helmets are anything other than a terrorist unit wearing hard hats.
Brandon Turbeville writes for Activist Post – article archive here – He is the author of seven books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President, and Resisting The Empire: The Plan To Destroy Syria And How The Future Of The World Depends On The Outcome. Turbeville has published over 1000 articles on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s radio show Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. His website is BrandonTurbeville.com He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.
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Image credit: 21st Century Wire