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Zeitgeist, the Movie
Directed by	Peter Joseph
Written by	Peter Joseph
Produced by	Peter Joseph
Edited by	Peter Joseph
Music by	Peter Joseph
Distributed by	GMP LLC
Release date	2007
Running time	122 min
Language	English (Available in 23 subtitles)

Zeitgeist, the Movie is a 2007 documentary film released online free and on DVD, presenting Christianity, the September 11 attacks, and the US Federal Reserve Bank as being instrumental for social control. According to the website's "statement":

" 'Zeitgeist, The Movie' and 'Zeitgeist: Addendum' were created as Not-for-Profit expressions to communicate what the author felt were highly important social understandings which most humans are generally not aware of. The first film focuses on suppressed historical & modern information about currently dominant social institutions, while also exploring what could be in store for humanity if the power structures at large continue their patterns of self-interest, corruption, and consolidation.

The second film, Zeitgeist: Addendum, attempts to locate the root causes of this pervasive social corruption, while offering a solution. This solution is not based on politics, morality, laws, or any other "establishment" notions of human affairs, but rather on a modern, non-superstitious based understanding of what we are and how we align with nature, to which we are a part. The work advocates a new social system which is updated to present day knowledge, highly influenced by the life long work of Jacque Fresco and The Venus Project."

Release

Zeitgeist was released online free on Google video on June 26, 2007 and has since been translated into several languages. For a time, it reached the top of the chart of "most viewed" videos available through Google video. A remastered version of Zeitgeist was screened on November 10, 2007 at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood as part of a film festival held there (the 4th Annual "Artivist Film Festival," where it won the award in the "Artivist Spirit" category for feature-length documentaries). Peter Joseph claims the Zeitgeist documentaries have been watched by 50 million people worldwide.

Synopsis

The film opens with a collection of visual art, film footage and audio quotes. It starts with a speech by Chögyam Trungpa about spirituality, followed by a series of musically synchronized clips of war and explosions culminating with the September 11 attacks. This is followed by another sequence of clips, this time showing war casualties. The film's title screen is displayed, and Jordan Maxwell's Inner World of the Occult is quoted, which criticizes religious institutions, governments, and banking cartels who are alleged to "have misled away from the true and divine presence in the universe." The film's intro ends with a portion of a George Carlin monologue on religion and an accompanying animated cartoon.

Part I

Part I, entitled "The Greatest Story Ever Told" questions religions as original god-given stories, arguing the Christian religion specifically is mainly derived from other religions, astronomical facts, astrological myths and traditions; in turn derived from or sharing elements with other ones. In furtherance of the Jesus myth hypothesis, this part argues that the historical Jesus is a literary and astrological hybrid, nurtured politically in the interest of control.

This section was based on the work of many scholars, ranging from Egyptologist Gerald Massey, to Joseph Campbell to Acharya S (DM Murdock)

Horus, the Egyptian Sun God, is introduced as having a number of attributes similar to many other religious deities which came after him, including but not limited to Attis, Krishna, Dionysus, Mithra and Jesus Christ; these attributes alleged to include the virgin birth on December 25th, 12 disciples, burial for 3 days, resurrection, and performing of miracles.

The film offers explanations for some of these common attributes. To explain the origin of the alleged December 25 birth, the film points out that the Winter solstice has the shortest day, and therefore, the shortest amount of sunlight, of the year, and that about three days after it, sunlight time could be seen growing, thus marking the birth of a "God of light" or Sun God. Another Christian-astrological similarity, according to the film, is that the three stars in Orion's belt (called the "Three Kings") align with Sirius on December 25, the brightest star in the sky, and point to the Sun's rise on the horizon. This is equated to the Nativity of Jesus, where, according to the film, three "kings" follow the star in the east to locate the birth of Jesus. Furthermore, around December 25, Sun rises in the vicinity of Virgo, the constellation known as Virgin, which refers to the origin of Jesus' virgin birth. Comparison of sunset in the vicinity of Crux and Jesus' death on the cross is based on similar principle. In addition, parallels as walking on water (reflection at dawn/dusk) and turning water into wine (ripening of grapes) are shown as metaphoric miracles, explained as the influence of the Sun.

Christianity is then said to be a Gnostic myth, historized by the Roman Empire for social control of Europe through doctrines established at the First Council of Nicea. The Dark Ages, the Inquisitions and the Crusades are given as events which maintained Europe's submission to The Vatican through Christianity. The following is said in conclusion: "Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems empowers those who know the truth, but use the myth to manipulate and control societies. It reduces human responsibility to the effect that "God" controls everything, and in turn awful crimes can be justified in the name of Divine Pursuit. The religious myth is the most powerful device ever created, and serves as the psychological soil upon which other myths can flourish."

Part II

Part II, entitled "All the World's a Stage," uses integral footage of several 9/11 conspiracy theory films like Loose Change to portray the September 11 attacks as either orchestrated or allowed to happen by elements within the United States government in order to generate mass fear, initiate and justify the War on Terror, provide a pretext for the curtailment of civil liberties, and produce economic gain. These claims include that the U.S. government had advance knowledge about the attacks, the response of the military deliberately let the planes reach their targets, and the World Trade Center buildings 1, 2, and 7 underwent a controlled demolition. The film claims that six of the named hijackers are still alive, that Hani Hanjour could not have flown Flight 77 into the Pentagon, that no substantial plane wreckage was found at two of the three crash sites, that the Bush administration covered up the truth in the 9/11 Commission Report, and that the mainstream media have failed to ask important questions about the official account.

Part III

Part III, entitled Don't Mind the Men Behind the Curtain, argues that three wars of the United States during the twentieth century were waged purely for economic gain by what the film refers to as "international bankers". Events that the film alleges to be fraudulent or staged are the sinking of the RMS Lusitania (a factor in the U.S. decision to enter World War I two years later), the Attack on Pearl Harbor (which was the opening attack of the Japanese on the U.S. in World War II), and the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (which led to the escalation of the Vietnam War).

According to the film, the U.S. was forced by the Federal Reserve Bank to become embroiled in these wars, not to win but to sustain conflict, as it forces the U.S. government to borrow money from the bank, allegedly increasing the profits of the international bankers. The film gives a history of the Federal Reserve, claiming it engineered the Great Depression to steal wealth from the American population and was responsible for the assassination of Louis McFadden, a congressman who attempted to impeach the Federal Reserve Board. The film then goes on to claim that the Federal Income Tax is illegal.

This section also claims the existence of a secret agreement to merge the United States, Canada and Mexico into a "North American Union" and to replace the Canadian dollar, United States dollar, and the Mexican peso by a new currency, called the "amero". The creation of this North American Union is then alleged to be a step towards the creation of a "One World Government", which would be formed by the merging of the North American Union, the European Union, the African Union and a hypothetical Asian Union. The film concludes that under such a government, every human would be implanted with an RFID chip that would be used to monitor individuals and suppress dissent. The film ends with several quotes from Carl Sagan, Bill Hicks and several others.

Sequel I: Zeitgeist: Addendum

Zeitgeist: Addendum premiered at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival in Los Angeles, California on October 2, 2008, winning their highest award. It was released free online on October 4, 2008. Director Peter Joseph stated: "The failure of our world to resolve the issues of war, poverty, and corruption, rests within a gross ignorance about what guides human behavior to begin with. It addresses the true source of the instability in our society, while offering the only fundamental, long-term solution."

Part I follows on from Part III from the original film, citing the specific process of fractional-reserve banking as detailed in Modern Money Mechanics, released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In detailing the process of money creation, the film suggests society is manipulated into economic slavery through debt-based monetary policies by requiring individuals to submit for employment in order to pay off their debt.

Part II is a documentary-style interview with The New York Times best-selling author and activist John Perkins based on his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, in which he describes his role as a self-described economic hit man. In that capacity, he claims to have helped the CIA, as well as various corporate and political entities, to undermine or corrupt foreign regimes that put the interests of their populations before those of transnational corporations. Perkins denies the existence of a conspiracy, because he sees the U.S. as a corporatocracy, in which there is no need for a plot, as politicians like Dick Cheney (who first served as the head of a construction company Halliburton and afterwards became Vice President) are alleged of working under the same primary assumption as corporations: that maximisation of profits is first priority, regardless of any social or environmental cost.

Part III is a documentary-style interview with futurist Jacque Fresco. The film looks at Fresco's proposal of a "resource-based economy", which he claims would create abundance, is environmentally friendly and sustainable. He goes on to discuss technology which he sees as the primary driver of human advancement and he blames politics as being unable to solve any problems, because of what he claims is lack of "technical capabilities". Fresco claims that his approach is not perfect, but that "it's just much better than what we have. We can never achieve perfection".

Part IV of the film suggests that the primary reason for what it sees as society's social values ("warfare, corruption, oppressive laws, social stratification, irrelevant superstitions, environmental destruction, and a despotic, socially indifferent, profit oriented, ruling class") is a collective ignorance of "the emergent and symbiotic aspects of natural law." The film suggests several actions for "social change", which include: boycotting banks who are claimed to make up the Federal Reserve System, such as JPMorgan Chase and Citibank, turning off TV news, not joining a military, refusing energy from energy companies in favour of making homes self-sustainable with clean energy and rejecting the political structure. The film closes by asking everyone to "eliminate the divisionary, materialistic noise, we have been conditioned to think is true ... while discovering, amplifying and aligning with the signal coming from our true, empirical oneness."

Awards

In 2007, "Zeitgeist, The Movie" received the Top award from the Artivist Film Festival in Los Angeles

In 2008, "Zeitgeist Addendum", the sequel, again received the Top award from the Artivists Film Festival in Los Angeles gaining record attendance.

In the words of Artivist Co-Founder Dr. Bettina Wolff:

"Director Peter Joseph has the ability to take risky subject matter and turn it into a visually, emotionally, and intellectually compelling case for a "greater point of view." "Millions of people gravitated toward Peter's first film. We are excited that this year's Artivist Film Festival will provide a platform to once again, pique the curiosity of millions of viewers and continue the dialogue about topics concerning citizens worldwide,".

Social Movement

On March 15th 2009, or "Zeitgeist Day" as it was called, over 400 events occurred in 70 countries according to the New York Times and The Zeitgeist Movement's website. These events presented ideals of a new social design, influenced by Zeitgeist, The Movie and its sequel. According to the New York Times report, during the sold out event in New York City on that day, Mr. Joseph stated that 250,000 members of The Zeitgeist Movement currently exist worldwide".

According to the 83 page Activist Orientation Manual, the objectives of the movement are quoted as: " "The Zeitgeist Movement is the activist arm of The Venus Project, which constitutes the life long work of industrial designer and social engineer, Jacque Fresco. Jacque currently lives in Venus, Florida, working closely with his associate, Roxanne Meadows. Now, let it be understood that Mr. Fresco will be the first to tell you that his perspectives and developments are not entirely his own, but rather uniquely derived from the evolution of scientific inquiry which has persevered since the dawn of antiquity. Simply put, what The Venus Project represents and what The Zeitgeist Movement hence condones, could be summarized as: ‘The application of The Scientific Method for social concern."

Response

References to the film in the media are both scarce and ranging from descriptive to dismissive.

On March 16, 2009, Alan Feuer of The New York Times wrote regarding Zeitgeist: Addendum:

"Indeed, , the focus of the event, was all but empty of such conspiratorial notions, directing its rhetoric and high production values toward posing a replacement for the evils of the banking system and a perilous economy of scarcity and debt."

An article in the Irish Times, said that

"These are surreal perversions of genuine issues and debates, and they tarnish all criticism of faith, the Bush administration and globalization - there are more than enough factual injustices in this world to be going around without having to invent fictional ones. One really wishes Zeitgeist was a masterful pastiche of 21st-century paranoia, a hilarious mockumentary to rival Spinal Tap. But it's just deluded, disingenuous and manipulative nonsense. If you pretend to know only truth, in truth you know only pretence."

An article in the weekly Seattle paper The Stranger, said:

"It's fiction, couched in a few facts and it adds up to the worst kind of fear-mongering."

The February 25, 2009 edition of eSkeptic, the online newsletter of The Skeptics Society, criticizes the first part of the film (the one on Christianity) by saying:

"Perhaps the worst aspect of Part I of Peter Joseph’s Internet film, Zeitgeist, is that some of what it asserts is true. Unfortunately, this material is liberally — and sloppily — mixed with material that is only partially true and much that is plainly and simply bogus. Zeitgeist is The Da Vinci Code on steroids."

CBC Radio Host Jesse Brown broadcast an audio essay on the movie summarizing the movie with:

"It's the same old paranoid jazz, but Zeitgeist, The Movie weaves it all together really skilfully."

The Globe and Mail has also published a critical article about the movie, titled "Rejecting Conspiracy Thinking Keeps it Alive and Well," in which it is said that

" this stuff it's all been thoroughly debunked for years. Evidently, debunking isn't the issue. Nor can you cite the findings of the professional, journalistic, and academic consensus to someone who's decided that having credibility means being under the sway of shadowy forces. for all the talk of skepticism, conspiracy counterculture is really an anti-intellectual, populist movement "

The Village Voice mentioned Zeitgeist in passing in a review of the 2008 fiction film Able Danger in which the film critic sees an

"invocation of September 11 for the vaguely satirical purpose of tweaking conspiracy crap like that found in Zeitgeist: The Movie (an Internet film that, like Krik's recent "Be Kanye" ads, went mega-viral last year)"

Soundtrack

The Full Musical Score for both Zeitgeist, The Movie and Zeitgeist Addendum was composed and performed by Peter Joseph, the film's director.

See also

• Bible conspiracy theory
• Jesus Christ in comparative mythology
• The God Who Wasn't There

References

1. ^ "IMDb Profile". Imdb.com. February 18, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2009. Cite error: The named reference "IMDBprof" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
2. ^ "IMDB company credits". Imdb.com. Retrieved March 15, 2009. Cite error: The named reference "IMDBcomp" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
3. http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/statement.htm
4. Google Video Zeitgeist, The Movie (Official Release - Full Film)
5. 1, 2008&cr=* Google video
6. "4th Annual Artivist Film Festival & Artivist Awards". Artivist Film Festival and Artivist Awards press release. October 31, 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
7. "4th Annual Artivist Film Festival and Artivist Awards Announce the Winning Films of This Year's Festival". Artivist Film Festival and Artivist Award press release. November 5, 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
8. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/nyregion/17zeitgeist.html?_r=1 (March 2009)
9. http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/sources.htm
10. Official Zeitgeist Website
11. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network's Market Watch, Press release.
12. Breaking News, Artivist Film Festival website.
13. http://en.wikipedia.org/Artivist_Film_Festival_&_Awards#Award_winners
14. Artivist Film Festival in Los Angeles
15. http://www.artivists.org/
16. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/nyregion/17zeitgeist.html
17. http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=149
18. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/nyregion/17zeitgeist.html
19. http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/The%20Zeitgeist%20Movement.pdf
20. Alan Feuer (March 16, 2009). "They've Seen the Future and Dislike the Present". The New York Times. Retrieved March 16, 2009.
21. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2007/0825/1187332519087.html
22. Paul Constant (September 5, 2007). "Beauty Is Truth". The Stranger. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
23. http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/09-02-25.html
24. Jesse's Essay - Zeitgeist, The Movie on CBC Radio One
25. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FRTGAM.20070816.wweb17%2FBNStory%2FTechnology&ord=49217662&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true
26. Orange, Michelle. (September 10, 2008) The Village Voice Able Danger
27. http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/sources.htm

External links

• Zeitgeist - The Movie Official website
• Zeitgeist: The Movie at IMDb
• Zeitgeist, The Movie - Remastered / Final Edition at Google Video
• Zeitgeist: Addendum at Google Video
• Zeitgeist: Addendum at IMDb
• The Zeitgeist Movement Social Movement Website
• The Venus Project The Venus Project Website

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from March 2009
• 2007 films
• American documentary films
• Documentaries about American politics
• Conspiracy theories
• Documentaries about religion
• Documentaries about the September 11 attacks
• Internet documentaries
• Christ Myth