Manufacturing Consent

Noam Chomsky and the Media

1993 / Canada / Color

Part I: 94 mins.

Part II: 72 mins.

Directed by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick

National Film Board of Canada Corp.

1992 Necessary Illusions Productions, Inc.

Manufacturing Consent explores the political life and times of the controversial author, linguist and radical philosopher, Noam Chomsky. As an outspoken critic of the press and one of America’s leading dissidents, he has unrelentingly dissected how out much-acclaimed democratic freedoms often mask an irresponsible use of power. Shocking examples of media deception permeate Chomsky’s critique of the forces at work behind the daily news. He encourages his listeners to extricate themselves from this “web of deceit” by undertaking a course of “intellectual self-defense.”

Few people have produced a body of work more provocative than Noam Chomsky, whose bibliography contains over 7000 entries. Whether you agree with him or not, he directly and tirelessly addresses some of the most important moral, ethical, political and social issues of our time, and raises questions that are essential for anyone living in our complex era.