"Taking Liberties" now available on youtube

TAKING LIBERTIES reveals how the six central pillars of liberty have been systematically destroyed by New Labour, and the freedoms of the British people stolen from under their noses amidst a climate of fear created by the media and government itself.

Right to Protest
Right to Freedom of Speech
Right to Privacy
Right not to be detained without charge
Innocent Until Proven Guilty
Prohibition from Torture

TAKING LIBERTIES reveals how the six central pillars of liberty have been systematically destroyed by New Labour, and the freedoms of the British people stolen from under their noses amidst a climate of fear created by the media and government itself.

The film is now available to watch at YouTube.

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j21rcnJ3EO8

TAKING LIBERTIES uncovers the stories the government don’t want you to hear – so ridiculous you will laugh, so ultimately terrifying you will want to take action. Teenage sisters detained for 36 hours for a peaceful protest; an RAF war veteran arrested for wearing an anti-Bush and Blair T-shirt; an innocent man shot in a police raid; and a man held under house arrest for two years, after being found innocent in court. Ordinary law-abiding citizens being punished for exercising their ‘rights’ – rights that have been fought for over centuries, and which seem to have been extinguished in a decade.

Irreverent but revelatory, outrageous but true, TAKING LIBERTIES combines these real stories of liberty loss with never-seen-before footage, cheeky stunts and comment from Mark Thomas, leading politicians, celebrities, human rights organisations, academics and lawyers. Narration from Ashley Jensen (EXTRAS, UGLY BETTY); a pumping soundtrack with tracks by Oasis, Radiohead, Stranglers and Franz Ferdinand; and the presence of Kurt Engfehr, producer of FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE add up to make TAKING LIBERTIES the

New Labour: New Lies

Additions

Meet the Director

03.12.2007 18:38

The Director of Taking Liberties will be appearing along with others, this Sunday 9th December at 'Pathways For Independent Filmmakers' in West London

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2007/11/386541.html

Come and join in the discussion about Film Making, and how to make the best use of New Distribution Methods.

Its Free!! and part of The Portobello Film Festival

Filmmakers Against War
Homepage: http://www.filmmakersagainstwar.org/

My review...

03.12.2007 21:00

...originally published by Catalyst Media:

Under Tony Blair, the UK took significant strides down the road to being a totalitarian state. That's the controversial claim Taking Liberties makes, but it's a difficult one to argue against once the evidence has been stacked up.

The film bases its case on six planks of post-war 'freedom', which Atkins insists all Prime Ministers since Churchill have held sacred: the right to protest, freedom of speech, privacy, no detention without trial, fair extradition, and absolutely no torture.

Using a slightly confusing mixture of interviews, sinister animations, news clips and front line footage, Atkins then shows us how all of these 'rights' have effectively been shredded over the Blair decade. Atrocities and absurd humour mingle 'freely', and I imagine the film would shake many blissfully ignorant people out of their stupor.

We know that Blair invoked 9/11 when he wanted to make some of his most tyrannical assaults on freedom. But none of them - from bans on protesting outside Parliament without police permission, to ID cards - could actually stop any terrorists, and almost all seem to have been planned before September 2001. If there were a few months without any terrorist activity, Tony's cronies claimed their laws were working. But 7/7 didn't mean failure, it just meant even tougher ones were needed, like ninety days detention without trial. And he wasn't actually that bothered about terrorism anyway, because he shrugged off intelligence that invading Iraq would 'heighten' the threat. So why was Blair so keen on the iron fist and jackboot?

Atkins doesn't have an answer, and that is this film's Achilles heel. It's all very well showing us the tireless Brian Haw saying 'be inspired', but be inspired to do what?

What Atkins fails to tell us is that ever since the state was first created, it has always brought in more draconian laws at times of a large gap between rich and poor. In fact the word 'draconian' refers to the Ancient Greek legislator Draco, who brought in the death penalty for what might today be seen as minor offences, at a time when the Athens aristocracy was having trouble with the lower orders.

Under Blair, an enormous amount of wealth was shifted from the poor to the rich, and the richest one hundred saw their fortune treble in value. 'Trust me' Tony built a police state for the same reason kings used to have castles built - protection. But that isn't an argument against trying to create an equal society; it's an argument for storming the fortress now, before the walls get any higher.

Neon Black
Homepage: http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk

Comments

Hide the following 8 comments

Taking Liberties since 1997?!

03.12.2007 18:46

So Thatcher never did anything to quosh our civil liberties?

And why did the filmmakers give the likes of Boris Johnson and the Natwest 3 a platform?

my @rse!

tory election broadcast

03.12.2007 19:27

Taking Liberties is basically an attempt to make a Michael Moore style cinema documentary that fails.

It is a vacant appeal to mainstream liberalism in middle england against the Government. (no big challenge there)

It works by cutting out the passion of protesters and making it into slightly amusing naughtiness and english eccentricity that we all love to think is the heart of moderate Englishness and thus does not deserve suppression

the campaigns covered are sanitized and simplified and the actual resistance and enthusiasm of the campaigns is bled dry to fit with the passionless personality of the director (who also makes an appearance in the film).

this film doesn't make you want to resist the suppression of civil liberties on the street just vote against the current government in the next election (pointless)

There is no historical depth apart from a vague presentation of the magna carta

Nat West 3 (who have now pleaded guilty) sum up the message

They say 'We have to get this government out'

Meaning bring the fluffy Boris Johnson and pals in and everything will be fine

second

Points

03.12.2007 20:05

The points you are making are made very well, most of which are naturally issues people should recongise when watching this film, for example that the depth in which they have described each situation is very limited.

It's clear that this film does not get to any real roots of problems, and in fact over looks many series issues (such as 9/11 and 7/7) for starters, as well as UN/European control. But to dive into these issues for most people makes them entirely ignore the problem, and also alienates the mainstream media to even mention the film.

I agree with you though that at no point does this film make you want to "stand up for your civil liberties", and begin to resist the state, it in fact most of the time probably makes the viewer less likely to want to get involved. Maybe even concluding that the activists involved are of a rare breed, that they are not.

Overall though, I'm sure this enlightens people who have not got a clue about what is going on in the world, or about any kind of injustice taking place.

well made

Torrent

03.12.2007 20:08

I've not seen it so can't comment on commnts above...

YouTube sucks though, better get the DIVX AVI rip that you can burn onto a CD and play in (new, cheap) DVD players:

http://onebigtorrent.org/torrents/2156/Taking-Liberties

potential watcher

Sedition now

04.12.2007 12:35

The film should be shown in every school, college and university. The current generation needs to be educated in the fascism of the British state. Tony Blair was merely acting as the puppet of the rich in accelerating the erosion of our civil liberties. They saw / engineered an opportunity (New Labour's landslide victory + 'terrorist atrocities') and they seized it with both hands.

We must act now. If not now, then when? How many people gave their lives in WWII to prevent Britain surrendering to fascism? So why on earth are we so apathetic when the Orwellian state is becoming a reality before our very own eyes? Perhaps because of the stealthy nature of the erosion. The government keeps testing the water to see what it can get away with. No riots? Good, we can bring in the next piece of illiberal legislation to appease the control freaks.

Mass civil disobedience. I see no other way. We withdraw our consent to be controlled by the state, and the state becomes powerless and collapses.

Gandhi admirer

my review...

04.12.2007 15:15

...is essentially the same as 'My Review', above. I left the cinema fuming that hunt supporters, Boris, and the Nat West 3 (they're financially shenaniganaters FFS!) were drawn on to present the 'aggrieved protesters' side, and that the few peace protesters drawn on were deliberately selected to present 'our side' as a bit naiive and eccentric. Obviously an appeal to middle england, but i don't think the readership of the daily mail will ever stand up for our rights to be 'a ragtag army of scruffy dole-scum layabouts with dreadlocks in their pubic hair' so the positioning of the film (for 'mass' appeal) was ultimately misguided.

anarchoteapot

independent videographers footage

04.12.2007 17:17

As you can see in the film, there's a lot of footage from indymedia videographers.

I wonder what they made of the film, would they make a film like this?

I fuckin hope not

my @rse!

Missing the point

04.12.2007 21:50

The film isn't meant to be a celebration of radical activism - its scope is much broader.

The point of featuring the Natwest 3, foxhunters, etc was not to condone their activities or political views - it was to demonstrate important legal principles. It may be the Natwest 3 being extradited today, but who will it be next time? Similarly, so far it's mainly Muslims who have been the victims of gross miscarriages of justice under recently-introduced terrorism legislation, which is in itself deplorable, but it won't always be the case. We're on a slippery slope and we'd better get a grip soon, or else we'd better get used to living under fascism.

G A