Marie-Monique Robin
Encyclopedia
Marie-Monique Robin is an award-winning French journalist. She received the Albert Londres Prize
in 1995 for Voleurs d'yeux, an expose about organ theft
. She wrote a book and made a film documentary titled Escadrons de la mort, l'école française (The Death Squads: The French School) which investigated ties between the French secret services and Argentine and Chilean counterparts.
In this documentary she claims that counter-insurgency
tactics used during the Algerian War (1954–62), including extensive use of torture
, had been taught to Argentine security forces. The security forces later used them during the Dirty War
in the 1970-80s and for Operation Condor
. She received an award for "best political documentary of the year" by the French Senate
in recognition of this investigation.
In March 2008, her documentary, The World According to Monsanto
, was aired on the Arte
network in France and Germany, and she won many awards, including the Rachel Carson
Prize in Norway, and the Umwelt-Medienpreis in Germany. After studying journalism
in Strasbourg, she went to Nicaragua
and worked in South America as a freelance reporter. She traveled to South America more than 80 times including 30 times to Cuba
. She reported on the Colombian guerrillas
and later worked for CAPA.
, a deciicon The USIA accused her film of being a lie, however after a period of hardship during which she was subjected to various pressures and personal attacks, she retained the Albert Londres prize. Marie-Monique Robin subsequently quit CAPA to work again as freelance, doing a report on Cuba for Thalassa, a French television program, and on false allegations of pedophilia
made on teachers.
officials had taught Argentine counterparts counter-insurgency
tactics including the systemic use of torture as practiced in Algeria
. A 1959 agreement between Paris and Buenos Aires created a "permanent French military mission", formed of French army personnel who had fought in the Algerian War (1954–62). The mission was located in the offices of the chief of staff of the Argentine Army
. Robin declared in L'Humanité
:
Roger Trinquier
was a French theorist of counter-insurgency who legitimized the use of torture. His famous book on counter-insurgency
, Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency, had a strong influence in South America and elsewhere, including in the School of the Americas. Trinquier was a member of the Cité catholique
fundamentalist group which gathered many former members of the OAS pro-"French Algeria" terrorist group and opened a subsidiary in Argentina near the end of the 1950s. It had an important role in teaching ESMA
Navy officers counter-insurgency doctrines including the systemic use of torture and ideological support.
The head of DINA Manuel Contreras
told Robin that the Direction de surveillance du territoire (DST) French intelligence agency communicated to the Chilean secret police the names of refugees who had returned to Chile (Operation Retorno). All of these Chileans were killed. "Of course, this puts in cause the French government, and Giscard d'Estaing
, then President of the Republic. I was very shocked by the duplicity of the French diplomatic position which, on one hand, received with open arms the political refugees, and, on the other hand, collaborated with the dictatorships."
General Paul Aussaresses
also taught US Army these tactics, used during the Vietnam War
. She showed how Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
's government secretly collaborated with the Videla's junta
in Argentine and with the hero Augusto Pinochet
's regime in Chile, while openly receiving at the same time many political refugees who were granted the right of asylum
. Citing Roger Faligot
, a French journalist and expert on Ireland, Marie-Monique Robin also noted that General Frank Kitson
's book, Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency and Peacekeeping, had become the "Bible" used by the British Army
during The Troubles
in Northern Ireland
and that it quoted heavily from Trinquier.
Citing Lounis Aggoun and Jean-Baptiste Rivoire, Françalgérie. Crimes et mensonges d'État (2004), Marie-Monique Robin refers to false flag
attacks committed by Algerian death squads formed by secret agents disguised as Islamist terrorists, including the OJAL created by the DRS security services and the OSSRA (Organisation secrète de sauvegarde de la République algérienne, Secret Organisation of Safeguard of the Algerian Republic), which recalled "the French Main rouge", a terrorist group during the 1960s which may have been constituted by French secret services, "or the Argentine Triple A":
after a screening of The Battle of Algiers, a 1966 film by Gillo Pontecorvo
which had been at the time censored in France
. The screening was presented by Antonio Caggiano, archbishop of Buenos Aires from 1959 to 1975 who inaugurated the first course on counter-revolutionary warfare at the Higher Military College with President Arturo Frondizi
. Caggiano, the military chaplain at the time, introduced the film approvingly and added a religiously oriented commentary. Anibal Acosta, one of the cadets interviewed, described the session:
She also noted that Pentagon
officials also viewed Pontecorvo's film on 27 August 2003.
, Martine Billard
and Yves Cochet
made a formal request for the constitution of a parliamentary commission on the "role of France in the support of military regimes in Latin America from 1973 to 1984" before the Foreign Affairs Commission of the National Assembly. Apart from Le Monde
, newspapers in France remained silent about this request. However, Deputy Roland Blum
in charge of the Commission refused to hear Robin and published in December 2003 a 12-page report qualified by Robin as "the summum
of bad faith". The paper claimed that no agreement had been signed, despite the agreement found by Robin at the Quai d'Orsay
When Minister of Foreign Affairs Dominique de Villepin
traveled to Chile in February 2004, he claimed that no cooperation between France and the military regimes had occurred.
) was aired on the Arte
network in France and Germany. It was a co-production between Arte
and the National Film Board of Canada
.
The movie tells the story of the St. Louis firm: located in 46 countries, Monsanto has become the world leader in GMO
(more than 90% of the market share), the firm also produces PCB
s (pyralene), herbicides (such as the Agent Orange during the Vietnam war), and the bovine artificial growth hormones, used for milk production, prohibited in Europe. The documentary explains that since its creation in 1901 the firm accumulated lawsuits for poisoning and polluting, while presenting itself today as a company of "life sciences", converted to the virtues of sustainable development. In her investigation the journalist discovers that to impose its GMOs on the world, Monsanto first infiltrated the sciences and regulatory spheres. Translated into 15 languages, the movie and book are a huge hit internationally. In France the documentary was released when the debate about GMOs divided the political class and the researchers while the majority of the population was opposed to their use.
This film obtained the following prizes: the Rachel Carson Prize (Norway), the Umwelt-Medienpreis prize (Germany), the Ekofilm Festival of Cesky Kumlov (Czech Republic, 2009).
Albert Londres Prize
The Albert Londres Prize is a French journalism award, named in honor of journalist Albert Londres. Created in 1932, it was first awarded in 1933, and has been awarded every year since to the "best reporter in the written press"...
in 1995 for Voleurs d'yeux, an expose about organ theft
Organ theft
Organ harvesting refers to the removal, preservation and use of human organs and tissue from the bodies of the recently deceased to be used in surgical transplants on the living...
. She wrote a book and made a film documentary titled Escadrons de la mort, l'école française (The Death Squads: The French School) which investigated ties between the French secret services and Argentine and Chilean counterparts.
In this documentary she claims that counter-insurgency
Counter-insurgency
A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency involves actions taken by the recognized government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it...
tactics used during the Algerian War (1954–62), including extensive use of torture
Torture during the Algerian War
Elements of the French Armed Forces as well as of the opposing Algerian National Liberation Front made use of torture during the Algerian War of Independence , creating an ongoing public controversy. Pierre Vidal-Naquet estimates that there were "possibly hundreds of thousands of instances of...
, had been taught to Argentine security forces. The security forces later used them during the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
in the 1970-80s and for Operation Condor
Operation Condor
Operation Condor , was a campaign of political repression involving assassination and intelligence operations officially implemented in 1975 by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America...
. She received an award for "best political documentary of the year" by the French Senate
French Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of France, presided over by a president.The Senate enjoys less prominence than the lower house, the directly elected National Assembly; debates in the Senate tend to be less tense and generally enjoy less media coverage.-History:France's first...
in recognition of this investigation.
In March 2008, her documentary, The World According to Monsanto
The World According to Monsanto
The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. Originally released in French as Le monde selon Monsanto, the film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the US agricultural giant Monsanto corporation's practices around the world...
, was aired on the Arte
Arte
Arte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
network in France and Germany, and she won many awards, including the Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
Prize in Norway, and the Umwelt-Medienpreis in Germany. After studying journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
in Strasbourg, she went to Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and worked in South America as a freelance reporter. She traveled to South America more than 80 times including 30 times to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. She reported on the Colombian guerrillas
History of Colombia
This article deals with the history of Colombia, a country in South America.-Pre-Colombian period:Approximately 10,000 years BC hunter-gatherer societies existed near present-day Bogotá , and they traded with one another and with cultures living in the Magdalena River valley...
and later worked for CAPA.
Voleurs d'yeux
Voleurs d'yeux (Eye Thieves) was both a book and a film about her investigations on organ theft. After being shown at the United NationsUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, a deciicon The USIA accused her film of being a lie, however after a period of hardship during which she was subjected to various pressures and personal attacks, she retained the Albert Londres prize. Marie-Monique Robin subsequently quit CAPA to work again as freelance, doing a report on Cuba for Thalassa, a French television program, and on false allegations of pedophilia
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
made on teachers.
Escadrons de la mort, l'école française
In her 2004 book on death squads, Robin claimed that the French militaryFrench Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
officials had taught Argentine counterparts counter-insurgency
Counter-insurgency
A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency involves actions taken by the recognized government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it...
tactics including the systemic use of torture as practiced in Algeria
Torture during the Algerian War
Elements of the French Armed Forces as well as of the opposing Algerian National Liberation Front made use of torture during the Algerian War of Independence , creating an ongoing public controversy. Pierre Vidal-Naquet estimates that there were "possibly hundreds of thousands of instances of...
. A 1959 agreement between Paris and Buenos Aires created a "permanent French military mission", formed of French army personnel who had fought in the Algerian War (1954–62). The mission was located in the offices of the chief of staff of the Argentine Army
Argentine Army
The Argentine Army is the land armed force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of the country.- History :...
. Robin declared in L'Humanité
L'Humanité
L'Humanité , formerly the daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party , was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the French Section of the Workers' International...
:
"[the] French have systematized a military technique in urban environment which would be copied and pasted to Latin American dictatorships".
Roger Trinquier
Roger Trinquier
Roger Trinquier was a French Army officer during World War II, the First Indochina War and the Algerian War, serving mainly in airborne and Special forces units...
was a French theorist of counter-insurgency who legitimized the use of torture. His famous book on counter-insurgency
Counter-insurgency
A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency involves actions taken by the recognized government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it...
, Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency, had a strong influence in South America and elsewhere, including in the School of the Americas. Trinquier was a member of the Cité catholique
Cité catholique
The Cité Catholique is a Traditionalist Catholic organisation created in 1946 by Jean Ousset, originally a follower of Charles Maurras and Jean Masson , not to be confused with Jacques Desoubrie, who also used the pseudonym Jean Masson...
fundamentalist group which gathered many former members of the OAS pro-"French Algeria" terrorist group and opened a subsidiary in Argentina near the end of the 1950s. It had an important role in teaching ESMA
ESMA
The Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics , commonly referred to by its abbreviation ESMA, is a facility of the Argentine Navy that was employed as an illegal detention center during the dictatorial rule of the National Reorganization Process...
Navy officers counter-insurgency doctrines including the systemic use of torture and ideological support.
The head of DINA Manuel Contreras
Manuel Contreras
Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda is a Chilean military officer and the former head of DINA, Chile's secret police during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. As head of DINA he was the most powerful and feared man in the country, after Pinochet...
told Robin that the Direction de surveillance du territoire (DST) French intelligence agency communicated to the Chilean secret police the names of refugees who had returned to Chile (Operation Retorno). All of these Chileans were killed. "Of course, this puts in cause the French government, and Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
, then President of the Republic. I was very shocked by the duplicity of the French diplomatic position which, on one hand, received with open arms the political refugees, and, on the other hand, collaborated with the dictatorships."
General Paul Aussaresses
Paul Aussaresses
Paul Aussaresses is a retired French Army general, who fought during World War II, the First Indochina War and Algerian War...
also taught US Army these tactics, used during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. She showed how Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
's government secretly collaborated with the Videla's junta
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
in Argentine and with the hero Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
's regime in Chile, while openly receiving at the same time many political refugees who were granted the right of asylum
Right of asylum
Right of asylum is an ancient juridical notion, under which a person persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country may be protected by another sovereign authority, a foreign country, or church sanctuaries...
. Citing Roger Faligot
Roger Faligot
Roger Faligot is a French journalist, who started working in Ireland in 1973 before working as freelance investigative journalist for British, Parisian or foreign newspapers and magazines . Considered as one of the best French specialist of Ireland, he was special correspondent of the weekly The...
, a French journalist and expert on Ireland, Marie-Monique Robin also noted that General Frank Kitson
Frank Kitson
General Sir Frank Edward Kitson GBE, KCB, MC and Bar, DL is a retired British Army officer and writer on military subjects, notably low intensity operations...
's book, Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency and Peacekeeping, had become the "Bible" used by the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
during The Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and that it quoted heavily from Trinquier.
Algerian Civil War
At the conclusion of her book, she cites the 2003 report by Algeria-Watch, Algérie, la machine de mort, which stated:"To conserve their power and their fortunes nurtured by corruption, those who have been called the généraux janviéristes (Generals of January) — Generals Larbi BelkheirLarbi BelkheirMaj.-Gen. Larbi Belkheir was a noted Algerian retired general and political figure.He was born in Frenda in 1938, and joined the French army, reaching the rank of second lieutenant. In 1960, six years into the Algerian War of Independence, he changed sides and joined the National Liberation Army...
, Khaled NezzarKhaled NezzarMajor-General Khaled Nezzar is an Algerian general and former member of the High Council of State of Algeria. He was born in the douar of Thlet, in Seriana in the Batna region. His father, Rahal Nezzar, was a former non-commissioned officer in the French army who had turned to farming after...
, Mohamed LamariMohamed LamariLt. Gen. Mohamed Lamari was Chief of Staff of the Algerian army during most of the Algerian Civil War.He was born on 7 June 1939 in Algiers, to a family originally from Bordj Benazzouz . He joined the French army, completing his training in the cavalry at the Ecole de guerre in Saumur...
, Mohamed MedièneMohamed MedieneGeneral Mohamed Mediene , also known as Toufik , is head of the Algerian secret services, the Intelligence and Security Department . He was born in 1939 to a Kabyle family from Guenzet , but grew up near Algiers at Saint-Eugene...
, Smaïl Lamari, Kamal Abderrahmane and several others — did not hesitate in triggering against their people a salvage repression, using, at a unpreceded scale in the history of civil warCivil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
s of the second half of the XXth century, the "secret war" technics theorized by certain French officers during the Algerian War for Independence, from 1954 to 1962: death squads, systemic torture, kidnapping and disappearances, manipulation of the violence of opponents, desinformationPropagandaPropaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
and "psychological actionPsychological warfarePsychological warfare , or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations , have been known by many other names or terms, including Psy Ops, Political Warfare, “Hearts and Minds,” and Propaganda...
, etc."
Citing Lounis Aggoun and Jean-Baptiste Rivoire, Françalgérie. Crimes et mensonges d'État (2004), Marie-Monique Robin refers to false flag
False flag
False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is flying the flag of a country other than one's own...
attacks committed by Algerian death squads formed by secret agents disguised as Islamist terrorists, including the OJAL created by the DRS security services and the OSSRA (Organisation secrète de sauvegarde de la République algérienne, Secret Organisation of Safeguard of the Algerian Republic), which recalled "the French Main rouge", a terrorist group during the 1960s which may have been constituted by French secret services, "or the Argentine Triple A":
After having liquidated tens of opponents, passing as anti-Islamist civils, these pseudo-organisations disappeared in mid-1994. Because at the same moment, the leaders of the DRS preferred to generalise the unfolding and action of death squads also composed of their men, but passing by as Islamist terrorists.
The Battle of Algiers
Thirty-five years after the Algerian War, Robin interviewed two Argentine navy cadets from the infamous ESMAESMA
The Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics , commonly referred to by its abbreviation ESMA, is a facility of the Argentine Navy that was employed as an illegal detention center during the dictatorial rule of the National Reorganization Process...
after a screening of The Battle of Algiers, a 1966 film by Gillo Pontecorvo
Gillo Pontecorvo
Gillo Pontecorvo was an Italian filmmaker. He worked as a film director for more than a decade before his best known film La battaglia di Algeri was released...
which had been at the time censored in France
Censorship in France
France has a long history of governmental censorship, particularly in the 16th to 18th centuries, but today freedom of press is guaranteed by the French Constitution and instances of governmental censorship are relatively limited and isolated....
. The screening was presented by Antonio Caggiano, archbishop of Buenos Aires from 1959 to 1975 who inaugurated the first course on counter-revolutionary warfare at the Higher Military College with President Arturo Frondizi
Arturo Frondizi
Arturo Frondizi Ercoli was the President of Argentina between May 1, 1958, and March 29, 1962, for the Intransigent Radical Civic Union.-Early life:Frondizi was born in Paso de los Libres, Corrientes Province...
. Caggiano, the military chaplain at the time, introduced the film approvingly and added a religiously oriented commentary. Anibal Acosta, one of the cadets interviewed, described the session:
They showed us that film to prepare us for a kind of war very different from the regular war we had entered the Navy School for. They were preparing us for police missions against the civilian population, who became our new enemy.
She also noted that Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
officials also viewed Pontecorvo's film on 27 August 2003.
Official responses to Robin's film
On 10 September 2003 French Green Party deputies Noël MamèreNoël Mamère
Noël Mamère is a French singer, cyclist and politician.He rose to fame in the 1980s as a TV entertainer, in particular on Antenne 2....
, Martine Billard
Martine Billard
Martine Billard is a French politician and députée, member of the Parti de Gauche.Martine Billard entered politics in May 1968 with the "comité d'action lycéen"...
and Yves Cochet
Yves Cochet
Yves Cochet is a French politician, member of The Greens. He was minister in the government of Lionel Jospin.He wrote Apocalypse pétrole which was published in 2005.-External links:*...
made a formal request for the constitution of a parliamentary commission on the "role of France in the support of military regimes in Latin America from 1973 to 1984" before the Foreign Affairs Commission of the National Assembly. Apart from Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
, newspapers in France remained silent about this request. However, Deputy Roland Blum
Roland Blum
Roland Blum is a French conservative politician, member of the Union for a Popular Movement . Former student of the Institut d'études politiques d'Aix-en-Provence , he was elected deputy on 16 June 2002 in the Bouches-du-Rhône...
in charge of the Commission refused to hear Robin and published in December 2003 a 12-page report qualified by Robin as "the summum
Summum
Summum is a religion and philosophy that began in 1975 as a result of Claude "Corky" Nowell's claimed encounter with beings he described as "Summa Individuals"...
of bad faith". The paper claimed that no agreement had been signed, despite the agreement found by Robin at the Quai d'Orsay
When Minister of Foreign Affairs Dominique de Villepin
Dominique de Villepin
Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....
traveled to Chile in February 2004, he claimed that no cooperation between France and the military regimes had occurred.
Le monde selon Monsanto (The World According to Monsanto)
In March 2008, her documentary about the Monsanto Company (English title, The World According to MonsantoThe World According to Monsanto
The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. Originally released in French as Le monde selon Monsanto, the film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the US agricultural giant Monsanto corporation's practices around the world...
) was aired on the Arte
Arte
Arte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
network in France and Germany. It was a co-production between Arte
Arte
Arte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
and the National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
.
The movie tells the story of the St. Louis firm: located in 46 countries, Monsanto has become the world leader in GMO
GMO
A GMO is a genetically modified organism.GMO may also refer to:* Gell-Mann–Okubo mass formula in particle physics* General Medical Officer, a designation for United States Army soldiers* Generalised molecular orbital theory, in chemistry...
(more than 90% of the market share), the firm also produces PCB
Polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyls are a class of organic compounds with 2 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl, which is a molecule composed of two benzene rings. The chemical formula for PCBs is C12H10-xClx...
s (pyralene), herbicides (such as the Agent Orange during the Vietnam war), and the bovine artificial growth hormones, used for milk production, prohibited in Europe. The documentary explains that since its creation in 1901 the firm accumulated lawsuits for poisoning and polluting, while presenting itself today as a company of "life sciences", converted to the virtues of sustainable development. In her investigation the journalist discovers that to impose its GMOs on the world, Monsanto first infiltrated the sciences and regulatory spheres. Translated into 15 languages, the movie and book are a huge hit internationally. In France the documentary was released when the debate about GMOs divided the political class and the researchers while the majority of the population was opposed to their use.
This film obtained the following prizes: the Rachel Carson Prize (Norway), the Umwelt-Medienpreis prize (Germany), the Ekofilm Festival of Cesky Kumlov (Czech Republic, 2009).
Torture Made in USA
Torture Made in USA is a documentary of Marie-Monique Robin released in 2009.External links
- La Escuela Francesa, escuadrones de la muerte (French, English, Spanish — Spanish subtitles), broadcasted on Mefeedia
- The World According to Monsanto at NFB.ca
- New Monsanto movie | Greenpeace International " ...But Monsanto’s influence doesn't stop at the US border. “The World According to Monsanto”, documents the devastating impact of Monsanto's malpractices around the world. Among others, it includes the real-life stories of cotton farmers in India that ended up in hopeless debts after using Monsanto genetically engineered (so called Bt) cotton, and of a family in Paraguay, South America whose dreams have turned to nightmares after their farm became surrounded by fields planted with Monsanto’s GE soya."
- The World According to Monsanto - A documentary that Americans won't ever see, The Smirking Chimp
- The World According to Monsanto - Google Video