​Those of you that follow the show know that we are not afraid of being late to the party when it comes to documentaries, and we are fashionably late here.  Although the film made its American debut in March of 2019, it hit Netflix in the first part of August, and it didn’t hit our radar until early September.  Do we need another film about steroids, baseball, superstars, drugs, and the Miami dark side?  Do we need more documentaries talking about the ineptitude of Florida and the lack of concern that parents have for their children’s health in the sports world?  Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter if we needed another one, because we got another one, and in this episode of Lessons from the Screen we are going to talk about it.  

​The Summer of 2019 has just ended however the ramifications of the things that transpired and that were discovered will continue to shape global history forever.   The social media and digital giants faced a world that was a lot more inquisitive about their business models and a lot more aggressive in how it sought answers to those questions.  A 2-year federal investigation wrapped up in April of 2019 and at its core was the largest social media company in the world and how data stolen from them was being used to shape democracies and engineer societies.  The great hack follows the story of one of the primary culprits in this game of digital shenanigans, it is the story of Cambridge Analytica, and it is the story of this episode of Lessons from the Screen.  

Earlier this year in July of 2018 Kimberly Reed released a documentary that takes aim at the dark money flowing in politics following the Citizens United Supreme Court Decision.  With a focus on the State of Montana as one of the last remaining bastions of hope for transparent campaign financing, this documentary dives into the fray of one of the most talked about subjects in politics.  On this episode of Lessons from the Screen, we are going to be looking at the documentary in our traditional style of doing so.  I hope you enjoy it, and take the time to let me know what you thought by going to the website and leaving a comment.  

​This week on Lessons From the Screen we will be looking at the Independence Day Project, a documentary film that seeks to change the way Black People look at our struggle for equality.  It does this by shifting the narrative away from all the problems we face at the hands of White Supremacy and plants the narrative directly on the Black Community and things we can do now to change our situation.  The film looks at 10 areas of human activity and gives us a little something to swallow and ponder on all of them.  As usual we will look at this film, likes, dislikes, and its potential impact In this episode of Lessons from the Screen.   

​Ice Guardians is a documentary about the Enforcers in Hockey.  Even for those of us that aren't familiar with hockey are familiar with the fighting in hockey.  So for many of us this documentary will be an eye opener into the structure of hockey and the context that the fights exist in.  But deeper than that it also looks into the psychology and the sociology of not just the hockey enforcer, but hockey and human society in general.  The structure and culture of hockey is held side by side with the culture and structure of our everyday lives to get us to re-examine the way we look at the sport, the enforcers, and the world we live in. 

​Abacus is the story of a family bank in the Asian Community that has the distinction of being the only bank in the America to have been charged with anything following the subprime mortgage crisis.  The documentary itself operates in typical documentary fashion with talking heads, experts, witnesses, and first-hand accounts mixed in with community footage, photos, and news reels from the time to tell a very involving story of the little guy getting pushed around and fighting back only to win.  The analogy of David and Goliath is actually utilized in the documentary itself.