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The Economics of Happiness

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You are here: Home / Action tools / Films for Change

Films for change

Browse through our collection of thought-provoking films curated by Local Futures. In each category you will find films that expose destructive consequences of the growth- and consumerism-based economy, as well as those that showcase positive and transformative solutions. Included are Local Futures’ award-winning films: ‘Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh’, and ‘The Economics of Happiness’.

If you know of a film or documentary that you feel should be included, please contact us.

Films for change - Local Futures

Recent additions

Living the Change – Explores solutions to the global crises we face today – through stories of people pioneering change in their own lives and in their communities in order to live in a sustainable way.

In Our Hands – This is the story of a new kind of farm, food and society, created to debunk the myth of the industrial food system, and be a resource for farmers and activists in building a better world.

Stare Into The Light My Pretties… – The average adult spends the majority of their waking hours in front of a screen. How did we get here? Who benefits? What are the impacts?

Browse by category

Climate Change

The Age of Stupid
(2009)
An old man living in the devastated world of 2055 watches ‘archive’ footage from 2008 and asks: Why didn’t we stop climate change while we had the chance?

The End of Suburbia
(2004)
On the ‘peak oil’ phenomenon and all its implications for the survival of oil-dependent industrial ‘civilization’.

Consumers, Advertising & Media

Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse
(2017)
In this highly anticipated sequel to his groundbreaking, Advertising and the End of the World, media scholar Sut Jhally explores the devastating personal and environmental fallout from advertising, commercial culture, and rampant American consumerism.


Affluenza
(2007)
On the ‘ailment’ of consumerism.


The Century of the Self
(2002) and
The Power of Nightmares
(2004) and
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom?
(2007)
A riveting series of films exposing, among many other things, the power of media and propaganda to manipulate.


Consumed
(2011)
A compelling documentary about modern consumerist culture.


Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood
(2008)

Food Mythbusters Movies
(2012)
Myth 1: ‘Hunger and Food Security: Do we really need industrial agriculture to feed the world?’, and Myth 2: ‘Marketing and Advertising: Myth of Choice: Is junk food what we really crave?’


The High Price of Materialism
(2011)
A short animation by psychologist Tim Kasser on “how America’s culture of consumerism undermines our well-being.”


The Illusionists
(2015)
This award winning documentary is about the globalization of beauty and the dark side of advertising.


Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
(1992)
Unforgettable look at the information propaganda machine and its complicity in wars and other disasters.


Feeding Frenzy
(2013)
Over the past three decades, obesity rates in the U.S. have more than doubled for children and tripled for adolescents. Feeding Frenzy trains its focus squarely on the responsibility of the processed food industry and the outmoded government policies it benefits from.

Shop Till You Drop: The Crisis of Consumerism
(2010)
Shop ‘Til You Drop provides a complete and compelling look at all the issues engendered by overconsumption. Even with a definite bias, it raises questions that need to be thoughtfully considered since the rest of the world is attempting to emulate the lifestyle that Americans have had for the last century.


The Story of Stuff
(2007)
A simple and short – but powerful – animated explanation of the problems of globalization and consumerism, and a call for a radically different path.


Surplus
(2003)
The emptiness of consumerism in the rich world juxtaposed with the suffering to create it in the poor.


Toxic Sludge is Good for You: The Public Relations Industry Unspun
(2002)


What Would Jesus Buy?
(2007)
Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping take on America’s suicidal consumer binge during the Christmas holiday ‘shopping season’.

Cultural Wisdom

After Winter, Spring
(2012)
An intimate portrait of an ancestral way of life under threat in a world increasingly dominated by large-scale industrial agriculture.


Anachasho: Food of the Wilds
(2015)
Celebrating the incredible abundance of uncultivated/wild foods used in tribal Orissa.


Ancient Futures
(1993)
A documentary about indigenous livelihoods in Ladakh, India, by Helena Norberg-Hodge and John Page.

In the Forest Hangs a Bridge
(1999)
A beautiful record of the dying art of bamboo bridge making in Arunachal Pradesh, India, and the tribal community that makes it possible.


Iskay Yachay: Two Kinds of Knowledge
(2005) and
Loving Teacher

(2003) and
Being a Wawa in the Andes

(2003)
Films by PRATEC (Andean Project of Peasant Technologies).

Mother Earth: A New Future for Small Farmers
(2011)
Looks at the development of small-scale organic agriculture in Andhra Pradesh, one of the poorest regions in the south of India. It is a film about empowerment, self-confidence and pride of women who with cooperative effort take their future in their own hands.


Tending Nature Series
(2020)
‘Tending Nature’ shines a light on the environmental knowledge of Indigenous peoples across California by exploring how the state’s Native peoples have actively shaped and tended the land for millennia. The series examines how traditional practices can inspire a new generation of Californians to find a balance between humans and nature.

Digital Technology & Internet

All that is Solid Melts into Data
(2015)
This film looks to the often-overlooked materiality that “The Cloud” is reliant upon, in order to elucidate its social, environmental, and economic impact, and call into question the structures of power that have developed out of the technologies of global computation.

Death by Design: The Dirty Secret of Our Digital Addiction
(2016)
Filmmaker Sue Williams investigates the underbelly of the electronics industry and reveals how even the smallest devices have deadly environmental and health costs.


The Great Hack
(2019)
The Cambridge Analytica scandal is examined through the roles of several affected persons.

Stare Into The Light My Pretties…
(2017)
The average adult spends the majority of their waking hours in front of some sort of screen or device. How did we get here? Who benefits? What are the impacts on people, society and the environment? What may come next if this culture is left unchecked?


A Social Dilemma
(2020)
The documentary examines how social media’s design nurtures addiction to maximize profit and its ability to manipulate people’s views, emotions, and behavior. The film also examines social media’s effect on mental health, in particular, the mental health of adolescents and rising teen suicide rates.

Education

Schooling the World
(2010)
Beautifully shot on location in Ladakh, looks at the impact of Western-style schooling on indigenous cultures.

Iskay Yachay: Two Kinds of Knowledge
(2005) and
Loving Teacher
(2003) and
Being a Wawa in the Andes
(2003)
Films by PRATEC (Andean Project of Peasant Technologies).

Globalization, Corporate Power & Mainstream Economics

The 11th Hour
(2007)
Industrial capitalism has brought every life-support system on Earth to the brink of collapse. A far-ranging examination of this, the most pressing crisis of our times.


American Factory
(2019)
In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a factory in an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.


The Bentley Effect
(2016)
Filmed over five years, The Bentley Effect documents the highs and lows of the battle to keep a unique part of Australia gasfield-free.


Captialism: A Love Story
(2009)
Michael Moore takes a piercing look at the ‘mother of all problems’.


The Corporation
(2003)
An unflinching anatomy of the most powerful institution of our time; essential viewing.


Disaster Capitalism
(2018)
Disaster Capitalism takes the viewer inside three countries, Haiti, Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea, to reveal how the cause and effect of globalized development and aid
is shaping realities in these vulnerable nations. It’s topical, controversial, edgy and far removed from what viewers see on their nightly news and daily websites.


The Economics of Happiness
(2011)
Local Futures’ documentary film about the worldwide movement for economic localization.


10 Films That Make It Easy to See How Our Economy Is Killing the Planet
Here are 10 films that make it painfully clear that our economic system (global capitalism) is fundamentally unsustainable, and on top of that, making a lot of people miserable or unhappy anyway.

Flow: For the Love of Water
(2008)
The film opens up and discusses the world water crisis. Nearly two million people die each year from water-borne diseases worldwide. The root causes of this crisis range from pesticide and chemical runoff, to simply not having access to clean water due to economic or political factors.


Four Horsemen
(2012)
The Four Horseman is an independent cinematic feature documentary which lifts the lid on how the global economy really works.


The Fourth World War
(2003)
A story of men and women around the world who resist being annihilated by globalization.


Freightened – The Real Price of Shipping
(2017)
Reveals the mechanics and perils of cargo shipping; an all-but-visible industry that relentlessly supplies 7 billion humans and holds the key to our economy, our environment and the very model of our civilization.


Gringo Trails
(2013)
This film shows the unanticipated impact of tourism on cultures, economies, and the environment, tracing some stories over 30 years.


Growthbusters
(2011)
“One man takes on City Hall, Wall Street and the Pope as he questions society’s most fundamental beliefs about prosperity.”


Global Wealth Inequality
(2013)
A short film by The Rules.


Gold Fever
(2013)
About the valiant resistance movement by indigenous communities in Guatemala against the social and environmental destruction wrought by multinational mining corporations.


The Illusionists
(2015)
This award winning documentary is about the globalization of beauty and the dark side of advertising.

John and Jane
(2005)
Unsettling look at the reality of call centers – and cultural imperialism – in India, and modernity’s profound loneliness and confusion.


Life After Growth: Economics for Everyone
(2010)
Many have been pointing out that our current economic system is leading us to an environmental
and social catastrophe. Life After Growth begins to point to the people and communities who are looking for ways out.


Let’s Make Money
(2008)
Eerie truths about the casino called the international financial system.


Life and Debt
(2001)
A story of some of the impacts on Jamaica of international financial institutions, structural adjustment and free trade policies, and mass tourism.


Manufactured Landscapes
(2006)
A stunning look at the ‘monstrosity of globalized commerce,’ focusing on China.


The New Rulers of the World
(2002)
Renowned journalist John Pilger explores the connection between oppressive regimes and corporate globalization in Indonesia.


The Story of Stuff
(2007)
A simple and short – but powerful – animated explanation of the problems of globalization and consumerism, and a call for a radically different path.


The Take
(2004)
Workers in Argentina dispossessed by the vicissitudes of ‘structural adjustment’ decide to take back their workplaces, minus bosses and hierarchy.


The True Cost
(2015)
The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing?


The Yes Men
(2003)
and its sequel,
The Yes Men Fix the World
(2009)
Hilarious yet serious pranksterism against corporate power run amok.

Local Food vs. Global Agribusiness

Anachasho: Food of the Wilds
(2015)
Celebrating the incredible abundance of uncultivated/wild foods used in tribal Orissa.


Baranaja : Twelve Seeds of Sustainability
(2015)
A short film on the traditional and sustainable practice of mixed farming known as Baranaja in Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India.


Big River
(2009)
A 30-minute documentary about the ecological consequences of industrial agriculture, by the makers of King Corn.


Conservation Generation
(2017)
Conservation Generation is a new short film by the National Young Farmers Coalition that offers a look into the lives of four young farmers and ranchers in the arid West. Despite contending with the impacts of historic drought, climate change, and increased competition for water, the film’s farmers are each committed to their communities and to finding innovative solutions to water shortages.


DIRT! The Movie
(2009)
DIRT! The Movie–narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis–brings to life the environmental, economic, social and political impact that the soil has. It shares the stories of experts from all over the world who study and are able to harness the beauty and power of a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with soil.


Fed Up!
(2004)
An entertaining and informative overview of our current food production system from the Green Revolution to the Biotech Revolution and what we can do about it.


Feeding Frenzy
(2013)
Over the past three decades, obesity rates in the U.S. have more than doubled for children and tripled for adolescents. Feeding Frenzy trains its focus squarely on the responsibility of the processed food industry and the outmoded government policies it benefits from.


Food, Inc.
(2009)
Exposes America’s industrialized food system and its effect on our environment, health, economy and workers’ rights. “You’ll never look at dinner the same way.”


Food Mythbusters Movies
(2012)
Myth 1: ‘Hunger and Food Security: Do we really need industrial agriculture to feed the world?’, and
Myth 2: ‘Marketing and Advertising: Myth of Choice: Is junk food what we really crave?’


Fowl Play
(2009)
On the industrial egg industry and the suffering it entails; a parable of how society has become disconnected from what we eat.


The Future of Food
(2004)
On the perils of the industrial food system generally, but especially about genetically modified foods.

GMO OMG
(2013)
Director and concerned father Jeremy Seifert is in search of answers about GMO’s.


Hands on the Land for Food Sovereignty (TNI)
(2016)
This short film features communities and social movements around the world explain why we need to keep our hands on the land for food sovereignty and climate justice.


Harvest of Empire
(2013)
This film “reveals the direct connection between the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America and [today’s] immigration crisis.”


Inhabit
(2015)
This film introduces permaculture: a design method that offers an ecological lens for solving issues related to agriculture, economics, governance, and on.


In Our Hands
(2017)
This is a story of a new kind of farm, a new kind of food and a new kind of society and has been created as an open source tool in order to debunk the myth of the industrial food system, and be a resource for farmers and activists in building a better world.


King Corn
(2007)
About two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives the U.S. fast-food nation. Raises troubling questions about how we eat – and how we farm.


Know Your Food
(2017)
A short film series which introduces viewers to many terms and principles used when we talk about sustainable food. Topics range from explaining the real cost of cheap food, exploring concepts like GMO and Organic, and finding solutions to challenges like food waste and seafood fraud.


A Legacy Imbued in the Seed
(2022)
This short film is the latest in The Gaia Foundation’s Seed Sovereignty series. It follows seed keeper Tamsin Leakey as she strives to sustain the beans bred by her father.


Llafur Ni: Our Grains
(2020)
Produced by the Gaia Foundation, this video explores the significance of black oats and other welsh crops in a time of climate crisis and why reviving seeds is a crucial part of a wider movement to re-value and pass on the skills, language and culture.


The Land for our Food
(2016)
The video takes us on the journey of Gavin Bridger, a grower from the Community Supported Agriculture project of Farnham Local Food in England, through various European countries in his quest of accessing land for agroecological farming.


Making Local Food Work series
(2011)
Three short videos by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, featuring Manchester, OrganicLea and Food Chain Northeast.


Man in the Maze
(2014)
This video takes us on a journey through the borderlands of USA-Mexico, where we see how people are coming up with innovative solutions to mend our broken food system.

Mother Earth: A New Future for Small Farmers
(2011)
Looks at the development of small-scale organic agriculture in Andhra Pradesh, one of the poorest regions in the south of India. It is a film about empowerment, self-confidence and pride of women who with cooperative effort take their future in their own hands.


Modern Day Problems Of Small Scale Farmers In India
(2007)
The amazing work of P.V. Sateesh and the Deccan Development Society to revive traditional agro-ecological knowledge, seeds and practices in Andhra Pradesh.


Our Daily Bread
(2005)
A montage of unforgettable, disturbing images of the inner workings of the industrial food system.


Our Land
(2012)
Produced by Greenhorns, this 7 part series is about revolutionizing our relationship to food and land.


Pig Business
(2009)
The true cost behind the factory-farmed pork in supermarkets, who’s behind it, and what you can do about it.


Real Food Media
Short films and big ideas about food, farming and sustainability.


Rich Appetites
A short film series on how big philanthropy is shaping the future of food in Africa.


Seeds of Freedom Trilogy
(2012-2015)
Charts the story of seed from its roots at the heart of traditional, diversity-rich farming systems across the world, to being transformed into a powerful commodity, used to monopolize the global food system.


The Slow Poisoning of India
(2004)
On the devastating health effects of pesticides in India.


Solutions Locales pour un Désordre Global 2010
(2010)
Think Global Act Rural – What are the common points between the millions of landless workers of the plains of Brazil, a couple of microbiologists in France, the world’s biggest organic plantation in Ukraine and Vandana Shina’s experimental farms in India?


Soyalism
(2018)
How Western and Chinese agribusiness are taking over the world’s grain and meat industry, while putting small farmers out of business and plundering the environment.


La Via Campesina in Movement – Food Sovereignty Now!
(2011)
A 20 minutes video about The international peasant’s movement La Via Campesina and its struggle for peasant’s agriculture and food sovereignty all around the world.


We Feed the World
(2005)
Traces the sources of some of the industrial food system in Europe, making the links to environmental destruction and injustice ‘somewhere else’ along the way.


The World According to Monsanto
(2008)
Investigative exposé of the notorious chemical- biotech company.

Localization, Simplicity & Beyond Growth

Atamai Village
(2012)
According to Helena Norberg-Hodge, this is “one of the most beautifully made inspirational films on eco-villages.”


The Economics of Happiness
(2011)
Local Futures’ documentary film about the worldwide movement for economic localization.


Enoughness
(2015)
Restoring balance to the economy.


In Transition 2.0
(2013)
An inspirational immersion in the Transition movement, gathering stories from around the world of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. You’ll hear about communities printing their own money, growing food, localizing their economies and setting up community power stations.


Life After Growth: Economics for Everyone
(2010)
Life After Growth begins to point to the people and communities who are looking for ways out. These are the pioneers who are rethinking the role of economics in our lives, and are engaging in different types of economic activity, right now.


Living the Change
(2018)
Explores solutions to the global crises we face today – through inspiring stories of people pioneering change in their own lives and in their communities in order to live in a sustainable and regenerative way.

Localization: For People and the Earth
(2014)
A Local Futures’ short including international voices from our 2014 Economics of Happiness Conference in Bangalore, India.


Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things
(2016)
Minimalism examines the many flavors of minimalism by taking the audience inside the lives of minimalists from all walks of life, families, entrepreneurs, architects, artists, journalists, scientists, and even a former Wall Street broker, all of whom are striving to live a meaningful life with less.


No Impact Man
(2009)
A New York City-based family resolves to live for a year with the minimum environmental impact.


The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
(2006)
An inspiring and solutions-oriented film that’s especially good to watch after watching End of Suburbia.


The Sequel
(2019)
THE SEQUEL looks at the influential work of David Fleming, who dared to re-imagine a thriving civilization after the collapse of our current mainstream economies and inspired the Transition Towns movement.


Shift Change
(2012)
A film about the growing worker-owned business movement and how it is creating “secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces.”

Solutions Locales pour un Désordre Global 2010
(2010)
Think Glboal Act Rural – What are the common points between the millions of landless workers of the plains of Brazil, a couple of microbiologists in France, the world’s biggest organic plantation in Ukraine and Vandana Shina’s experimental farms in India?


Speed: In Search of Lost Time
(2013)
It’s a paradox: Never before in history have we worked more efficiently, and yet nearly all of us are feeling an increasing pressure of time. This film tries to track down the reasons for our shortage of time and the constant acceleration of our lives.


The Take
(2004)
Workers in Argentina dispossessed by the vicissitudes of ‘structural adjustment’ decide to take back their workplaces, minus bosses and hierarchy.


Urban Roots
(2011)
A film about urban farming in Detroit, Michigan, a city facing industrial collapse and depopulation.


Voices of Transition
(2012)
This film presents paths towards a new model of human existence: one which is fair, environmentally sound and fulfilling, with soil and people supporting each other in a balanced and sustainable way.


What’s the Economy For, Anyway?
(2009)
“A humorous monologue about the American economy today, challenging the ways we measure economic success – especially the Gross Domestic Product.”

Rethinking Development, Progress & Economics

Cannibal Tours
(1988)
“Affords a glimpse at the real (mostly unconsidered or misunderstood) reasons why ‘civilised’ people wish to encounter the ‘primitive’ … where much of what passes for values in western culture is exposed in stark relief as banal and fake.”


The Coconut Revolution
(2001)
When the islanders of Bougainville kick out a multinational mining company, they undertake to rediscover their traditions and regenerate their local economy.


Darwin’s Nightmare
(2004)
How a “booming multinational industry of fish and weapons has created an ungodly globalized alliance on the shores of the world’s biggest tropical lake.”


The End of Poverty?
(2008)
“The first film to succinctly explain how our economic system has created poverty and why it is the foundation for the current financial crisis”.


The End of Suburbia
(2004)
On the ‘peak oil’ phenomenon and all its implications for the survival of oil-dependent industrial ‘civilization’.

Gaon Chhodab Nahin (‘We will not leave our village!’)
(2009)
Music video of Adivasi résistance.


Gringo Trails
(2013)
This film shows the unanticipated impact of tourism on cultures, economies, and the environment, tracing some stories over 30 years.


Gold Fever
(2013)
About the valiant resistance movement by indigenous communities in Guatemala against the social and environmental destruction wrought by multinational mining corporations.


Good Fortune
(2010)
This film “explores how massive, international efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa may be undermining the very communities they aim to benefit.”


In a Forest of Gods
(2013)
It’s not just about a tribe, about the survival of a sustainable civilization with the knowledge of over a thousand years.


Life and Debt
(2001)
A story of some of the impacts on Jamaica of international financial institutions, structural adjustment and free trade policies, and mass tourism.

Protect & Resist
(2018)
A short film series by Friends of the Earth Europe that makes a compelling case for the importance of regulation for a healthy society.


Schooling the World
(2010)
Beautifully shot on location in Ladakh, looks at the impact of Western-style schooling on indigenous cultures.


Surviving Progress 
(2011)
“Every time history repeats itself, the price goes up.”


Western Eyes
(2001)
This documentary presents two Canadian women of Asian descent who are contemplating eyelid surgery. Layering their stories with pop culture references to beauty icons and supermodels, filmmaker Ann Shin looks at the pain that lies deep behind the desire for plastic surgery.


Yap: How Did They Know We’d Like TV?
(1981)
“A witty and disturbing view of cultural imperialism at its most cynical and blatant.”

Rethinking Industrial Modernity

Baraka
(1992)
Montage of unforgettable images; a collage of life in all its beauty and brutality.


Home
(2009)
Spectacular aerial footage of the Earth shot in fifty countries by Yann Arthus-Bertrand; a clarion call for humanity to become aware of the full extent of its spoliation of the Earth and change its patterns of consumption.

A Quest For Meaning
(2015)
The documentary project A Quest for Meaning stems from the growing realization, among citizens across the world, that Western society is trapped in a downward cycle leading us to destruction, injustice and frustration rather than harmony and well-being.


Samsara
(2011)
By the makers for the film, Baraka, Samasar is a montage of sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial sites, and natural wonders.

We the Uncivilised
(2016)
A deeply personal story of two Londoners on a journey to reconnect with the natural world, and reestablish a sense of belonging.


What a Way to Go
(2007)
“A middle class white guy comes to grips with peak oil, climate change, mass extinction, population overshoot and the demise of the American lifestyle.”

War & Military-Industrial Complex

Dirty Wars
(2013)
An unflinching look “into the heart of America’s covert wars, from Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia and beyond.”

Nuclear Savage
(2011)
A devastating exposé of the U.S. governments’ nuclear weapons testing and secret human radiation experiments in the Marshall Islands.

The War on Democracy
(2007)
John Pilger’s look at the movements for genuine democracy in Latin America, and the imperial forces that oppose them.

Waste, Plastic & Toxins

Bag It
(2010)
“Is your life too plastic?”


Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia
(2002)
Find out the toxic reality of where your old electronics go after you take them for ‘recycling’ or throw them out.


Garbage: The Revolution Starts at Home
(2007)
A typical Canadian family agrees to keep its garbage at home rather than export it ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Shows the true hidden costs of the consumer class lifestyle.

Living Downstream
(2010)
Based on the acclaimed book by ecologist and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber, about the fundamental links between politics, toxic pollution, and health.


The Slow Poisoning of India
(2004)
On the devastating health effects of pesticides in India.

Synthetic Sea
(2000)
On the health and environmental crisis of plastics, saturating the oceans, sea life, and ultimately us.


Trashed
(2012)
A shocking, necessary exploration of the extent and horrible legacy of the global waste crisis.

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Recommended
readings

On this page we’ve collected inspiring ‘must-reads’ on topics, such as Food & Farming, Impacts of Globalization and the alternatives, Cultural Development and more.

Read more →

Organizations
for change

There is a flourishing of organizations everywhere working to create a better world. Search our list of organizations for change to discover, support, and possibly join some of them!

Read more →

Independent
media sources

In the current age of corporate controlled media, it can be hard to know what to believe. On this page you will find media resources that can be trusted.

Read more →

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