There's life in the old dog yet. This applies to the taz, the daily newspaper from Berlin, more than to any other newspaper. Taz - that means shimmying from crisis to crisis, living on the edge of self-exploitation for almost 25 years now. Born as a left-wing project in the leaden times of the RAF terror and the news blackout, conceived as a counter-public, scorned as a left-wing fighting press controlled by Moscow, smiled at by the established competition, today it is doing well on the battered German print market. A loyal readership, a solid subscriber base, and the cooperative structure carry the left-wing newspaper, which is always on the lookout for the special view, through stormy times. The film shows makers, readers and comrades.
From the front-lines of conflicts in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Palestine, Korea, 'the North' from Seattle to Genova, and the 'War on Terror' in New York, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
The story begins on New Year's Eve. The editor of the newspaper Orest Orlov offers the successful 35-year-old correspondent Ksenia to take a candid interview with the famous Canadian hockey player Denis Kravtsov.
Om lives in Bombay, India, in a small apartment with mother and sister. Om and his mother are of very conservative taste, when it comes to wearing clothes, however, the sister is not.
In Santiago, Chile, the schoolteacher Luisa proposes a debate about sex with the parents of her students with the intention of giving classes about sex education to the youngsters.
A satire about the dictatorship period in Brazil, in which communist militants try to steal the soccer World Cup Trophy from the players Pelé and Carlos Alberto Torres.
The film is based on Gennady Shpalikov’s most intimate story, “The Wharf”. Young Katya, who lives in a small provincial town, is dreaming of a prince charming.
Robert McChesney lays the blame for the US's current state of affairs squarely at the doors of the corporate boardrooms of big media, which far from delivering on their promises of more choice and more diversity, have organized a system characterized by a lack of competition, homogenization of opinion and formulaic programming.
Comments
Have you watched Zwischen Marx und Mainstream - die taz wird 25 yet? What did you think about it?
