In working together on two challenging new documentaries--South of the
Border and the forthcoming The Untold History of the United States
series for Showtime--filmmaker Oliver Stone engaged with author and
filmmaker Tariq Ali in a probing, hard-hitting conversation on
the politics of history.
Their dialogue brings to light a number of forgotten--or deliberately
buried--episodes of American history, from the US intervention against
the Russian Revolution and the dynamic radicalism of the
Industrial Workers of the World to Henry Wallace's sidelining by
Democratic Party machine insiders and the ongoing interference of the
United States in Pakistani political affairs.
For Stone and Ali--two of our most insightful observers on history and
popular culture--no topic is sacred, no orthodoxy goes unchallenged.
TARIQ ALI is an internationally acclaimed Pakistani writer and
filmmaker. He has written more than two dozen books on world history and
politics and seven novels (translated into over a dozen languages) as
well as scripts for the stage and screen. He is an editor of New Left
Review and lives in London.
OLIVER STONE has directed, among other films, Wall Street: Money Never
Sleeps, W., World Trade Center, Alexander, Any Given Sunday, Nixon,
Natural Born Killers, Heaven and Earth, JFK, The Doors, Born on the
Fourth of July, Talk Radio, Wall Street, Platoon, Salvador, and the
documentaries Looking for Fidel, Comandante, Persona Non Grata, South
of the Border, and the upcoming The Untold History of the United
States series for Showtime.
