Matthew Alford
Matthew Alford is a Lecturer in Politics, Languages & International Studies at the University of Bath. He was awarded a doctorate by the University of Bath in 2008. His thesis used Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky's Propaganda Model to examine contemporary Hollywood. Alford has written articles for UK newspapers like The Guardian,[3] New Statesman,[4] and Independent.[5] He has also written for Fortean Times[6] Subjects have included Hollywood cinema, pop music, censorship, conspiracy theories, and the political thought of Noam Chomsky. Alford has been interviewed by stations such as Canal Plus, Al Jazeera, and the CBC. Alford's first book Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy was published in 2010. It is based on his doctoral thesis. The Scotsman wrote that the book provides a "useful précis of some of the more explicit links between major movie studios, American political interests and powerful lobbies, most notably the arms industry". The book identifies "the Pentagon's active practical support of, and influence upon, films such as films such as Top Gun, Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down". Alford produced and appeared in the 2014 documentary The Writer with No Hands, which followed his investigation into the 1997 disappearance and death of Hollywood screenwriter Gary Devore. The documentary examines the US military’s influence in Hollywood and the role of propaganda. It premiered at Hot Docs. In 2020, he performed a solo stage version of The Writer with No Hands at the Edinburgh Free Fringe online and played himself as a "mediocre stand-up comedian" in a short docufiction in which he is recruited by MI5 to kidnap the US President. In 2020, Alford's documentary, Theatres of Command: The Military Occupation of Hollywood, was released. It is based on the book National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood, which he co-wrote with Tom Secker.
5 Books Written
Hollywood is often characterised as a stronghold of left-liberal ideals. In Reel Power , Matthew Alford shows that it is in fact deeply complicit in serving the interests of the most regressive US corporate and political forces.Films like Transformers , Salvation and Black Hawk Down are constructed with Defence Department assistance as explicit cheerleaders for the US military, but Mat
The first authoritative investigation into allegations that a Hollywood screenwriter was victim to a lethal CIA kidnap operation. “I had an unseen an autopsy report for a Hollywood screenwriter that alleged murder. I was an unemployed PhD graduate and failed comedian, living in a flooded house with two small children and my ex-wife. So it seemed rational to find conclusive proof that this man had
Grandpa and Sully: New Friends
by Matthew Alford
Sully crash lands onto Grandpa’s front porch and scares Grandpa. Will Grandpa be upset and nurse his hurt feelings? Will Grandpa and Sully play the blame game? Will Grandpa, an American, and Sully, from a foreign country, choose to reject one another because they don’t look or talk alike? Do they have anything in common to build a relationship on? Grandpa and Sully is a delightful story about how
National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood
by Matthew Alford
Rating: 3.8 ⭐
This is a book about secrecy, militarism, and censorship at the heart of the world’s leading democracy—and about those who fight them. Using thousands of pages of documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act, 'National Security Cinema' exclusively reveals that the national security state—led by the CIA and Pentagon—has worked on more than eight-hundred Hollywood films and over a thous
The Writer with No Hands: A Stage Play
by Matthew Alford
"I had an unseen file - an autopsy report for a Hollywood screenwriter that alleged murder.I was an unemployed PhD graduate and failed comedian, living in a flooded house with two small children and my ex-wife.So it seemed rational to find conclusive proof that this man had been murdered in a staged road accident by hit-men from the US government.If this death was really an assas