While they remain marginalised by the mainstream media, conspiracy theories are a growing influence on the contemporary political imagination, thanks mostly to the unprecedented phenomenon David Ray Carter has entitled ‘conspiracy cinema’ — documentaries, freely available over the internet, that present a conspiratorial explanation for an event or series of events, including everything from 9/11 to the Kennedy assassinations, Roswell to HIV.

Incredibly, an estimated half a billion people around the world have watched one of these films at some time or other, yet this is the first book to exclusively address what is indubitably the definitive cinematic movement of the internet generation. And Conspiracy Cinema does not address it in a dry, academic fashion. Rather, it presents a light, sometimes funny, interactive (all the films addressed are freely available online) guide to this transgressive, intriguing and immensely popular form of modern entertainment.

Each chapter of Conspiracy Cinema offers readers an overview of a particular conspiracy theory (the Moon landings, 9/11 etc), with a synopsis of both the ‘official’ and conspiratorial positions, before moving on to consider a selection of the worst, the best and the most outlandish films that deal with the issue in question, both considering them as works of documentary filmmaking, and as arguments in their own right.

Contents

Foreword by Mick Farren

Preface by Thomas McGrath

INTRODUCTION

• Conspiracy Theories and Conspiracy Cinema
• About the Author
• About this Book 
• On the Films in this Book
• Final Warnings

PART I: EVENT CONSPIRACIES AND ASSASSINATIONS

• September 11, 2001
• July 7, 2005, London Bombings
• The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy
• The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr
• The Death of Princess Diana
• The Oklahoma City Bombing
• The Assassination of Robert Francis Kennedy
• The Siege at Waco
• The Moon Landing and Cosmic Conspiracies
• Miscellaneous event conspiracies

PART II: GRAND THEORIES

• The Illuminati
• The New World Order 

PART III: LESSER CONSPIRACIES

• Conspiracies in Politics and the Media 
• Politics Continued: The American Presidents
• Conspiracies in Religion, Spirituality, and Secret Societies 
• The Police State: Intelligence Agencies, Law Enforcement,
  and the Surveillance State
• Health and Environmental Conspiracies

HIV/AIDS

WEATHER CONSPIRACIES: CHEMTRAILS AND HAARP

FINANCIAL CONSPIRACIES

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

INDEX