John Pilger
1939 - 2023
It is with sadness that we share the news that award-winning journalist and filmmaker John Pilger has passed away at the age of 84.

As a former UK Labour Party leader has noted, “John gave a voice to the unheard and the occupied: in Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Chile, Iraq, East Timor, Palestine and beyond. Thank you for your bravery in pursuit of the truth — it will never be forgotten.”

Pilger leaves behind an impressive filmography of investigative reporting, many of which are available from Bullfrog Films, from Vietnam-era films like The Quiet Mutiny to his recent expose on threats to Britain's National Health Service, The Dirty War on the National Health Service.

A compendium of Pilger films available from Bullfrog can be found on our Special Collections page.
Britain’s National Health Service, the NHS, was the world’s first universal public health service. Designed to give millions of people “freedom from fear,” the NHS today is under threat of being sold off and converted to a free market model inspired by America’s disastrous health insurance system, which results in the death every year of an estimated 45,000 people. Filmed in Britain and the United States just prior to the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, this timely and compelling documentary by BAFTA and Emmy award-winning journalist John Pilger reveals what may be the last battle to preserve the most fundamental human right of all.
Filmed over two years across five potential flashpoints in the Asia Pacific region, The Coming War On China challenges the popular Western narrative of China as the "new enemy” of the United States. Using rare archival footage and remarkable interviews with eye witnesses and observers, Pilger’s film reveals America's secret military history and build-up in the region and provides context for China's longstanding game of sabre-rattling with the U.S over control and influence in the Pacific theater.
An epic film in its production, scope and revelations, John Pilger's Utopia is a rare and powerful investigation that breaks what amounts to a national silence about Australia's indigenous First People -- the oldest, most enduring presence on Earth. Pilger's in-depth reporting asserts that apartheid is embedded deep within Australia's past and present, and that Aboriginal people are still living in abject poverty and Third World conditions with a low life expectancy and disproportionately high rate of deaths in police custody.
The War You Don't See is a powerful and timely investigation into the media's role in war, tracing the history of `embedded' and independent reporting from the carnage of World War I to the destruction of Hiroshima, and from the invasion of Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan. As military weapons and government propaganda grow ever more sophisticated, the very nature of war has developed into an "electronic battlefield" aimed at manipulating public opinion and our collective memory. But who is the real enemy today?

Our DVD release includes an extended interview between John Pilger and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange exploring the film's themes.
In 1977, John Pilger made a documentary called Palestine Is Still The Issue. In the film, he reported on the forced displacement of almost a million Palestinians in 1948 and 1967. In 2002, Pilger returned to the West Bank, to Gaza, and to Israel, to ask why the Palestinians—whose right of return was affirmed by the United Nations—were still caught in a terrible limbo. In a series of extraordinary interviews with both Palestinians and Israelis, John Pilger weaves together an intimate portrait of the issues facing modern Palestine.

Our DVD release includes an extensive 20-page special report, in PDF format, that provides vital background information on the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict from 1897 to the present day.
These and other documentary films by Pilger are available on DVD and DSL from Bullfrog Films. Academic streaming is available through Docuseek. In-person and virtual campus-wide or community screening licenses are available from Bullfrog Communities.

To order these or other Bullfrog Films releases,
Order by phone at (610) 779-8226
or email us at info@bullfrogfilms.com
Bullfrog Films is the oldest and largest publisher of documentary films about the environment in the United States. We define "environment" broadly, and our catalog includes programs on ecology, energy, agriculture, indigenous peoples, women's studies, genetics, marine biology, sustainable development, community regeneration, economics, ethics, and conflict resolution.