Norwegian film maker admits to making Wag the Dog style film

[greenseed]

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-30057401



Lars Klevberg, a 34-year-old film director based in Oslo, wrote a script after watching news coverage of the conflict in Syria. He says he deliberately presented the film as reality in order to generate a discussion about children in conflict zones.

"If I could make a film and pretend it was real, people would share it and react with hope," he said. "We shot it in Malta in May this year on a set that was used for other famous movies like Troy and Gladiator," Klevberg said. "The little boy and girl are professional actors from Malta. The voices in the background are Syrian refugees living in Malta."

Were they comfortable making a film that potentially deceived millions of people? "I was not uncomfortable," Klevberg said. "By publishing a clip that could appear to be authentic we hoped to take advantage of a tool that's often used in war; make a video that claims to be real. We wanted to see if the film would get attention and spur debate, first and foremost about children and war. We also wanted to see how the media would respond to such a video."

[Masato]

Yeah this is a weird thing to consider.

The mainstream media (and the internet in general) is so full of disinfo and propaganda, I have often thought it was justified to push back the other way.

Other times I think it is counter-productive, and that if lies and deception are something you despise than you shouldn't be doing it yourself.

What do you think? Is this kind of fakery OK if it is being used to bring truth and attention to important issues? Or does it discredit these truths and important issues and make everyone even more numb to the ever-growing mountains of disinfo?

[Canuckster]

used in this way i think its fair as it was used to raise awareness and it was admitted it was fake to show people not to trust what they see.