Hit Factory

WTO/99 is a new, immersive archival documentary that depicts the four-day clash between the then-emerging World Trade Organization (WTO) and the 40,000+ people who took to the streets of Seattle in 1999 to protest the WTO Conference and the WTO’s impact on human rights, labor, and the future effects of continued globalization.
Aaron sat down with WTO/99 director/co-editor Ian Bell and producer/co-editor Alex Megaro to discuss the film's bracing depiction of the WTO protests, their prevailing ramifications in the 2020s, and whether the event's radicalizing groundswell is replicable in today's polarized political reality.
WTO/99 has its Bay Area debut at The Roxie next Wednesday 1/28/26. Find tickets HERE.
WTO/99 returns to the Bay Area Tuesday 2/24/28 at The New Parkway. Find tickets HERE.

Find more upcoming screenings of WTO/99.
Watch the trailer for WTO/99.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

This week, we're discussing the winner of our latest Patreon poll, Senegalese auteur Djibril Diop Mambéty's Hyenas. Adapting Swiss-German playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1956 satirical tragicomedy The Visit and transposing its story onto post-colonial Senegal, the film tells the story of Dramaan Drameh, a grocer in the poor town of Colobane, whose life is upended when a former flame, Linguère Ramatou, returns to the town after decades. Having amassed a large fortune in the intervening years, Ramatou makes the township a disquieting offer - she will bestow her fortune onto Colobane in exchange for the murder of Drameh as revenge for abandoning her following a pregnancy during their brief love affair. Gorgeously-lensed, blackly satirical, and ultimately tragic, Hyenas imbues its tense tale of vengenace and greed with resonances examining Senagal's (and the greater continet of Africa's) subjugation under western capitalism in the post-colonial period.
We begin with a discussion of Senegal's cinema, its anti-colonial dimensions, and how the rhythms of Mambéty's film antagonize western modes of narrative and filmmaking. Then, we examine the film's exploration of the corrupting nature of capital, and how forces like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank acted as coercive mechanisms for privatization and neoliberal policy in Africa and throughout the developing world. Finally, we discuss the film's sexual politics, where we feel its metaphors break down in its exploration of the character of Ramatou, and where fidelity to source material occasionally muddles the film's incisive colonial critique.
Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

The party is nearing its end, the food has been consumed, and now it's time to pour yourself a rich, spicy, herbaceous(?) after-dinner drink to aid in the digestion of all your elsewhere and elsewhile 2025 year-end content...
It's the Hit Factory 2025 Digestif: A rundown of some of our favorite un-discussed films of the past year as well as some brilliant new-to-us discoveries...A low-stakes sporting event becomes a metaphor for the cinematic experience. A high school becomes a microcosm of our technofascist panopticon. A mother at the end of her rope. An artist at the end of his prime. These and more are explored within. So pull up a stool, grab yourself a glass, and kick back one more before we call it a night.
 
Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Denzember concludes as Journalist and host of the Turbulence podcast Séamus Malekafzali returns to the show to discuss Edward Zwick's 1998 geopolitical thriller The Siege, a film about a Muslim terrorist cell wreaking havoc on New York City, the resultant fear it stokes, and the vidictive results of martial law being enforced in an American city. Largely lost to time as an artifact of The End of History, the film nonetheless rings with a startling prescience as a pre-9/11 document of Hollywood's casual anti-Arab sentiments (even among well-meaning liberal sects), and trust in American institutions to disavow bad actors and preserve democracy.
We begin by dissecting the films amorphous, byzantine, and *totally fabricated* understanding of Middle Eastern geopolitics, and how its obfuscations function as a tool of propaganda, making the threat of Muslim extremism feel omnipresent and unknowable. Then, we consider how the film contends with imperial blowback, individuating it as mistakes by discrete actors rather than the guiding policy of America's geopolitical meddling across the globe. Finally, we reckon with the film's countless contradictions, its liberal posturing toward the "right" kind of wariness toward extremism, and its unconscious buttressing of the same ideologies that lead to fascist persecution of The Other.
Follow Séamus Malekafzali on Twitter.
Listen and Subscribe to Turbulence Podcast.
Subscribe to Séamus' Substack.
Get access to the whole Denzember experience, all of our premium episodes and bonus content, and an invite to the Hit Factory Discord by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our Denzember Theme Song is "Funk" by Oppo.

Get access to this entire episode, the entire Denzember catalog, and all of our premium episodes by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
Roger Ebert Associate Editor Robert Daniels returns to the show to once again discuss the work of Denzel Washington and Spike Lee, this time unpacking his brilliant 1998 sports drama He Got Game. The film stars Denzel Washington as Jake Shuttlesworth, an Attica inmate who is tasked with getting his high school basketball prodigy son, Jesus (Ray Allen), to commit to playing for the governor's alma mater in exchange for a reduced prison sentence. A film as concerned with the capitalist mechanisms undergirding basketball culture as it is with acknowledging the intoxicating allure of the game's myth, Spike crafts a uniquel rewarding sports movie in a melodrama's skin. 
We begin with a discussion about Spike's formal ingenuity, and how he positions basketball as inextricable from broader Americana; a definitive part of American culture. Then, we praise the dual leading performances of Denzel Washington and NBA star Ray Allen. Finally, we disscuss the film's showstopper final act, showcasing Denzel and Allen's skills on the court in a brilliantly pitched one-on-one game that approaches the sublime, even supernatural.
Follow Robert Daniels on Twitter.
Read Robert on the musical direction of Spike Lee films at Letterboxd.
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Our Denzember theme song is "Funk" by Oppo.