Predicting Terror: New Documentary Released Sept 6th on DVD Reveals the Roots of Human Violence
Tuesday September 6, 12:00 pm ET
IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- "Battles over God, and clashes of worldviews mark the surface of a world driven by fear of death, not a desire for it," suggests Flight From Death: The Quest For Immortality director/co- producer Patrick Shen. Co-producer Greg Bennick adds, "Anxiety about death drives people to want to matter, to stand out, to live forever. The hijackers on 9/11 were flying from their deaths, not just towards their deaths."
Narrated by Gabriel Byrne (Usual Suspects, Vanity Fair, Miller's Crossing), this seven-time Best Documentary award-winning film is the most comprehensive and mind blowing investigation of humankind's relationship with death ever captured on film. Flight From Death: The Quest For Immortality uncovers death anxiety as a root cause of human behavior and examines the events of 9/11 from the perspective of this fear.
The film follows the ongoing research of a group of social psychologists that may forever change the way we look at the world. Over the last twenty-five years, this team of researchers has conducted over 300 laboratory studies which show that reminders of death on a subconscious level inspire people to gravitate towards those who they see as culturally similar and to lash out at those who are different. There is solace in connecting with a familiar cultural group when confronted with mortality. The collective will outlive the individual, thus providing a sense of immortality. Team member Sheldon Solomon, Ph.D says, "Violence is a function of the human response to death anxiety. Our love for others and our violence towards others all soothe that anxiety."
In a recent study, the research team discovered that reminding Palestinians of their own death through subconscious means inspired conscious shifts in opinion towards wanting to become suicide bombers. Again, subconscious death reminders inspired the subjects to act aggressively against differing others, even at the risk of losing their own lives. Terror is the result of deep psychological forces, but through the research covered in the film, these forces can be charted and explained, yielding information about terror and terrorism that has never been available before.
Flight from Death was recognized with Best Documentary awards at the 2004 Rhode Island International Film Festival, the 2004 Malibu Film Festival, the 2004 Seattle Northwest Film Forum, the 2004 Northern Lights Documentary Film Festival, the 2003 Beverly Hills Film Festival, the 2003 Silver Lake Film Festival, and the 2003 Ohio Independent Film Festival.
Bennick adds, "This is a critically important film, given the state of our world." Shen offers, "The timing couldn't be more perfect for the release of a film that sheds light on how and why humans are drawn towards violence on a deep psychological level." The film will be released on DVD worldwide September 6th 2005.
For more information about the film, for a review copy, or to view the trailer go to http://www.flightfromdeath.com. | |
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