Matthew Alford is a British writer and commentator known for his work on the relationship between Western governments, war, and the media.

Career

Academia

In 2008, Alford earned a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

from the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

. He adapted his thesis to write '' Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy'', published in 2010 by

Pluto Press Pluto Press is a British independent book publisher based in London, founded in 1969. Pluto Press states that it publishes "radical, left‐wing non‐fiction books", and is anti-capitalist and internationalist. It belongs to The Internat ...

Journalism

In 2008, Alford co-authored articles about the disappearance of screenwriter

Gary Devore Gary Martin DeVore (September 17, 1941 – June 28, 1997) was an American screenwriter, best known for witty action films and for the mysterious circumstances of his 1997 death. Early career DeVore began his writing career in the late 1960s on ...

for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

and ''

Fortean Times ''Fortean Times'' is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001), I Feel Good Publishing (from 2001 to 2005), Dennis Publishing (from ...

'', later producing a documentary '' The Writer with No Hands'' on the topic. In 2017, Alford co-authored ''National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood'', based on FOIA requests to the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

and

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

. The book formed the basis for Theaters of War, a documentary he co-produced in 2022.

Political Activity

In 2024, Alford criticised the US and UK for “sleepwalking into a third world war”. He was the

Workers Party of Britain The Workers Party of Britain (WPB), also called the Workers Party of Great Britain (WPGB) or Workers Party GB, is a Socialism, socialist and Social conservatism, socially conservative political party in the United Kingdom, strongly identified ...

parliamentary candidate In British politics, a prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) is a candidate selected by political parties to contest under individual Westminster constituencies in advance of a general election. The term originally came into use because of t ...

in Bath the

UK 2024 general election The 2024 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 4 July 2024 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons. The opposition Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, won a landslide victory over the governing Conservative Party unde ...

. Entering the race, he declared, “this election just became an opportunity to shout like a lion and not vote like a lemming”. He received 230 votes (0.48%).

Selected works

Books

*''Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy''. London: Pluto Press, 2010. . **2018. French edition with new introduction by the author. ''Hollywood Propaganda, Cinéma Hollywoodien et Hégémonie Américaine'' (Éditions Critiques). Translation: Cyrille Rivallan. **2023. ''Final Cut'' (Éditions Critiques). French edition with new preface by the author. *''National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood'' (

CreateSpace On-Demand Publishing, LLC, doing business as CreateSpace, was a self-publishing service owned by Amazon. The company was founded in 2000 in South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, So ...

, 2017). With Tom Secker. ISBN . **2021. Expanded French edition. ''L'Empire Vous Divertit: Comment la CIA et le Pentagone Utilisent Hollywood'' (Investig'Action). Translation: Philippe Stroot.

Films

* ''Theaters of War'' (2022) (co-producer) * ''The Writer With No Hands'' (2014) (producer)

References

External links

Author page

IMDb Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alford, Matthew Academics of the University of Bath Alumni of the University of Bath British male non-fiction writers British investigative journalists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century British male writers British foreign policy writers British film historians