Investigative filmmaker Miguel Francis-Santiago hosts Mosaic of Facts, an exploration of the role of the media in information sharing, and the many ways in which it is used to sway and manipulate public opinion. Inspired by his 2014 exploration of war-torn Crimea, Francis-Santiago embarks on a personal mission to gain a better understanding of those responsible for the Ukranian Crisis, an event he describes as “a humanitarian catastrophe. ” Along the way he discovers a tangled web of deception and misinformation. In one example we are shown a newscast that proclaims to be showing real-time footage of a ground assault, but is revealed to have been footage cut from a military training video found on YouTube. Although this particular tragedy is central to the film, the topics of power, control, and crowd psychology in relation to media in general are examined at length. Resolving to find input from independent and unbiased sources, Francis-Santiago reaches out to independent journalists, filmmakers, and authors for their opinions on whether claims of the Western world’s “information dominance” are valid. His own association with Russia Today, the producers of this film, is scrutinized by author Naomi Wolf, whose critique of Russia Today as a “government mouthpiece” is in turn scrutinized by Geopolitics Analyst Eric Draitser. Draister rebuts that a freelancer for a Western brand such as the BBC or CNN would never be criticized in this way, and describes the state of the current global news media industry as an “information war,” noting that non-Western news outlets are often maligned and disregarded. He does, however, note a more forceful pushback from these countries as they attempt to gain a stronger foothold in world news. Infographics illustrating the corporate monopolies in charge of major news outlets and the media in general are sprinkled throughout the film. We are reminded that the media is not just responsible for disseminating news, but that it also plays a significant role in influencing societal decisions such as what foods to eat, what entertainment to consume, what clothes to buy, and so forth. Mosaic of Facts is a provocative look at the complacency of Western culture and the information we take for granted.
