On Company Business

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On Company Business is a three-part 1980 Documentary Film by Allan Francovich about the activities of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. It won the award for best documentary at the 1980 Berlin International Film Festival. It is considered a classic work in the field of intelligence studies.

Francovich was born in 1941 to a New York Jewish engineering family, His father, Aldo Francovich, worked as a mining engineer for Cerro de Pasco mining company in Peru; as a child he lived in high altitude mining towns and witnessed the extreme poverty of the miners. Growing up, Francovich also observed firsthand the fruits of Operation Condor in South America. He attended an elite preparatory school in Lima then came to the U.S. to attend Notre Dame University, where he completed a B.A. He lived in Paris for several years, studying freelance at the Sorbonne before coming to Berkeley. There he finished an M.A. in Dramatic Arts at UC, Berkeley; he also studied film briefly at Stanford and received a grant to study film from the American Film Institute in 1970. He and translator and writer Kathleen Weaver were married in 1970; the two separated amicably and were divorced in 1986. She collaborated on his films during the time of their marriage.

Berkeley in the 1970's was a haven for both the sexual revolution and the Progressive Libertarian movement, which Francovich documented in his 1977 film, San Francisco Good Times. At the time, the Bay Area was noted for its relatively open society and low-cost of living resulting in an explosion of cultural output and experimentation. Much of this Francovich's papers and films are housed at the Pacific Film Archive.

On Company Business is largely told through the effort of former CIA Agent turned critic and whistleblower Philip Agee. Through the 1980's and 1990's, Agee would become a fixture of local access cable programs about the CIA and current affairs. Although the film is highly critical of the CIA, it was made with the tacit approval of former CIA director William Colby much as Doug Valentine was allowed to research and publish his book about The Phoenix Program. The Film also reflect cultural elements of the 1970's such as a soundtrack drawn from Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians.

A particular strength of the film is its explanation of the overall US Economy and how this was built around Truman's rearmament plan. The film explains the CIA's role in retaining soft power allowing the US to consume resources extracted from its sphere of influence. A weakness of the film is how it avoids completely issues of Zionist impulses within the CIA as well as its integration with U.S. Domestic organized crime networks, and in that sense, the film may be considered an extended limited hangout.

Angolan Civil War

On Company Business remains the definitive account of the CIA's intervention in Angola in 1975. It also features a remarkable interview by Congressman and later Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums about the initial ineffectiveness of the 1970's reforms to improve oversight such as the House Select Committee on Intelligence