In the modern news cycle, stories have a limited length. American presidential debates on foreign policy and ISIS seem to possess a narrative that begins with 9/11 and the war in Iraq. When candidates are given 60 seconds to sum up a policy aimed at a whole region, there isn’t much room for nuance, narrative, nor even cause and effect. Solutions presented in an atmosphere of sound bites tend to be reactionary and not comprehensive. But, these problems didn’t just originate 15 years ago.

Adam Curtis’ Bitter Lake, released just over a year ago, constructs a narrative in the Middle East about Western Intervention that spans decades, spinning out from a 1945 meeting about building an electrical dam. Though the political and social story created by Bitter Lake is under massive contention, including a valid criticism that Pakistan is largely missing from the story, the attempt to make a story about the embattled region is laudable. To create the film, Curtis regenerates the effect of the modern news cycle with a fractured montage of BBC news reel footage, including much use of the B-roll, connected by an omniscient narrator.

Western news is largely experienced in an ongoing soundbite-y montage that spans years. Developments happen in fits and spurts, and the electorate is expected to keep a memory of what happened yesterday/last week/last month/last year/last decade in order to understand why Group A is doing Event B. Curtis’ 2 hours and 15 minute-long montage recreates the effect of daily news, skipping over time and detail in a haphazard way that exploits and comments on our primary method of receiving information about the world. If Bitter Lake doesn’t exactly get the story right, it exposes how the use of juxtaposed news in brief segments can be manipulative and deceptive.

Because of Curtis’ extensive use of BBC footage, as well as copyrighted music, Bitter Lake was originally released exclusively on BBC iPlayer. Releases on YouTube were repeatedly deleted. But, for now, Bitter Lake is available on YouTube, so watch it while you can.