This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 at 3:16 pm and is filed under News, Media, Art, Political Act. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Watch a Documentary, Rattle Mega-corps
I wasn’t surprised to read that recent documentary films rattle the business world. Movies like Supersize Me and Fahrenheit 9/11 drew crowds at commercial theatres. I saw both of these films in theaters when they were first released. Black Gold, a film about the international coffee industry and the idea of fair trade, is currently being shown at festivals and art houses across the U.S. Iraq for Sale made the rounds earlier this Fall. One of the interesting ways Robert Greenwald’s Iraq for Sale was publicized was through personal and political networks arranging showings at house parties and community centers. The movie is still in the news with war profiteers attempting to intimidate Greenwald.
It has been my experience that people have a good time watching these films. This isn’t a painful dose of political medicine. I remember reading an interview with Michael Moore about Roger and Me in which he said he makes the films he would like to see on a Saturday night. I can buy that. I have–several times. Laugh and learn at the same time. Sometimes the average dumb movie is a mind-numbing relief, but laughing at Morgan Spurlock puking out the window of his car as he chokes down a Big Mac has its own appeal in the average-dumb-movie category.
I have Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price from the library. That’s my entertainment for the week. Part of the fun is knowing how much it angers global corporate executives that they don’t have complete control over their public images.
What are you watching?
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