Documentary film festival

A local independant movie theater is in the middle of a two week documentary film festival. I got to see two films this weekend--Control Room and The Corporation.

Control Room looks at the coverage of the Iraq War from the US Central Command Media Center in Qatar with a focus on Al-Jazeera. You get a real sense of how the US military uses the news media as a propaganda machine. From the story of the US attack on Al-Jazeera headquarters in Baghdad, which killed one of its reporters, to the Jessica Lynch rescue story this film gives you a feel for how news is "made".

The film seems to lack any real direction. It follows several people, including Hassan Ibrahim of Al-Jazeera. Ibrahim, who is described as an Arab nationalist, seems to be the most level-headed, intelligent, and likeable guy in the film.

The Corporation, on the other hand, is well-structured and pretty much focused. It starts with a history of the corporation and then the film is broken up into "chapters", each with its own thesis (some more persuasive than others). The film uses talking-head interviews interspersed with vintage clips to illustrate points. Among the talking heads are Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Peter Drucker, Vandana Shiva, and Michael Moore. Like Moore's films, The Corporation is satirical and witty yet it is weightier and not as easily dismissed by detractors.

The film takes a lot of time making the case that the corporation is by definition a psychopath. It uses a checklist of the characteristics of a psychopath and then uses experts to make the case that corporations exhibit all of these characteristics.

The Corporation made me think and I learned a few things. At one point Chomsky makes a comparison to slavery. He notes that while the institution of slavery is inherently bad there were slaveholders who were not necessarily bad people. One CEO that they use to illustrate the point is Ray Anderson, Chairman of Interface, Inc., who described how he had an epiphany about the impact of his company on the environment. Another part that made me think was a public meeting deciding whether the locality would allow more corporate fast food restaurants to open. One person said that people can choose not to do business with those places thereby voting with their dollars. Another person responded that rich people have more votes than him in that scenario.

Control Room just made me feel helpless and angry, The Corporation at least gave me hope that we can do something and that some people actually are doing something.

The other films I want to see are lighter fare. Ramones: End of the Century, Slasher, and Bukowski: Born into this all look pretty good. We'll see.