The Corporation
This blockbuster doc from a team including Mark Achbar – who gave us Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent – takes apart the modern corporation and finds therein a psychopathic condition. Quick-paced, witty and vastly engaging at the outset, The Corporation then settles into the pattern of a more conventional documentary.
There is a vast amount of material that will shock and challenge even those who thought they knew the depth of corporate malfeasance. From Bolivia (where Bechtel claimed rainwater as their property) to Nazi Germany (where IBM and Coke found ingenious ways to continue business as usual) the film ranges over numerous case studies that leave little doubt about the brutal amorality of the corporate world. There are interviews with not only the usual suspects – Michael Moore, Vandana Shiva, Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein – but also a variety of characters from the corporate world, many of whom may now regret having been interviewed. Free-market guru Milton Friedman is there, as is the thoughtful CEO of Interface Carpet, Ray Anderson – that rarest of birds, a genuine corporate reformer.
At two-and-a-half hours long The Corporation could have stood a tighter edit. But corporate wrongdoing provides such a rich vein that it must have proved too difficult to leave much on the cuttingroom floor.
That aside, The Corporation is an excellent documentary which doesn't get stuck in the might of corporate power but shows many voices and actions of resistance. Drag an apathetic or apolitical friend to see it with you – they may never be the same again!
- Product information
- directed by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott and Joel Bakan
- Star rating
- Product link
- www.thecorporation.com
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Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
