Paperjam

The Corporation

Film // Jim // 7th December 2004

Much as I love it, there is something inherently unhealthy about London. If you don’t get run over by some twat of a bike courier or stabbed by by an angry scientologist, who you have just told to “stick your leaflet up your arse and fuck off”, there is a good chance that you can catch something very nasty travelling round on the tube.

As I settle into screen 4 at the Camden Odeon for the 2pm showing along with a small number of retired and mentally troubled people there is so much hacking and coughing that the atmosphere is not unlike the TB wing of some Victorian sanitarium. I’m shifting uncomfortably in my seat trying to find a workable position for my poor aching body following another night of hospitality at the basic but cheap Generator hostel, which as luck would have it was hosting the finals of Miserable Female Australian Backpacker Of The Year.

During the adverts I sip at my generously overfilled coke, it spills onto my lap, “Bollocks”, I cry before wiping my groin rapidly with the sleeve of my coat. The action of which raises a few chuckles from the old boys sat behind me; “It’s not that sort of film mate”, they croak before settling back into comfortable pattern of coughing and phlegm-ridden growling.

Resigned to the fact that today just isn’t really going all that well, I am buoyed by the appearance of the Team America trailer and then one of those funny little Orange films about ruining films with mobile phones. Which I’ll come back to in a moment...

The Corporation is a Canadian documentary which charts the rise of the er, corporation to become the most powerful force at work in the world today and looks at why this may not be a good thing.
Boasting an impressive cast of interviewees, (including the ideologically opposed Milton Friedman and Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Michael Moore) the film is structured a bit like a thesis; An introduction followed by a series of case studies and evidence leading to a conclusion of sorts.

The general upshot is that the contemporary corporate form is essentially psychopathic, placing the maximisation profit and power above all other priorities, no matter how worthy. Occasionally the corporation will appear to be doing something nice for the community or environment but this will really only be to boost their public image or to mask some rather less pleasant activity, referred to by the seemingly benign economic term “Externality”. For example, possibly, making some very funny little films to remind people to turn off their mobile phones in the cinema while ignoring/suppressing research on how the same phones seem to causing a tumour or two.

Filmmakers: Lack of mediocrity, nice suits

Of course I have just made this sound really boring, which is why I am writing poxy articles for a little-known UK web site rather than making internationally renowned documentaries. Fortunately the filmmakers (March Achbar and Jennifer Abbott along with writer Joel Bakan) are not saddled by such mediocrity and have crafted a film which carefully uses interview footage, archive film and a spooky voiceover (imagine a female HAL) to create a series of bite size chunks through which the main themes permeate:

Get angry at the heartless stockbroker who saw the twin towers collapse and raced to save his client’s portfolios.
Feel immense guilt at seeing the conditions in which your Nike trainers were made.
Boo at the genuinely disturbing Monsanto corporation, their harmful products and evil media manipulation.
Laugh at the spiky-haired-corporate-spy-twat.
Throw things at the screen due to the woman who markets products specifically at children to make them nag their parents more.
Thrill to some fantastic soundbites “The death of birth”, “Philosophy of futility” and “Atoms of consumption” to name but a few.
Gawp at the finest backwards tracking shot of a patent office ever.

In summary this superb film is an extremely interesting yet depressing experience. The only sense of hope comes from the CEO of a big carpet company who has decided that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way that companies should behave and preaches about the need for zero environmental impact to other important business people.

Unfortunately you get the impression that he is pissing straight into the wind, left to its own devices the majority of the corporate machine will continue to grind the world and most of its people into profit for the wealthy elite.

Proper protestor: Not a wimp, cool bar-code mask

The end of the film is therefore something of a call to arms to all right thinking people to go out and actually do something about the whole mess. Personally I’m far too much of a wimp to go out and smash up a Starbucks, chain myself to an oil rig or look an idiot having tea with the chairman of BP on his lawn.

My pitiful contribution is simply to encourage everyone I know to go out and see The Corporation as soon as possible and make at least some effort to learn more about the issues raised in the film. So that's what I’m doing.

Corporation Links...

Main Corporation Web Site

The main site for the movie, with all sorts of info

Where to see The Corporation

The official UK page which includes a list of where you can see the film

Mobile Phone Cover Up

What? An independant review to study the the side effects of mobiles forgot to look at a few key bits of info? I don't believe it.

RTMark web site

Anti-corporate projects and activities of all shapes and sizes