All alone confronting Goliath<\/p>\n
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
For a film that was aimed as a searing indictment of big
\nbusiness, The Corporation is a major success -- so successful
\nthat it has been adopted by the business establishment as a
\nmarker in their soul-searching campaign.<\/p>\n
A box office documentary film in the same league as Michael
\nMoore's Fahrenheit 9\/11. It grossed over US$6 million worldwide
\nand won 24 awards including one at the 2004 Sundance Film
\nFestival, copies of The Corporation are now held in libraries in
\nhundreds of business schools in North America and have been
\nscreened in master of business administration (MBA) classes
\nattended by future CEOs.<\/p>\n
The film, released in 2003, has also been broadcast on dozens
\nof television stations across the globe.<\/p>\n
The success of The Corporation has in a way changed the life
\nof its maker, Canadian film director Mark Achbar.<\/p>\n
Although he never came close to becoming a corporate person
\nhimself, Achbar has adopted some of the methods often used by
\ntraveling businesspeople.<\/p>\n
After a long conversation with The Jakarta Post at the
\nCanadian Embassy, the energetic director handed out a name card
\nbearing the logo of his film -- a yellow silhouette of a man in
\na suit with an angelic halo above his head and a devil's tail
\nbehind his back -- giving a slight impression that the film has
\nbeen turned into a corporate entity.<\/p>\n
Beneath his brown jacket, Achbar wore a black T-shirt adorned
\nwith the same imprint.<\/p>\n
The way Achbar dresses today is a radical departure from his
\nformer sartorial preferences.<\/p>\n
Achbar was in the city early last week to promote The
\nCorporation to audiences at the Jakarta International Film
\nFestival (JiFFest).<\/p>\n
Forensic examination of big business<\/p>\n
The Corporation as a film is also a walking contradiction, for
\nthe box-office certification, business travel and changing
\nsartorial style however are a product of dissecting and attacking
\nthe monstrous institution of the modern era that is the
\ncorporation.<\/p>\n
The film explores the nature and spectacular rise of big
\nbusiness -- including the McDonald's fast-food chain, GAP
\nclothing company, Coca Cola, Goodyear tire company and even Fox
\nNews Channel.<\/p>\n
The film interviews 40 individuals, from leftist pundit Noam
\nChomsky, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, liberal
\nfilmmaker Michael Moore, author and political activist Naomi
\nKlein to chairman of Royal Dutch Shell Sir Mark Moody-Stuart and
\nformer chief executive officer and chairman of Goodyear Tire, Sam
\nGibara.<\/p>\n
Held to be responsible for countless cases of illness, death,
\npoverty, pollution, exploitation and lies, corporations are
\nportrayed in the film as being psychopathic -- entities that are
\nself-interested, inherently amoral, callous and deceitful.<\/p>\n
Corporations breach social and legal standards to get their
\nway; they do not suffer from guilt, yet can mimic the human
\nqualities of empathy, caring and altruism.<\/p>\n
All fit the definition "psychopath" provided by the World
\nHealth Organization (WHO).<\/p>\n
Despite its weighty subject the film was destined to be a
\nsuccess, by dint of its groundbreaking technique and meticulous
\nresearch.<\/p>\n
Based on a written project of the same title by law professor
\nJoel Bakan, material from the film later made up a great deal of
\nchapters in a new book.<\/p>\n
Interviews from the films would be quoted in the book, whilst
\na great deal of writing from the book became narration for the
\nfilm.<\/p>\n
Both the book and the film were completed at the same time
\nafter six years of preparation.<\/p>\n
In the latter stages of production, along came Jennifer Abbot,
\nwho lent a hand with the film's editing.<\/p>\n
For Achbar, the film was the ultimate product of what he
\nexperienced as corporate "claustrophobia".<\/p>\n
"Every aspect of our lives is being impinged upon or affected
\nin some way by this corporate thing, whether it be the food we
\neat, the clothes we wear, the car we drive or the places we go
\nto. At a certain point it all became a little claustrophobic and
\nI needed to do something about it," said Achbar, who wishes to be
\nidentified as a radical leftist.<\/p>\n
Everything's up for grabs<\/p>\n
The film was also the culmination of his derision for big
\nbusiness, whose desire for profit has reached an alarming rate.<\/p>\n
Parts of the film show that today, every molecule on the
\nplanet is up for grabs. In a bid to own it all, corporations are
\npatenting animals, plants, even deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
\ncodes.<\/p>\n
Another example of such corporate greed is that even the
\nrights to the song Happy Birthday are now held by a company owned
\nby media giant AOL-Time-Warner.<\/p>\n
The Corporation was just a stopover by Achbar during his
\nproject to make provocative films.<\/p>\n
In his 30-year independent filmmaking career, Achbar has
\nproduced some of the most incendiary documentary films in Canada,
\nincluding The Canadian Conspiracy, a cultural\/political satire
\nfor the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation screened on HBO's
\nComedy Experiments, and Two Brides and A Scalpel: Diary of a
\nLesbian Marriage, a comi-tragic tale of Canada's first same-sex
\nmarriage.<\/p>\n
Achbar hit pay dirt, however, when he produced Manufacturing
\nConsent: Noam Chomsky and The Media, a documentary film that
\ndelves into the political life and ideas of Chomsky.<\/p>\n
In the film, Achbar argues that corporate media, as profit-
\ndriven institutions, tend to serve and further the agendas of the
\ninterests of dominant, elite groups in society. The film's
\ncenterpiece was reluctance by The New York Times to cover
\nIndonesia's occupation of East Timor in the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n
Consent also served as Achbar's homage to Chomsky, whom he
\nsaid had greatly influenced his political thinking.<\/p>\n
Attending college in Syracuse, New York, and diligently
\nprotesting against Reagan's nuclear programs in the early 1980s,
\nAchbar ingested Chomsky's view to galvanize his political stance.<\/p>\n
"He literally changed the way I think about the world and
\npower. He challenged everything that I regarded as the norm; I
\nheard little from him that is incorrect," the 50-year old said.<\/p>\n
His political views were also shaped by the newspaper that
\nChomsky has berated so often, The New York Times.<\/p>\n
"Reading the Times on a daily basis is enough to change your
\npolitical perspective," he said.<\/p>\n
On the net:
\nwww.thecorporation.com
\nwww.madman.com<\/p>",
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