BSD: The Big-Screen Documentary
I've just come across The Take, a 2004 film by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis (a Canadian couple, Klein is the writer of No Logo, Lewis is a journalist). It's about the workers' co-operatives that have sprung up in Argentina and elsewhere in South America, taking control of factories which had been abandoned by their owners during the economic crises in those countries.
The trailer begins with an evocative interviewer proposing that what the workers have done, having taken over "90 million dollars-worth of factory...for [their] own benefit", is called "stealing". Answering in Spanish with his Argentine accent, the worker suggests "there is another word: expropriation."
This idea of workers' control and ownership really interests me: it seems to be a very viable alternative to the current domination of corporate ownership in 'the means of production', to bring in the jargon. Hopefully, thanks to The Corporation, intellectuals like Noam Chomsky, and organisations like the one interviewing him at the page just linked to, CorpWatch, people will begin to realise that corporations are not a necessary part of an economy, though they do seem to be in today's world.
The co-ops seem to be doing a good job too, their products are reasonably priced and apparently their workplaces are democratic. The latter has always seemed a problem to me: while we have a good measure of democracy in the political sphere of our society, the economic sphere has remained an autocracy where the rich and powerful retain control. (Milton Friedman claims that the market is democratic, with people voting with their money, but that assumes that the rich deserve their money, and so their power, which is a very debatable point.)
The film's also an interesting part of another trend: "the Big-Screen Documentary". It follows in the footsteps of Michael Moore and the makers of The Corporation, shooting political documentaries on issues which often fall outside the usual political discourse. These films can never replace the academic rigour and detail that books and other reading sources provide, but they can bring the issues to the fore and frame a debate with often emotive images and language, but also with a balancing of arguments. And they're generally hopeful too: two-thirds of the way through The Corporation nihilism and suicide might seem like preferable options, but by the end of the film, light has emerged at the end of a dark, pessimistic tunnel.
All the above is true of another feature-length documentary which I finally saw recently, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. It's all about Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, and the failed coup attempt against him in 2002. But that's another story, and a controversial one at that: the film's been attacked as a piece of propaganda on the one hand, and hailed with 'Best Documentary' awards on the other.
It's great to see these documentaries bringing information and debate from around the world. I'll write more about Venezuela soon, and hopefully I'll get to see The Take and give you a review. But for now, here's to more BSDs!
The trailer begins with an evocative interviewer proposing that what the workers have done, having taken over "90 million dollars-worth of factory...for [their] own benefit", is called "stealing". Answering in Spanish with his Argentine accent, the worker suggests "there is another word: expropriation."
This idea of workers' control and ownership really interests me: it seems to be a very viable alternative to the current domination of corporate ownership in 'the means of production', to bring in the jargon. Hopefully, thanks to The Corporation, intellectuals like Noam Chomsky, and organisations like the one interviewing him at the page just linked to, CorpWatch, people will begin to realise that corporations are not a necessary part of an economy, though they do seem to be in today's world.
The co-ops seem to be doing a good job too, their products are reasonably priced and apparently their workplaces are democratic. The latter has always seemed a problem to me: while we have a good measure of democracy in the political sphere of our society, the economic sphere has remained an autocracy where the rich and powerful retain control. (Milton Friedman claims that the market is democratic, with people voting with their money, but that assumes that the rich deserve their money, and so their power, which is a very debatable point.)
The film's also an interesting part of another trend: "the Big-Screen Documentary". It follows in the footsteps of Michael Moore and the makers of The Corporation, shooting political documentaries on issues which often fall outside the usual political discourse. These films can never replace the academic rigour and detail that books and other reading sources provide, but they can bring the issues to the fore and frame a debate with often emotive images and language, but also with a balancing of arguments. And they're generally hopeful too: two-thirds of the way through The Corporation nihilism and suicide might seem like preferable options, but by the end of the film, light has emerged at the end of a dark, pessimistic tunnel.
All the above is true of another feature-length documentary which I finally saw recently, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. It's all about Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, and the failed coup attempt against him in 2002. But that's another story, and a controversial one at that: the film's been attacked as a piece of propaganda on the one hand, and hailed with 'Best Documentary' awards on the other.
It's great to see these documentaries bringing information and debate from around the world. I'll write more about Venezuela soon, and hopefully I'll get to see The Take and give you a review. But for now, here's to more BSDs!
posted by Sam - Webmaster at 10:37 am
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