[lbo-talk] Wal-Mart Movie (was Astra Taylor on mrzine)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

> John Mage wrote:
>
> ><http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/ht081105.html>
> >and another beautiful editing job by Yoshie.
>
> In which we read:
>
> >As we begin to seriously consider our next
> >cinematic undertaking, we often find ourselves
> >grappling with the two poles of documentary
> >filmmaking: the poetical and the political.  We
> >want to make films that matter, which address
> >social problems, educate the audience, and
> >inspire action.  But we also care about
> >technique and value artistry and beauty. Our
> >favorite films all have an element of ambiguity,
> >leaving room for debate and interpretation.
> >We're tired of bland, issue-driven films,
> >uninspired camerawork, and didactic messages
> >(even ones we agree with).  At the same time,
> >we're equally suspicious of the tendency to make
> >art that suffers from historical amnesia or
> >political naiveté, or worse, films that
> >aestheticize suffering and devastation.  Too
> >many documentaries shy away from exposing the
> >root causes of social problems by personalizing
> >them.
>
> No kidding - and one of the many great things about Zizek! is that  
> it avoids all these pitfalls.
>
> The new Greenwald movie on Wal-Mart kinda blows. It begins with a  
> long lament for the petit  bourgeoisie displaced by the monster, a  
> POV I have limited sympathy for. But it just piles detail and  
> factoid upon detail and factoid, with no narrative, no wit, and no  
> charm. The word "hackwork" definitely comes to mind.
>
> Doug

Does anyone want to do a criticism of Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low  
Price for MRZine.org?  I want a criticism that looks at the movie  
from three angles:

1.  Grassroots distribution of the documentary (cf. <http:// 
www.walmartmovie.com/host.php>).

2.  Content of the documentary and its politics (especially  
concerning the question of Wal-Mart encouraging its employees to  
receive public assistance and unions' and other groups' responses to  
it).

3.  Style

If you are interested, please contact me at yoshie at monthlyreview.org.

Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://montages.blogspot.com>
<http://monthlyreview.org>
<http://mrzine.org>