Screened as part of NZIFF 2004
The Corporation 2003
This provocative, entertaining and chilling documentary explores the institution that increasingly shapes our globalised world. Combining vivid analysis, riveting case histories, commentary, interviews and tales both scary and hopeful, this impressive film does justice to its massive subject.
“The Corporation, from Mark Achbar (co-director of Manufacturing Consent), Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan, examines the nature and history of corporations and includes specific examples of corporate deception, including media bias. Through interviews with 42 people, among them company CEOs, thinkers, activists, and whistleblowers, including Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, and executives from Pfizer, Goodyear, and Royal Dutch Shell, The Corporation asks some pointed questions that offer a generally unflattering portrait of increasingly global businesses.” — Eugene Hernandez, indieWIRE
“Advance press bills The Corporation as ‘the next Bowling for Columbine,’ but don’t be misled: The Corporation is smarter. Riffing on complicated economic structures with more than a modicum of wit, Canadian filmmakers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, along with screenwriter Joel Bakan, have hit upon a very clever device. They take a textbook definition of psychopath… and proceed to show how perfectly corporations fit the diagnosis. Hilarious and chilling, The Corporation wrangles international finance to the ground and shows how documentary at its best can let us know more than personality journalism ever can… The Corporation is brilliant at demonstrating how we’ve been hoodwinked.” — B. Ruby Rich, San Francisco Bay Guardian