The Left Atrium

Mark Achbar (codirector of Manufac- Agit-doc turing Consent) and Jennifer Abbott are The Fog of the directors of The Corporation, a film Directed by that documents the rise to hegemony of Columbia TriStar, 2003, 106 min the dominant institution of the twentieth The Corporation century. Based on the book by David Directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott Bakan, the film gives the corporation, an Big Picture Media Corporation, 2004, 145 min entity with the same legal definition as a Fahrenheit 9/11 Written, produced and directed by Michael Moore person, a psychiatric assessment and Dog Eat Dog Films / Lions Gate Films, 2004, 116 min identifies it as having a psychopathic per- sonality disorder. The corporation as a legal person has self-interest only as its ithin a short period the cinema- once (during the ) guiding principle. The Corporation makes W going public has been treated to but three times. His views, detailed as 11 clear that everyone and everything is a a group of well-crafted “blockbuster lessons learned, show how irrationality, target to be exploited for profit (they documentaries,” and, for a change, the fear, mutual misunderstanding and em- show how an ad agency targets children, box office receipts have garnered sub- pire-building escalated the Cold War. encouraging them to pester their parents stantial revenue for the directors’ ef- After his resignation (or firing) as secre- more effectively to buy a certain prod- forts. Documentaries are now fashion- tary of state, McNamara served as head uct). Perhaps the most poignant section able fare for the movie-going public. of the World Bank for 13 years, which concerns two Fox Television journalists What are the reasons? afforded him the opportunity to meet Documentaries have traditionally many of his former foes, including Fidel sought to teach and inform, rather than Castro and the former Vietnamese am- entertain or tell a story. Most certainly, bassador to the . It was documentarians have slanted their sub- through these meetings that McNamara ject matter to present their point of finally understood how one-sided his po- view in a favourable light, but, generally sition had been — a realization incon- speaking, documentaries are low-brow ceivable to current White House leaders. cultural productions that appeal to rea- Black-and-white archival footage son and balance as they reflect on local (entire Japanese cities being firebombed colour and issues. The documentaries at the end of World War II, US reviewed here aim to educate at some bombers spraying Agent Orange on Michael Moore in action: Fahrenheit level, but they are also high-gloss pro- Vietnamese forests) is slowed down or 9/11 ductions with catchy entertainment speeded up to emphasize the crisis at- value. In all three, powerful soundtracks mosphere McNamara and the White create mood and slick camera work House staff faced every day. Snippets of who did a whistle-blowing investigation slows down, speeds up or otherwise dis- crucial tape-recorded conversations be- on the use of synthetic bovine growth torts the film, flooding the viewer’s sen- tween McNamara and presidents hormone and its nasty complications for sorium and appealing to a more primi- Kennedy and Johnson give us a fright- cows and were fired (and sued) by their tive, nonverbal level. ening insider’s look at how world cata- employer, who was receiving big adver- Errol Morris (Thin Blue Line, Fast, strophes were averted by brinksman- tising dollars from the agro-giant Mon- Cheap and Out of Control) realizes another ship and, according to McNamara, santo, maker of synthetic BGH. The en- tour de force in The Fog of War, in which “pure luck.” The interviews are edited vironment (water supplies in Bolivia), he interviews the controversial former in such a way that McNamara comes childhood and even disasters (gold prices US secretary of defense during the Cold across as a man who did the best he rose after the Twin Tower attacks) are all War and , Robert McNa- could under the circumstances given to fair game in the race for profits in the mara. At 85, McNamara is in full grasp him, but the filmmaker leaves the final amoral world of the corporation. At the of his considerable intellectual and ana- judgement up to the viewer. The visu- end of the film one is left with two feel- lytical powers as he recalls how, during als are accompanied by an excellent but ings: “Wow — are we ever being manip- his tenure under JFK and LBJ, the planet ominous soundtrack composed by the ulated and we should do something

DOI:10.1503/cmaj.1041240 came close to nuclear annihilation not iconic . about it” and “It’s depressing to think

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about how to change the absolute power mistrust among the American public. the values of the revolution in the work- of corporate America.” Much of the information in the film is ing class, and contemporary media were Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 not new, but it is delivered in a palatable used intensively to promote these values. brings together the themes of war, cor- (and entertaining) way to appeal to In this age of (dis)information, will the porate power and big government. mainstream viewers. Moore uses his blockbuster documentary replace other, Moore has established his reputation as trademark “camera in your face” tech- more pedestrian and less splashy and a defender of the underdog (Roger and nique to embarrass politicians (much sensationalist film productions? Will we Me) and critic of the establishment like our beloved “This Hour has 22 become dependent on this form of (). The focus of his Minutes”), a strategy that has become a “poli-tainment” rather than seeking out latest movie is by now familiar to most: bit tiresome. other sources of information to inform Fahrenheit 9/11 sets out to show how When documentaries become enter- our opinions? While our neighbours to George Bush Jr. and the neocons stole tainment designed to reach the largest the south continue in their obsession the presidential election and then, after audience possible, we must distinguish with the imperial themes of war, deceit 9/11, invented a pretext to go after Sad- among the filmmaker’s conflicting in- and abuse of power, we must not forget dam Hussein rather than pursue the tentions to entertain, educate and per- other issues — world poverty, AIDS, the Saudis, including the Bin Laden family, suade. That is to say, do documentaries environment — that are less sensational who had cozy ties with George Bush Sr. still contain enough critical content to but no less important. Criticism of the film has been pouring foster debate, reflection and behavioural in from all quarters (including the left- change? In post-revolutionary Russia, Normand Carrey leaning New Yorker), but Moore has Lenin invented the department of Agit- Psychiatrist managed to tap into an undercurrent of prop (agitátsiya propagánda) to inculcate Halifax, NS

Room for a view Where orchids bloom: medicine on the border

he patient is a 27-year-old man. discourse broken by reluctant nods THe is the last patient of a long day and short answers of the patient. I here on the Thai–Burmese border in a watch his Adam’s apple rise and fall as large medical clinic founded by Karen he swallows hard, staring at the ceiling refugees of the Burmese civil war — one as he listens. His eyes speak of the fear of the longest-running civil in the and knowledge that all is not well. world. He is emaciated, quiet and some- Does he know that he has waited too what nervous-looking; I can understand long to come, I wonder? Does he him only through my favourite medic. A know that it might have made little good friend and a bright light, Wei Lai difference anyway? He turns his head has worked in this clinic for many years to answer our questions, swallows, and and is practised in the art of history- goes back to examining the ceiling. taking and counselling. We talk with Now and again the world grows this young man, taking a basic history, heavy on the Thai–Burmese border. and do a general physical exam, which This is a place of joy and of sorrow; a reveals little except for his wasted state. place of undeniable hardship. A place We know only that he does not have the where some demonstrate the very best productive cough of the tubercular pa- of human nature — a solidarity and car- tient. Nor does he suffer from lack of ing that is seldom to be found, a joie de food, but rather from a prolonged low- vivre in spite of want and separation

grade fever with intermittent diarrhea. from loved ones — but also a place Fred Sebastian For six months. where poverty, lack of education, inse- He is lying on his back on the curity, exploitation and loss are ram- border to escape political oppression wooden examining table as the medic pant. Burma’s health care system was and imprisonment, poverty and food begins her fact-finding. I sit by and ranked 190th out of 191 by the WHO shortages, violence between the mili- watch as Wei Lai speaks to him in in the year 2000. The Burmese citizens, tary dictatorship and armed ethnic Karen. I watch the interaction be- whether members of minority groups groups and the harsh treatment of the

DOI:10.1503/cmaj.1031829 tween the two — her long and gentle or ethnic Burmans, come across the Tatmadaw, the militia who relocate

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