The Corporation is a savvy and fast-paced look at the meaning and methods of big business. Directed by Jennifer Abbot and Mark Achbar, based on ideas by B.C. law professor Joel Bakan, the film uses candid interviews with CEOs and political critics such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein and Michael Moore, spliced with remarkable historical film footage to explore what is happening today as corporations become more powerful than governments. Rather than being a problem of a few ‘bad apples’, as the film so humourously points out, the very structure and mandate of corporations-to maximize profits, reduce costs, and to ‘externalize’ responsibilities for any negative effects they have on others-makes them dangerous masters indeed.
In a surprisingly witty analysis, The Corporation puts forward the fact that corporations are legally considered ‘people’ and builds a case that these ultra-powerful individuals are psychopaths. Perhaps most extraordinary, the film (six long years in the making-very few people in the film and television industry wanted to hear about big ideas) manages to be uplifting and to provide hope. As co-director Mark Achbar puts it, “Resistance is fertile.”
The Corporation opens Friday, January 16th at the Bloor Cinema for one week and at Canada Square for an indefinite run.
