McNeilFilmAnnotation6

Title: The Yes Men Fix the World Director: Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno, Kurt Engfehr Release year: 2009


 * What is the central argument or narrative of the film?**

The central argument of this film is that corporations should be held accountable for their actions. Many times in history big businesses have committed crimes or lied about their actions. This is a real problem because the way the law is written now businesses have the same rights as individuals and they are treated in the same way; however businesses are trying to maximize profits with no regard to the communities or the customers that they interact with. This paradigm needs to shift to companies that are socially conscious and accountable for their actions.
 * How is the argument or narrative made and sustained? How much scientific information is provided, for example?**

The Yes Men sustain their argument from explanations and anecdotes. They don’t provide a lot of scientific information regarding their actions. They do give background of what they are doing and why so this informs the views and keeps them intrigued of what will happen next.


 * What sustainability problems does the film draw out?**

The film points out one major sustainability problem that is how corporations respond to the problems that they create. We see this time after time that companies create huge impacts to the world and then feel that they have little to no responsibility to remedy the situations; this is demonstrated in the film by the Dow Company’s involvement in a deadly gas leak that happened in Bhopal in 1984. Dow has never made any attempt to rectify the situation by providing compensation to the citizens of Bhopal.


 * What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why?**

I was very moved by the entire film. I was particularly moved by how much two people accomplished by taking a deep interest in social issues. Often people think they need to be a researcher or a high political figure to make some impact. This movie demonstrated that this is definitely not the case. Individuals can have profound impacts on the global level by standing by what they believe, and perhaps adopt some unorthodox ways of capturing people’s attention. I felt very inspired by the film, I was convinced that I could change the way people see and react to massive problems.


 * What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? Why?**

I was compelled by most of the film. I was not convinced by some of their stunts though, particularly the Halliburton/catastrophic loss conference. To me this seemed kind of pointless because there wasn’t much publicity, also their message not clearly understood by the attendees. They just seemed liked another presentation for the conference. I struggled to find a reason for why they thought this stunt would change anyone minds regarding catastrophic events and the way people handle them.


 * What audiences does the film best address? Why?**

I think the film is a great movie for anyone to watch who is interested in how corporations view their role in the world. While I was watched the film I wasn’t necessarily moved by what they were doing but by the end I had grown very fond of their surly approach to addressing major issues.


 * What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value?**

I don’t think there is much that could be added to enhance the film or its message. I think it’s apparent that the Yes Men have influenced the way people think about their involvement in the world. They even have positive results to show for their efforts. For instance the Chamber of Commerce changed their policy on global climate change because of the Yes Man and the awareness they generated from their feat


 * What kinds of action and points of intervention are suggested by the film? If the film itself does not suggest corrective action, describe actions that you can imagine being effective.**

The film doesn’t specifically suggest any way to fix the problems that plague the world but I think, the whole movie is inspirational in that I realized I could have an impact on the world by changing the way I thought of what “fixing” it might be. Like I mentioned before you don’t need to be a political figure or a millionaire to leave your mark. By changing the way we think of the problem we can find more creative ways to solve them, Like Albert Einstein once said; “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it “.


 * What additional information has this film compelled you to seek out?**

After seeing the film I was compelled to seek out more information on the housing projects being developed after hurricane Katrina condemned much of the affordable housing in the city of New Orleans. It turns out that many single mothers in New Orleans are suffering worse than many people thought after the loss of their homes. The number of female headed households was doubled in New Orleans, in addition to poverty rate more than twice the national average. The homeless population since the storm has also doubled to approximately 12,000. Some feel that the storm isn’t the only one to blame though, since federal housing policy makes no exceptions for gender and race inequality.
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This is an article that is about the reopening of public housing in different areas around New Orleans. This public housing is “mixed income”, putting families paying subsidized rent next to those paying the market price in an effort to pull up low income neighborhoods, and make them indistinguishable from the rest. New Orleans apparently has a history of housing reforms, such as the 1940s brick housing built to move the slums out of their status as fire-traps.
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