Friday, January 29, 2010

Michael White

Bloomberg News

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Ben Affleck's "The Company Men," about a callous executive who watches his stock soar after firing thousands of workers, may offer the kindest treatment capitalism gets at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

"The Shock Doctrine" contends the U.S. feeds on the downtrodden by imposing disastrous policies inspired by economist Milton Friedman on countries weakened by war or political upheaval. The documentary "To Catch a Dollar" suggests the global financial system ignores the poor.

The movies, playing at the annual festival in Park City, Utah, reflect the filmmakers' views of markets, capitalism and the world economy more than a year after the global financial crisis. The current economy is making it tougher for them to reach audiences as distributors shy away from serious subjects.

"In a bad economy, people want escapist fare," said Jeff Kalligheri, a producer with Santa Monica, California-based Queen Nefertari Productions. "You see people going to 'Avatar' in droves because it's escapism."

The independent filmmakers, who already have beaten the odds by getting their movies financed and made during the credit crisis, know the challenges they face.

"The Shock Doctrine" is available on TV through carriers including Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable television company, via a service called Sundance Select. "The Company Men" and "To Catch a Dollar" are looking for distributors.

"The Shock Doctrine," based on the book by Naomi Klein, contends Friedman's theories led rightist governments in Argentina and Chile to impose free-market policies that hurt the poor in the 1970s and 1980s. The film ends with assertions about unrestrained markets in triggering the recent global recession.

'Nothing Much Done'

"Strangely, despite the public anger, even now nothing much has been done," co-director Michael Winterbottom, whose feature films include "A Mighty Heart," said in an interview. "You'd think any government could begin to harness that frustration."

A shorter documentary on Klein's book was released under the same title in 2007.

In both Argentina and Chile, free-market policies had the support of local economists trained in Friedman's theories at the University of Chicago, according to the film.

The U.S. required similar policies to be implemented in Russia as a condition of economic aid following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, according to the movie.

Nobel Prize

Friedman, a Nobel Prize winner, emphasized the advantages of free markets and minimal government regulation. He died in 2006. His influence on U.S. leaders and foreign governments resulted in "a savage stream of pure capitalism" that widened the gap between rich and poor, according to the movie.

Winterbottom said one regret is that Friedman's ideas are interpreted primarily by Klein in the movie. The director said he was unable to win the cooperation of archives holding rights to film footage of Friedman explaining his theories.

"There's a difference between policy ideas and their implementation," said Robert Enlow, chief executive officer of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice in Indianapolis. "That's part of Naomi's mistake, that people implement an idea badly and therefore the idea must be bad."

No one has "discovered a system that's better for lifting the masses out of poverty than capitalism," Enlow said in an interview.

"The Company Men" stars Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones as executives who lose their jobs in a downsizing. Craig T. Nelson plays the chief executive who is enriched as he cuts costs and sells the company.

More Villains

Nelson isn't the only villain, writer/director John Wells said on a panel at Sundance. Anyone who has invested in stocks benefits after downsizing, he said.

"There is a lot of hubris and there is certainly a lot of greed," Wells said in an interview. "We've got to find a way to redefine the responsibility that employers have to employees in this system."

"To Catch a Dollar" follows Muhammad Yunus's effort to bring micro-credit to poor women in New York. Yunus, founder of the nonprofit Grameen Bank, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for advancing social and economic development in Bangladesh by giving loans to the poor.

"Capitalism needs to be reformed because it has so many gaping many holes in it," Yunus said in an interview. "You have to be rich to do business with banks."

Using seed money from donors, Grameen offers loans of $500 to $3,000 to start businesses, according to the movie. Money is recycled in the community as the loans are repaid.

Micro-Borrowers

Grameen has about 1,800 borrowers in New York and about 200 in Omaha, Nebraska, Grameen America President Vidar Jorgensen said in an interview. A San Francisco office will open later this year, he said.

Yunus also is encouraging college students to start what he calls "social businesses," operated within capitalist societies, that aren't run purely for profit.

"If I know there are two kinds of businesses, one to make profit, one to help other people, I can make a choice," Yunus said.

One fan who wanted to see such films years ago is Michael Moore, whose 2009 film "Capitalism: A Love Story" looks at corporate greed. His 1989 documentary "Roger & Me" examined the effects of General Motors Corp.'s downsizing on blue-collar workers in his hometown of Flint, Michigan.

"All my friends lost their jobs back in '81, '82," Moore said in an interview after a screening of "The Company Men." "No one was making films about them because they were a bunch of shop rats. When it hits people in the moneyed class, then we get to see wonderful films like this one."

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael White in Los Angeles at mwhite8@bloomberg.net