Fri, March 4, 2005
Just say yes to brilliant Yes Men
Andy Bichlbaum
and Mike Bonano are artists/activists with a talent for manipulating
the media -- this review included, probably. These guys are the centre
of a brilliant documentary called The Yes Men, a film about their
exploits in anti-globalization. They pretend to be members of the World
Trade Organization and become known worldwide for appearing at
conferences and in important TV debates. Starting with a satirical Web
site that mocked the WTO, The Yes Men became a reality when conferences
took the site at face value and invited them to speak. Just a simple
error.
Their
approach was to create outrageous speeches and AV presentations that
revealed the true nature of free trade -- more for the rich, less for
the poor -- but as The Yes Men makes clear, few noticed.
In Austria,
Bichlbaum is introduced as Dr. Andreas Bichlbaum, a WTO rep. He then
gives a completely insane speech on bananas and colonial violence,
selling votes and wiping out cultural differences (such as the siesta),
because of the barriers to trade such differences represent. The speech
is cruel, racist and just plain ridiculous. Almost nobody notices.
Likewise,
Bichlbaum's appearance on CNBC as WTO rep Granwyth Hulatberi is bizarre
and wonderful. He spouts the most fantastic rubbish, and the TV talking
heads just suck it up and carry on.
By the time
you see him in Finland as Hank Hardy Unruh (dressed in a gold suit that
comes with a penis-like attachment), The Yes Men has achieved
side-splitting status, mostly because people still don't notice
anything awry. Only when the guys link a hamburger chain and recycled
human waste as a solution to world hunger do people protest.
The Yes Men
claim their work is the opposite to identity theft -- it's identity
correction. In The Yes Men book, they say, "We have found people and
institutions doing horrible things at everyone else's expense and have
assumed their identities in order to offer correctives."
Meanwhile, the main thing nobody can figure out about The Yes Men is how a film this smart ever saw the light of day.
THE YES MEN
Starts today @ Cinematheque.
Sun Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5
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