The Corporation | August 3rd at UUCOC

Our co-sponsors for this film include
the Dallas Peace Center

Winner of 25 INTERNATIONAL AWARDS including 10 AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS

Explore the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Footage from pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda illuminates the corporation’s grip on our lives.

Taking its legal status as a “person” to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist’s couch to ask, “What kind of person is it?”

Provoking, witty, sweepingly informative, THE CORPORATION features 40 interviews with corporate insiders and critics – including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Michael Moore – plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.

Since watching, “The World According to Monsanto”, “Sustainable Table”, and “Peaceable Kingdom”, I have become vegetarian. I have been made aware of factory farms—cows, pigs and chickens living in close, dark, unsanitary quarters, shot full of antibiotics, being fed GMO-corn to fatten them up quickly which, in turn, has fattened us up. More importantly, I have learned how to eat healthier by eating organic; to be more environmentally conscious by buying locally; and to make my voice heard through emails, calls and letters when my government does something that I don’t like.

“An Inconvenient Truth” and “11th Hour” awakened me to how my choices were destroying our planet. My family now recycles, composts, uses organic fertilizer and organic household cleaners. We have changed our electric supplier to one which uses wind and solar sources. We have traded our gas guzzlers for a diminutive Yaris and a Hybrid Prius that averages 45 miles per gallon.

“At The Death House Door” nudged me to join the “Coalition for Texans Against the Death Penalty” which keeps its members apprised when letters to the Governor and Board of Pardons and Paroles for Clemency or requests for Stays of Execution might help. I believe we were instrumental in the Supreme Court’s decision to review the death penalty case against Hank Skinner.

Other films included “China Blue” which taught me about the deplorable conditions of Chinese blue jean sweatshops. We now search for fair-trade, union-made, or cooperative-made clothing. “The Two Towns of Jasper,” “Reel Bad Arabs,” and “The Canary Effect” opened my eyes even wider to racial and social injustice. I made calls to my Senators, Congresswoman and other Democrats to help get the Healthcare legislation passed so all Americans have an equal opportunity to be healthy. “Rethink Afghanistan” helped me reshape my thoughts about U.S. involvement in that country and become a true advocate for peace

There were other films I saw and there will be other films to come that will continue to change who I am. I like the person I am becoming more than the person I was. To change the world we must first change ourselves. I will gladly continue going to the First Tuesday Film Festival at the Oak Cliff Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff and I urge you to do the same. You might just like the new you.

• March: Aristide and the Endless Revolution – background about Haiti and why it mistrusts the U.S.
• April: Rethink Afghanistan – about the War in Afghanistan
• May: Garbage – environmental movie about a family keeps garbage in its garage for 3 months
• June: Winter Soldier – Vietnam veteran’s against the war
• July: Boy Who Played on the Buddhas of Bamiyan – about a boy who lives among the ruins of a once-famous tourist attraction in Afghanistan destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban
• August: The Corporation—putting our corporations on the psychiatrist’s couch—interviews with corporate insiders – relevant because of Supreme Court ruling regarding no restrictions on money spent on political ads
• September: Made in L.A. – sweatshops
• October: The Witness – animal rights
• November: (Title Withheld Due To License Restrictions) – Let’s just say it’s an award winning movie about children living in poverty in a major far-eastern city.
• December: Renewal (reshowing)

For more information about these films, or to visit the archive of films we’ve shown in the past, please visit: the 1st Tuesday Social Action Film Festival website.