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Mayo 29, 2005
Our Brand is Crisis
Finally! Every week I have been scouring the movie listings to see when the movie “Our Brand is Crisis” will hit the area. Apparently it is so obscure that it didn’t land a place in the IMDB. The documentary’s subject matter goes hand-in-hand with this website’s main focus: Bolivia. This movie directed by Rachel Boynton takes a look at Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada’s 2002 Presidential campaign where he hired a Washington DC-based political consulting firm to assist him. The movie will be shown at SilverDocs on June 16 as part of the AFI/Discovery Channel's Documentary Festival.
A movie description from Yahoo! Movies:
Rachel Boynton's excellent, probing documentary goes behind-the-scenes to show the manipulation and orchestration that is involved in big-time political campaigning. OUR BRAND IS CRISIS follows members of the consulting firm of Greenberg Carville Shrum to Bolivia, where they have been hired to help controversial candidate Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada reclaim the presidency. With only a few weeks left before the election, consultants Jeremy Rosner, Stan Greenberg, and James Carville work their magic, softening Goni's liberal image and shaping his message to appeal to the masses. In his typically audacious fashion, Carville delivers some of the film's most unforgettable quips. Meanwhile, the unemployment situation is threatening to spark a full-fledged national riot, raising the stakes even higher. Boynton's film is edited at a brisk, taut pace, adding drama to the already tense proceedings. An insightful after-the-fact interview with Rosner provides even greater context for the horrific situation that unfolded a year later and which, in fact, opens the film with a bang. Enlightening, engaging, and thought provoking, OUR BRAND IS CRISIS is a vital, profound work of nonfiction cinema.
I am trying to maintain an open mind and not pass judgment on the consultants. One might think that they would be operating under a “one size fits all” mentality, where Bolivian politics are fundamentally different than working on a U.S. election. Although these guys are pretty smart to be in the position where they are, but how much insight to the Bolivian psyche can be obtained in such a small time period? With the presence of James Carville, who doesn’t give a damn what you think, there is quite the possibility of some condescending attitude toward Bolivia and its system.
After the film, members of the firm will be answering questions to an invitation-only reception. I am hoping to score an invite to that, so we’ll see. But I bought my ticket already to the screening of the movie that first premiered at the SXSW festival in Austin, TX earlier this year.
Posted by eduardo at Mayo 29, 2005 01:56 PM
Comments
Wow, I had no idea that Carville had worked on Goni's campaign. It makes sense, considering Goni's "Americaness", but I would be really interested in seeing the documentary. I saw the documentary (forget the name) of the behind-the-scenes of Clinton's 1992 campaign with Carville, Begala, and Stephanopolous running the show. I just can't imagine that from a Bolivian perspective. I wonder if Carville has consulted in any other countries.
Posted by: Christian Gomez at Mayo 29, 2005 03:56 PM
I wondered the same thing awhile back when I heard about Carville doing some consulting work for a candidate in Israel. What kind of an appreciation for the texture of a country can you gain in such a short time, other than what you glean from polls and other 2nd hand sources? But then again, when you look at most beltway career politicians you could level the same charges. What do they really know of the American reality?
Posted by: Don Ball Carbajal at Mayo 29, 2005 05:24 PM