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The Yes Men Fix The World

Two daring political activists, posing as top executives, infiltrate conferences and pull off pranks designed to provoke better business practices.


87 minutes
SDH Captioned>>
Directed by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno
Produced by The Yes Men
Co-director: Kurt Engfehr Written by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno Producers: Doro Bachrach, Ruth Charny, Laura Nix Executive Producers: Alan Hayling, Patrice Barrat, Jess Search, Juliette Timsit Co-Executive Producer: Amy Sommer Editor: April Merl Additional Editing: Johnny Burke Animation: Patrick Lichty Original Music: Neel Murgai, Noisola Special Appearance by Reggie Watts An ARTE France/Article Z/Renegade Pictures UK/Britdoc/Charny-Bachrach Production


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THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story that follows two daring and imaginative political activists - Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno -- as they infiltrate the world of big business and pull off outrageous pranks that highlight how corporate greed is destroying the planet.
One day Andy, purporting to be a Dow Chemical spokesperson, gets on the biggest TV news program in the world (BBC World News) and announces that Dow will finally clean up the site of the largest industrial accident in history, the Bhopal catastrophe. The result: as people worldwide celebrate, Dow's stock value loses two billion dollars. People want Dow to do the right thing, but the market decides that it can't. The reality hits Andy and Mike like a ton of bricks: we have created a market system that makes doing the right thing impossible, and the people who appear to be leading are actually following its pathological dictates.
At conference after conference, the Yes Men try to wake up their corporate audiences to this frightening prospect, in the process taking on some of the world's biggest corporations. On their journey, the Yes Men delve deep into the question of why we have given the market more power than any other institution to determine our direction as a society.
As they appear on the BBC before 300 million viewers, or before 1000 New Orleans contractors alongside Mayor Ray Nagin, the layers of lies are peeled back to reveal the raw heart of truth - a truth that brings with it hope.

US Release Date: 2009
Copyright Date: 2009
DVD ISBN: 1-59458-899-6
VHS ISBN: 1-59458-898-8

Reviews "This brilliant piece of guerilla humor, rich with political satire, is sure to stimulate discussion and reflection. Through a series of incredibly imaginative hoaxes the Yes Men raise profound questions about the sustainability of capitalism and the ethical responsibility of political humor." Peter M. Haas, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Author, Global Environmental Governance
"With wit, creativity, and unfailing good cheer, these merry pranksters of the corporate world deliver an upbeat anti-market, anti-corporate message. The 'greed is good' message of Wall Street has met its match in these zealous yet zany activists. They show that humor and ridicule is a powerful weapon again corporate hypocrisy and venality. Seldom has such an edifying lesson in doing the right thing been so much fun to watch." John Boatright, Professor of Business Ethics, Loyola University Chicago, Author, Ethics and the Conduct of Business
"This is a movie that will get people talking. The plot is madcap comedy about a couple of guys staging hoaxes in order to shake-up prevailing worldviews that have stifled positive social change. Though the vehicle is comedy, the subject matter is very serious: the social responsibility of businesses in unfettered global capitalism. Venues range from Bhopal and Union Carbide to Exxon and the environment to Katrina and New Orleans to Halliburton and catastrophes. The movie challenges the audience to re-examine current assumptions and to do a little utopian dreaming. It is excellent also for initiating classroom discussion - particularly business ethics classes, social philosophy classes, and classes on public policy." Michael Boylan, Professor of Philosophy, Marymount University
"Hilarious, therapeutic, inspiring. The Yes Men are geniuses." Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and No Logo
"This is the year's top documentary film." New Scientist
"Educates and entertains; The Yes Men do both. Entertainment that tickles the justice-for-all glands." Empire Magazine Online
"Persuasive...You have to admire their ability both to pull off these stunts and to extract such honest expressions of greed from such corporate victims as the businessman who agrees that companies can justify deaths on the path to commercial success. Comic and creepy." Dave Calhoun, Time Out London
"A smart, thoughtful examination not only of the morality of capitalism, but of comedy - the Yes Men fret over the ethics of their prankery with a rigor that their corporate adversaries could learn something from." Andrew Mueller, Uncut
"Part journalism, part mockumentary...it shines with a raw wit and originality." Michael Levitin, Newsweek
"This movie is a hoot, and a pertinent one at that...While the subject of corporate greed and malfeasance is depressing, there's something tonic about the impudent laughter this engaging documentary provokes." Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter
"More capitalist-critiquing chicanery and fat-cat-fooling fun." Leslie Felperin, Variety
"While you might disagree with their politics, it's hard not to appreciate the intricate lengths to which the Yes Men go to deliver their message." Michael Starr, New York Post
"Alternately funny, incisive, and ridiculous...Aims to expose corruption, selfishness, and irrationality in corporate behaviors." Cynthia Fuchs, Pop Matters
"One of the funniest movies I've ever seen, and two of the ballsiest guys I've ever met. Thank God for the Yes Men." Morgan Spurlock, director of Supersize Me
"It is exhilarating, sometimes hysterical - unless you are from Dow or Exxon, or indeed Bhopal, where victims were brutalized by a morning of false hope before newspaper exposures restored disenchantment. The film, though brave, gonzo and often funny, raises the bar on the debate provoked by Michael Moore and Sacha Baron Cohen. How cruel does satire have to be - to innocent and guilty alike - to accomplish its missions?" Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
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"This brilliant piece of guerilla humor, rich with political satire, is sure to stimulate discussion and reflection." Peter M. Haas, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst

DVD Features includes scene selection and SDH captions for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
Awards and Festivals Audience Award at Panorama Selection, Berlin International Film Festival
Audience Award, Planete Doc Film Fetival (Warsaw)
Audience Award, Berkshires Independent Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
Taipei Film Festival
Telluride Film Festival
Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
True/False Film Fest
Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival
Provincetown International Film Festival
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival (New York)
Seattle International Film Festival
Melbourne International Film Festival
United Nations Association Film Festival, Stanford
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... more Reviews

"Yes Men [are] getting no laughs from Exxon, Dow...Exposing corruption and human rights violations among some of the world's most powerful corporations." Andy Lauer, indieWIRE
"Compelling...You've got to be impressed by the creativity and gall of the Yes Men." Dave Shiflett, Bloomberg.com
"Their critics, seemingly hooked by the system which decrees that an unregulated market is the root of all happiness, accuse them of arrogance and cruelty. It would be easier to call them starry-eyed. This is often a very funny film, made more relevant by a recession which began after the film was made." Derek Malcolm, London Evening Standard
"Sacha Baron Cohen may be the current king of satire...His victims are stooges; peripheral, disposable, helpless. The Yes Men's targets are anything but. Dynamic American duo Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno pick on people several million times their size, at least in terms of legal, financial and state-sanctioned might...Some of the responses and attitudes the Yes Men encounter throughout their quest have to be seen to be believed. But it's comforting to know that the little guy can cause such a big nuisance. Optimistic and constantly amusing, the Yes Men are a force for the good. That, plus the knowledge that many of those free marketeering goons will have been crushed in the credit crunch, makes this a guilt-edged pleasure." Elliott Noble, Skymovies
"The film forgoes the unsubtle voice-overs common among films with clear political agendas, mostly allowing the footage and interviews to speak for themselves...the Yes Men leave it to the audience to draw their own conclusions. Mine are that the Yes Men present visions of the world as it might be if ideas and minds weren't chained by " hould" and " an't" - what real change might look like. The film culminates in this way, with the distribution of 80,000 copies of a fake edition of The New York Times. The cover date is six months into the future, and the spoof paper reports the end of the Iraq war and the switch to a " ane" economic regime, as well as advertisements from companies promising to dedicate themselves to good causes. Impossible? Perhaps, but you could say the same about two ordinary men walking into the BBC and passing themselves off as representatives of one of the world's
biggest companies. " an't" is an over-used word." Kat Austen, New Scientist
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