THE CORPORATION

A film by MARK ACHBAR and JENNIFER ABBOTT

Produced by MARK ACHBAR and BART SIMPSON
Written by JOEL BAKAN
Produced by BIG PICTURE MEDIA CORPORATION
in association with TV ONTARIO, VISION TV, KNOWLEDGE NETWORK,
SCN TV, ACCESS-THE EDUCATION STATION and SBS (AUSTRALIA)

Based on the best-selling book THE CORPORATION:
The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan

| CANADA | 2003 | 3 X 57 minutes, feature version: 168 minutes |

A timely, critical inquiry, THE CORPORATION is a 3 part series that explores the curious history, inner workings, controversial impacts and potential future of big corporations.

150 years ago, the corporation was a relatively insignificant institution. Today, the corporation is all-pervasive. Like the Church, the Monarchy and the Communist Party in other times and places, it is today's dominant institution. But history humbles the dominant, eventually crushing or absorbing them into some new order. Will the corporation be the first to defy history? Where (or when) is THE CORPORATION going?

THE CORPORATION reveals behind-the-scenes tensions and influences in corporate and anti-corporate dramas through jaw-dropping case studies and true confessions.

This provoking, much-needed analysis of global commerce asks: What are the consequences for human beings, the environment, democracy, and the very survival of our planet if we grant immense power to an institution that is structurally amoral and whose prime directive is to create wealth for shareholders? Is there a cure for the corporation's pathological pursuit of profit-at-anycost? Or can we only hope to apply restraints?

In production from the time of the loudest protests against globalization to the high-profile bankruptcies of companies like Enron, the filmmakers make this huge and complex topic easy to follow, often amusing and riveting to watch.

Part One: THE PATHOLOGY OF COMMERCE

In law, a corporation is deemed a "person". But what kind of person is it? Like people, corporations have complex "personalities". With a "personality" of pure self-interest, the next 100 years saw its rise to dominance made possible by a single-minded drive for profit. Four case studies, drawn from a universe of corporate activity, demonstrate harm to workers (sweatshops), harm to human health (the cancer epidemic), harm to animals (synthetic hormone rBGH), and harm to the biosphere. Concluding this point-by-point analysis, THE CORPORATION delivers a disturbing diagnosis: the institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the diagnostic criteria of a psychopath.

Should the institution or the individuals within it be held responsible? What is the ethical mindset of corporate players?

Part Two: PLANET INC.

Things considered precious, vulnerable, sacred, or important for the public interest once had protective boundaries. But this started to change in the 1600s when the enclosure movement began fencing public grazing lands so they could be privately owned and exploited. Oceans and airspace came next.

Today, every molecule on the planet is up for grabs; corporations own whole towns, patents on plants, animals, our DNA, even the song Happy Birthday. When they own everything, who will stand for the public good? Corporations invest billions to shape public and political opinion. Corporate-produced messages reach all of us dozens of times a day. As one executive states: "You can manipulate consumers into wanting, and therefore buying your products. It's a game". New targets are children from the age of 3. The ad industry's "Nag Factor" study shocked child psychiatrists when it exposed premeditated manipulation of infants to "nag" for new products.

World disasters can be profitable too. As the Twin Towers collapsed, gold traders doubled their clients' money. And when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1991 commodities brokers were elated as the price of oil skyrocketed.

Part Three: RECKONING

Democracy is a value the corporation doesn't understand. Corporations have often tried to undo democracy if it is an obstacle to profit. In 1934, a business-backed plot tried to install a military dictator in the White House. It failed thanks to one honest man. Corporations will take advantage of democracy's absence too. One shocking story is the 'cozy' relationship between IBM and Nazi Germany.

Corporations are increasingly challenged. The charter revocation movement took on oil giant Unocal; sweatshop activists moved labor standards; seed activists beat corporate patents; and Bolivians defeated Bechtel corporation's attempt to privatize their water system. Will people regain control over the corporation? With cautious optimism, we are invited to reconsider our relationship with the dominant institution of our time.

With:
A multitude of interviews with CEOs and top-level executives from some of the worlds largest corporations, representing a wide range of industries, including: oil (Shell), pharmaceuticals (Pfizer), computers (IBM), tires (Goodyear), carpets (Interface), public relations (Burson Marsteller), branding (Landor), and advertising (Initiative); Add to the mix a corporate spy, an undercover marketer, academics, pundits, historians and activists as well as critical thinkers Noam Chomsky, Peter Drucker, Milton Friedman, Naomi Klein, Mark Kingwell, Vandana Shiva, and muckraking filmmaker Michael Moore.

A deft blend of newsreel footage, early TV advertisements, B movies, and corporate propaganda films and makes for a fascinating, original portrait of an institution that is THE CORPORATION.