The Yes Men Fix the World

The Yes Men, along with one of their Haliburton natural disaster suits, answer questions following the screening

ECCLES THEATRE, PARK CITY

Back in line at Eccles awaiting my fourth screening of the day after seeing the world premier of "The Yes Men Fix the World." This is a self-produced documentary following the Yes Men on several of their "projects." For those of you unfamiliar with the Yes Men, they're a pair of activists who look to call attention to the ridiculous nature of various corporate and political positions through targeted "pranks." These pranks typically take the form of them posing as spokespeople for these organizations at conferences and other events where they take the stance that they believe that organization should be holding. Examples? Going live on the BBC News as a spokesperson for Dow Chemical to "take full responsibility for Bhopal" and promise to spend upwards of 12 billion dollars to compensate people affected by what was the largest industrial accident in history. Or posing as guys from Exxon at a national petroleum conference where they presented new technology that would convert dead human beings into fuel to reduce dependency on oil. The thing about these stunts is that generally no one realizes that they're not who they say they are. What's worse is that many people who are on the wrong end of the pranks actually think their ideas or decent. When presenting a new Haliburton product to a large group of insurance industry people designed to withstand nearly every conceivable natural disaster (it's basically a giant inflatable sphere costing an exorbitant amount of money), people think it's a great idea. The point of all these stunts is to open people's eyes to how crazy things have gotten with the "free market" and the corporate world in general. Anyone who's looking in from the outside is in for a good laugh laced with disbelief, but the wanted impacted amongst those they're targeting is virtually nonexistent.

Though not the first documentary to highlight their work, this film is really a chance for the Yes Men to tell their own story. Mostly, though mixed with plenty of humor, it's a depressing commentary on our current world of corporate greed, government mismanagement and human suffering. However, they manage to turn things around to a very positive place by the end and really make you feel like there's hope for "saving the world." Any self-respecting left-leaner will find this film eye-opening.

Learn more at http://www.theyesmen.org/theyesmenfixtheworld

"The Yes Men Fix the World" was preceded by "Joel Stein's Completely Unfabricated Adventures," a short film documentary that runs a quick pass at the new and somewhat controversial Orange County toilet-to-tap program. It's a comic, animated look at Stein's visit to an OC water treatment plant to learn about the process and sample processed water.