Filmmaker Robert Greenwald

Whether shining his eye on the rightwing media in Outfoxed, on corporate greed in Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, or on corrupt politicians in The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress, Robert Greenwald uses the art of film to tell stories about way our society is being taken over by corporate greed. His firm Brave New Films is rewriting the book on how movies are made and dsitributed. Greenwald agreed to chat with a couple of us from Progressive States about corruption, his films, and what Americans can do to take their country back. Joel Barkin: Tell us a little bit about what inspired this film [The Big Buy] and what you hoped to accomplish out of the organizing that you’ve done around it. Robert Greenwald: The film The Big Buy was actually -- I’d been reading the articles about the DeLay stuff and all the corruption. I heard that there was a movie two guys in Texas were making. I’d just finished the Wal-Mart film, so I reached out to them. I hadn’t really thought about it because up to that point we had never thought about distributing. I didn’t know why I was asking, but they sent me a copy of the film. It was very good. But it had turned out that they hadn’t figured out a way to distribute the film. And so talking to people at Brave New Films, we realized we had a way to take Tom DeLay and the corruption and the redistricting. And I didn’t know all the details until I saw the film. And when I saw it, I got further excited because it connects the dots with everything that David talks about in his book [Hostile Takeover].... So I felt this was a really terrific way to show that Tom DeLay will be replaced by another bum unless we show the issues at the heart, which is that corporations are hiring politicians. So even though we’re a small group, we decided we need to grab this opportunity. So we told those guys that we would distribute their films.... People need to understand that what we’re doing with these movies goes against the grain of traditional film distribution, which aims for more screens and more film festivals. We’re in it to change the world.... Mark and Jim fortunately decided that yes they did want to go this way, so we began the coalition building with a number of fantastic organizations including you guys. We’ve put something in place, not just his resigning, but a coalition that can help in getting some of the worst out of politics. Joel Barkin: Maybe you can talk about the role the Texas state legislature played in all of this. Robert Greenwald: It was actually quite a lesson to me. I hadn’t really focused on how cheaply these corporations and DeLay bought control in the United States House of Representatives. And the way that they did it was by buying the statehouses. And it becomes only more important based on the recent Supreme Court decision that said you can redistrict however the hell you want. Whichever party is in power decides how you redraw the lines. First, the Republicans took the illegal money and put it into the state races and won a majority. That majority then redistricted for the House of Representatives and allowed Texas Republicans to get an additional four or five seats in Washington. It’s a long and unfortunately complicated explanation and what it says to me – the reason the work you do is so important, we can’t sit around and wait for Presidential and Senate elections. The statehouse is vital and we ignore it at our own peril. Joel Barkin: One of the things that came out of this was a big organizing day around public financing of elections. Robert Greenwald: As we were working on the film and talking to various partners working in this field, trying to make the electoral process a democratic one instead of a financial one. It became apparent to us very quickly is that movies act as a candidate in that they bring people together, so whether it was Outfoxed or Wal-Mart, we were able to bring together a number of the groups that are all committed to trying to change the system. So we had a day that I hope wil be an annual day where we had screenings all over the country and conference calls and I think it was the beginning of an effective first step to say we’re in this fight for a long time. We can do this and we’re in it together and we don’t expect it to happen instantly. Matt Singer: In the Washington press, a big distinction is often drawn between outright bribery where a politician personally takes money from someone and does a favor and our campaign finance system, where politicians raise campaign funds and often vote with their donors. Do you think Americans see the same distinctions? Robert Greenwald: My guess would be that the way we tell stories is with characters, so people know Abramoff and the guy with the freezer. But we haven’t found the same way to tell the stories with the big corporation funneling money. In some of these cases, it’s legal. In California, Schwarzenegger is taking money one day and turning around and signing legislation the next day. In some ways, it’s worse. Joel Barkin: For people who want to learn more, what’s the best way to get involved? Robert Greenwald: For people who care about these issues and there are really two issues -- the campaign finance issue and the state work -- so I think that one of the things in going around the country that has been satisfying is the number of people who want to do something -- something more than writing a check. Sadly, most of the political parties has turned into simply writing a check. And people want more. People want to be effective. People can go to Brave New Films, they can be local distributors, local producers. We’ve had people design posters. We’ve had people table. We’ve had people find all sorts of ways to use the film for social change. As you guys branch out and as your reach expands, there are ways for people to really get involved. That great line -- democracy is not a spectator sport. Joel Barkin: The standard argument against publicly financing of elections is that it is welfare for politicians. Why should taxpayers be paying for their campaigns? What have you seen to be the best response to that? Robert Greenwald: Among the best responses to that is Maine and Arizona where they’re beginning to see real changes in who the candidates are who are running and who the candidates are who are winning. I would argue that public financing is like building schools and roads. You don’t want a private company running your roads and deciding they can do whatever they want. You want the roads accountable to the public. And the degree to which we don’t have that, our democracy is in trouble. It’s an auction. And you can see the signs on the back of these politicians, “I was bought by this corporation� or “I was bought by that corporation.�...