Our favorite political pranksters The Yes Men have spoofed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland with an official looking imaginary website. As part of the project they have also created these fantastic re-dubbed video interviews with global economic, government and corporate leaders where each appear to speak in brutally honest ways about real problems and solutions. The remix video of Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) CEO Patricia Woertz apparently did not sit well with the agro-business giant  because they quickly filed a takedown notice to have it removed from Youtube. Luckily for us the video is still live on vimeo.

ADM CEO Patricia Woertz (1:10)
http://www.vimeo.com/9011666

Klaus Schwab (1:03)
http://www.vimeo.com/9008921

Queen Elizabeth II of England (0:52)
http://www.vimeo.com/9008826

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (0:53)
http://www.vimeo.com/9008981

See more re-dubbed videos on the Yes Men’s parallel WEF site.

Category: news segment
Topic Tags: capitalism, corporations, economics, environment, government, identity correction

Eugene Jarecki, a documentary filmmaker who’s work includes the 2005 documentary Why We Fight, created this remix after making the connection between the current big bank bailout that fostered record profits and the story in the classic Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life. In the film, community banker George Bailey helps the people of Bedford Falls escape a predatory banker Mr. Potter. With support from top financial analysts and the Huffington Post, the idea grew into this project: Move Your Money.

If enough people who have money in one of the Big Six banks  (JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley) move it into smaller, more local, more traditional community banks, then collectively we, the people, will have taken a big step toward re-rigging the financial system so it becomes again the productive, stable engine for growth it’s meant to be. — Move Your Money Campaign

Category: short film
Topic Tags: activism, banks, bush, capitalism, corporations, economics, identity correction, obama

In this remix posted by Matthew Belinkie on overthinkingit.com, we see what the Joker thinks of the US government’s economic bailout plan. The gangsters in the blockbuster Batman film The Dark Knight are re-casts as taxpayers watching President Bush’s September 2008 speech urging Americans to support the first $700 billion bailout for major financial corporations on Wall Street. The Joker than explain that the plan will not work and to call him if we want to get serious about the crisis. The video hints at the widespread public anger at the massive transfer of wealth from Main Street to Wall Street.

Category: short film
Topic Tags: economics, government

This remix is a somewhat low quality visual telling of the 1848 Communist Manifesto using footage of American cartoon characters combined with DIY narration of the text for the audio. While I’m personally not a huge fan of Karl Marx, its a creative and subversive political remix.

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Category: short film
Topic Tags: capitalism, economics

Fixed link FEB/28/08

WAR™ is a political remix by Michele Aquila that uses still photographs from the US invasion of Iraq coupled with familiar multinational corporate logos.

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Category: short film
Topic Tags: corporations, economics, identity correction, war

This shopping network style remix is actually part of a larger video project called Surplus from ATMO Independent film collective.

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Category: short film
Topic Tags: advertising, capitalism, consumerism, corporations, economics

A political remix combining video, stills, graphics, text and music. The video is by Pedro Inoue and Paula Carvalho with music by ML. Some of the footage looks to have been recycled by video recording a TV set to create a distorting effect.

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Category: abstract
Topic Tags: economics, government, military, war