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Documentary seeks to show origins of economic crisis
2009-09-23
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (AFP) - A new documentary on the economic crisis by British director Michael Winterbottom points the finger squarely at free-market economist Milton Friedman for the global meltdown. "The Shock Doctrine", based on the book by Canadian journalist Naomi Klein, relates the development of "disaster capitalism", or the alleged use by governments and multinationals of conflict situations such as the 2004 tsunami in Asia, the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and the war in Iraq. The film, initially made for British television, received its first showing outside the country at the San Sebastian film festival in northern Spain on Wednesday. The documentary, put together from archived film footage, animation and extracts from a conference given by Klein, seeks to show how Friedman's free market theories have always needed some kind of "shock" or an exceptional situation to be put in practice without popular protests. "The Shock Doctrine" in particular condemns the United States for having encouraged the 1973-1990 Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet to introduce the doctrines of Friedman, who won the 1976 Nobel prize for economics. It charges that Chilean authorities, along with Argentina's military junta, needed the spectre of communism and disappearances to stir up a climate of fear that led to the new policies. In the same way, it alleges former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher needed the Falkands War in 1982 to implement her policies of privatizations. "It's important to know something of your history, to know how the world became what it is," Winterbottom told a news conference. "I don't think it's propaganda, I think it's an argument, I mean, within the film you see Friedman's argument, it's the opposite argument to Naomi's argument," said the director, who made the docudrama "The Road to Guantanamo" about three British detainees at the US detention camp in Cuba.
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