The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival 2018 - Disaster Capitalism
When aid and politics meets business, who really gains from the global giving industry?
Interview with Director/Producer Thor Neureiter
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
The reason for making Disaster Capitalism began as a way to look at U.S. foreign policy and how it affects the people in the countries where it's applied. Originally the film was solely focused on why large-scale mining was being promoted in Afghanistan. After meeting Antony Loewenstein, who was writing a book with a much broader view of “vulture capitalism”, the film’s focused changed. We saw similar scenarios playing out in country after country all across the globe in the name of goodwill.
And what we saw is that the underlying system of how international aid and investment is delivered and applied to those in need is fundamentally flawed. Too often the interests of foreign policy, corporations, or NGO’s are the focal point, not the population in need. The film is intended to show how this system of international aid works, and to allow for voices that are rarely heard to tell the story from their experiences.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
For those who are privileged enough to live a country of prosperity, you are an aid giver whether you know it or not. This film shows how your tax dollars and individual donations are being used in this flawed system. I want the film to make people ask more about how aid – given in their name – is being used. For now, the narrative is usually focused on donate for “disaster X relief” and feel better! Or “country Y” is wasting all of the aid that we give them and can’t improve their situation, they must be corrupt.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
The personal stories, as we constructed them in Disaster Capitalism, are used to show how similar the situations are in three very distant countries. The common experience of these stories, and their countries, is that this outside force holds tremendous sway over their lives and futures.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Documentary films by their very nature evolve constantly. With Disaster Capitalism, time and access were major factors in the development of the story. We had a relatively short period of time in each country and had to produce, report, and shoot several story possibilities in each. This film found its form in post-production, which was no small feat. Including Antony in the film was the biggest change made during the production. It became obvious that tying these three stories together would require a budget that wasn’t realistic, so Antony’s presence felt like the right storytelling device to incorporate in Disaster Capitalism.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
We have held close to 20 impact- and community-organized screenings since March of this year. It’s been an organic process and very encouraging to see how many people are interested in the film. We have had panel discussions with journalists, aid practitioners, and policy makers after a number of screenings here in New York, across Australia, London, Newcastle, and Pakistan. The conversations have been robust and the most common point of discussion has been, what can we do? Which is what we want Disaster Capitalism to do: focus the conversation on making positive change to this system where accountability has been misplaced.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We are Moving Stories is a great space to let your readers know that Disaster Capitalism exists! It’s a film that we want people to see are working beyond the traditional formula to have it seen. Our entire production team is working to find opportunities with individuals and organizations to have impact screenings while also working with Demand.Film to have community-organized screenings. Anyone can visit our website DisasterCapitalismFilm.com to see where we will be screening next or find out how to host a screening.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We would love film festival directors to let us know if they want to include Disaster Capitalism in the festival. We are always eager to talk about the film and subject with journalists, broadcasters, podcasts, and bloggers.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I’m the Director of Video at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York and teach the documentary program. Currently I’m reporting a few of short film ideas, with the hope of starting production in the fall. Since I love trying to understand and unpack public policy into the documentary form, I want to focus on MAGA and see if America is really becoming great again. It’s a delicate topic to do right and avoid the trap of our current polarized state, but I want to challenge people to think outside of their bubble.
Interview: June 2018
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Disaster Capitalism
When aid and politics meets business, who really gains from the global giving industry?
Length: 52 min
Director: Thor Neureiter
Producer: Thor Neureiter/Antony Loewenstein/Rebecca Barry/Madeleine Heatherton
Writer: Antony Loewenstein
About the writer, director and producer:
THOR NEUREITER director and co-producer, is an independent documentary producer, cameraman and editor whose work is focused on contemporary issues concerning US foreign policy and domestic politics. He’s Director of Video at Columbia University in New York. In 2012, Thor’s two most recent films, “Mitt Romney and the Mormon Factor” and “Prosecute Wall Street”, aired on the Al Jazeera English program People & Power. He has worked on programming for FRONTLINE on PBS, including “Showdown with Iran,” Parts One and Two of “News War: Secrets, Sources & Spin,” “The Last Abortion Clinic,” and “The O.J. Verdict.” He has also worked extensively for HBO and began his career working for Ken Burns/Florentine Films as an Assistant Editor in 1999. His documentary “Miracle in New York: The Story of the ’69 Mets” was awarded the 2010 New York Emmy Award.
ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN, writer and co-producer, is an independent journalist who has written for the New York Times, BBC, the Nation, the Washington Post and many others. He’s a Guardian contributor. His latest book is Disaster Capitalism: Making A Killing Out Of Catastrophe (Verso, 2016) and he’s the author of three best-selling books, My Israel Question, The Blogging Revolution and Profits of Doom: How Vulture Capitalism is Swallowing the World. He is co-editor of After Zionism and Left Turn and co-writer of For God’s Sake. His books have been translated, and his journalism has been a finalist in many global awards. He appears regularly on Al Jazeera English, the BBC and ABC Australia. He’s currently working on a book about the global “war on drugs”.
REBECCA BARRY's driving passion is to facilitate stories, share these with an audience in a creative way and get people thinking. She was director and producer of the feature documentary, I am a Girl, which was launched in cinemas in 2013 to sell-out sessions, and was nominated for four AACTA Awards including Best Direction in a Documentary, as well as a nomination for Best Direction in a Documentary Feature at the Australian Directors Guild Awards. Rebecca was a producer of The Surgery Ship (SBS & National Geographic), Call Me Dad (ABC), Psychics in the Suburbs (ABC) and controversial human rights film The Opposition, and an Impact Producer on feature documentary, Embrace.
MADELEINE HETHERTON is an experienced award-winning director and producer working across a wide range of television documentary and top rating factual programs and series. In 2013, she completed producing and directing the ratings success documentary The Surgery Ship (SBS) which follows stories aboard the world’s largest civilian hospital ship as it roams the coast of West Africa. Her long form documentary work includes directing the documentary series Making Babies (SBS) reviewed as ‘fascinating and moving’ (The Age), Beats Across Borders (ABC /Cirque du Soleil) and Love In Our Own Time. Her filmmaking has taken her around the world shooting in challenging locations including diamond diving in Africa, wildlife trafficking in Burma and the remote outback of Australia. Her work has been nominated and won numerous awards including Australian Director’s Guild for Best Directing and Best Contemporary Documentary by the Association of International Broadcasters and best documentary at Sarasota Film Festival.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Disaster-Capitalism/1433676213556164
Twitter: @DisasterCapFilm
Instagram: @disastercapitalismfilm
Official Website: http://disastercapitalismfilm.com/
Funders: Bertha Foundation
Made in association with: Media Stockade
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month http://disastercapitalismfilm.com/screenings