The Yes Men

Institute History

  • 2004 Sundance Film Festival

Description

What do an inflatable, penile employment monitor and a recycled excrement burger have in common? They are both part of the World Trade Organization plan for greater profitability and increased efficiency in the Third World. At least, that's what you'd believe if you attended a lecture by W.T.O. impostors Hank Hardy Unruh or Granwyth Hulatberi.

In truth, the game's afoot in The Yes Men, a mischievous documentary that chronicles the adventures of this anarchistic underground. Formed and maintained in loose secret association, the Yes Men both poke fun at and illuminate the policies of…global trade.

Using behind-the-scenes footage from all over the world, this journey follows the group as they use a twin website to plan, refine, and then finally enact sabotage at the invitation of people believing they are speaking with the legitimate W.T.O.

Codirected by Chris Smith and Sarah Price of American Movie fame, along with fellow collaborator Dan Ollman, The Yes Men displays a comic touch while faithfully exposing its subjects as the educated upper-class white men they are—leaving us to decide what real impact these tyrannical pranksters truly have on the issues they care about when not even their outrageous antics can blink the corporate eye.

— Joseph Beyer

Screening Details

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