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Front Page > Issues > 2004 > February

Film Review: The Fourth World War: nothing subtle about it

By Ramona DeNies

What is the Fourth World War? Is it new? Epic? Eternal? Can it be won, and if so, by whom? A new documentary by the directors of This is what Democracy Looks Like offers the opportunity to explore these questions, much as a sucker punch to the gut offers the opportunity to explore pain.

There is nothing subtle about the images presented in The Fourth World War, showing at the Clinton Street Theater the last week of February. The images hurt. The subtlety, rather, is in the words spoken by both the narrators and interviewees of the documentary. Their attempts to interpret the manifestations of a global turf war leave room for deep, often beautiful introspection. The words allow us to glimpse a way out of — or through — the pain. Together.

The Fourth World War opens with poetry — compelling words spoken by Tony Award winner Suheir Hammad and singer Michael Franti of Spearhead. The poetry calls but does not yet convince. A turning point in the film comes much later — a Palestinian father weeping convulsively over the death of his tiny daughter — and words are no longer necessary even to compel. By this point you are convinced that directors Richard Rowley and Jacqueline Soohen are right, that there is such a war, a war against people and for profit. Their point — that this war is unique — may be disputed, but the images cannot. They are images of abject unfairness, captured on grainy, shaky video in far-flung places but recent times.

Fourth World War
FEBRUARY 29 - MARCH 5
CLINTON STREET THEATER
2522 SE CLINTON
503-238-8899


The images presented weave together the lingering trauma of Argentina, the anticlimactic struggle of the Zapatistas at the hands of the Mexican Congress, the Byzantine labor laws passed by the Korean government without the opposition party and while Korea lay asleep. Images are presented of a South Africa won and insidiously lost again, to interests that controlled even Nelson Mandela. Of Palestinians cheering as tanks roll away from Jenin refugee camp followed by their screams as the tanks are replaced with snipers.

The images are complex, and contain both hope and despair. Hope comes from video feeds of the massive protests that have swept the globe in recent years, showing that people can and will rise around a message, to dance in the streets and taste their power through unity. Despair emerges as that taste of power turns sour with protests that are quashed and messages ignored, in the words of the narrators, “like water over water, like stones falling to the ground.”

The evil depicted in The Fourth World War has many names˜Neoliberalism, free trade, the open market, corporate globalization˜and many faces˜financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, corporations such as Citigroup or Lockheed Martin, and official entities such as the U.S. government, WTO, and the proposed FTAA. Evil is claimed for the inhumanity and degradation that occurs to the documentary‚s subjects by these names, without apology.

Near the end of the documentary, Directors Rowley and Soohen show us a montage of images and sounds, dancing, music, laughter, poetry˜they seem to wish to communicate that the struggle we face is refusing this capitulation˜we are not to allow ourselves to be degraded and dehumanized.

It’s a toughie. I’d advise you to go anyhow, and see “Along Came Polly” another week.

The Directors speak at a special screening on February 26th. Regular screenings will run February 29th through March 5th at the Clinton Street Theater, located at 2522 SE Clinton Street. Call 503.238.8899 for more information.

 

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Last Updated: January 29, 2003