Film screening: The New Corporation

November 29, 09.00 GMT to November 30, GMT 21.00 GMT

Following on from our screening of Jennifer Abbott’s The Magnitude of All Things during the Borrowed Time symposium we are now offering a screening of the very different but equally powerful The New Corporation: the unfortunately necessary sequel by Abbot and Joel Bakan.

From Film-makers Joel Bakan and Jennifer Abbott comes this hard-hitting and timely sequel to their 2003 film The Corporation.

The New Corporation r​eveals how the corporate takeover of society is being justified by the sly rebranding of corporations as socially conscious entities. From gatherings of corporate elites in Davos, to climate change and spiralling inequality; the rise of ultra-right leaders to Covid-19 and racial injustice, the film looks at corporations’ devastating power. Countering this is a groundswell of resistance worldwide as people take to the streets in pursuit of justice and the planet’s future.

In the face of increasing wealth disparity, climate change, and the hollowing-out of democracy ​The New Corporation​ is a cry for social justice, deeper democracy, and transformative solutions.

This film is unashamedly commercial: hard-hitting and Hollywood-documentary in style. But it still has the power to make you weep, to open our eyes to the extraordinary, unremitting power of the corporations that exist for one reason only: profit. ‘There is no such thing as corporate responsibility’ one of the speakers in the film tells us. Perhaps you already think you know everything about the downsides and harms of capitalism — this film will open your eyes very very wide.

Joel Bakan, Director, Writer & Executive Producer Joel Bakan is professor of law at the University of British Columbia, and an internationally renowned legal scholar and commentator. A former Rhodes Scholar and law clerk to Chief Justice Brian Dickson of the Supreme Court of Canada, Bakan has law degrees from Oxford, Dalhousie, and Harvard. His critically acclaimed book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (2004), electrified readers around the world (it was published in over 20 languages), and became a bestseller in several countries. Bakan wrote and co-created (with Mark Achbar) a feature documentary film, The Corporation, based on the book’s ideas and directed by Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The film won numerous awards, including best foreign documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, and was a critical and box office success. The New Corporation, a sequel to that film, is based on Bakan’s book of the same name and directed by Bakan and Jennifer Abbott. Bakan’s scholarly work includes Just Words: Constitutional Rights and Social Wrongs (1997), as well as textbooks, edited collections, and numerous articles in leading legal and social science journals. His award-winning book, Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children (2012), has been translated into several languages. A recipient of awards for both writing and teaching, Bakan has worked on landmark legal cases and government policy, and serves regularly as a public speaker and media commentator. Also a professional jazz guitarist, Bakan lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife Rebecca Jenkins.

Jennifer Abbott, Director & Supervising Editor Jennifer Abbott is a multi-award-winning filmmaker and media activist who for the last 25 years has been making films about some of the most urgent social, political and environmental issues of the day. Born in Montreal, she pursued an education dedicated to radical political thought, women’s studies and deep ecology, which are at the centre of her beliefs today. She is best known as one of the Directors & the Editor of 2003’s breakthrough documentary, The Corporation. This year will also see the release of her feature documentary, The Magnitude of All Things, about ecological grief in the era of climate change. Jennifer is a mother of three and lives in Vancouver. Filmography: The Magnitude of All Things (2020), Us & Them (2015), Unspeak: Brave New Minds (2013), The Corporation (2003), A Cow at My Table (1998)