A
The documentary trailer begins by contextualizing the business corporation, stating that they were irrelevant 150 years ago, this statement is the basis of the subject in the trailer, the enhanced relevance of the business corporation in contemporary culture.
The visual narrative of the film begins with almost a full minute of 1-2 second cuts of images relevant in contemporary business culture. The is is accompanied by audio, that describes the significance of business corporations in contrast to their significance a century ago. The visual narrative changes from 2 second cuts to longer shots of news footage related to the business culture. The most effective scene in the trailer come next. There is a wide shot of a automated apple picking machine. This is accompanied by a voice asking what is wrong with this picture. The voice says that the apple picking machine is a metaphor for the dominant institution of our time and goes on to state that while businesses create great wealth the also create great suffering in ways that are not always obvious.
The scene at the beginning with many different cuts in a quick succession, accompanied by some assertions about the relevance of business corporations stood out a lot to me. This scene caught my eye because of the powerful images that were displayed on the screen in rapid succession. Shots of old footage of Joseph Stalin and loads of contemporary logos.
After the scene consisting of rapidly succeeding images the screen goes black and some music begins. This stood out to me because I felt like it was a poor choice. The director of the film must have chosen to play about ten seconds of the song they did because the lyric “bad apple” was relevant because the trailer then goes onto cuts of newscasters and other important people saying “bad apple”. However I felt like this was also a poor choice because cuts of people saying “bad apple” doesn’t tell the viewer anything about the film.
The final scene stood out to me most because I have never seen an automated apple picker before. This scene was relevant because the narrator depicts the machine as a symbol for the condition of contemporary business culture. The scene cuts between shots of the machine picking apple and apples being processed by another part of the machine. This choice of angles interested me because the entire view of the machine is never depicted. This is interesting because although the angle seems to be at a wide shot because you see most of the tree, the machine is big enough to not be fully in the picture.
B
If I had to break this film down into three sections I would say the first section begins with the contextualization of the congo. The film begins with a scene depicting the congo as a place of war by showing the death of a leader. The film then goes on to show scenes from the history of the congo beginning in 1885 and ending at the current date. The next section of the film is the introduction to character Andrea Bauma, a main character in the film who is a biologist and gorilla caretaker. This section consists of introductions to the gorillas in the care given by Andrea and the tensions and violence involving poaching. The next section talks about the tension between conservationists like Andrea and oil businesses. This section begins by describing the tensions involved in the oil business in the congo. The film ties this into the troubles with the gorillas by talking about how the businesses want there land for money taken in an unsustainable way. This section exposes Corporations like SOCO who try to bribe the conservationists, defending the park that Andrea works at. This section follows freelance journalist, Melanie Gouby who researches SOCO and what they may be hiding and exposes how SOCO had influence over M23. The next section focuses on the M23 rebels and their attack the town and the park. The last section depicts, the recovery after the M23 attack.
Each section transitioned with the introduction of the new subject. The first section ends with the introduction of Andrea, the conservationist who cares for the gorillas and the park. The section about the war and tension in the congo begins by introducing the company of SOCO and the oil business in the congo. The following section begins with the introduction of freelance journalist Melanie Gouby. The Melanie Gouby section transitions well into the M23 section because she explains that SOCO incentivized the attacks on the park and the area by offering M23 jobs in the area. The following section begins with the introduction of M23, shots of them rolling into town on tanks with weapons, shots of crying children and helicopters and you see Andrea change into army clothes.
I felt like the documentary attempted to be non narrative but because of the footage they chose to include it is hard to see the other perspective. Shots exposing corruption in SOCO and there influence over M23, and M23 rebels invading in tanks, scenes like these depict the non conservationists as the enemy. The documentary, however does include scenes that justify why the corporations like SOCO do what they do. A scene depicts one of the SOCO, leaders justifying buying out the park by talking about how the congo people don’t know how to govern themselves and the money gained will be worth it. I feel like they tried to make the film lacking bias by including scenes like these. However they included enough scenes like the undercover footage that depicting the damage done by these businesses that it is hard not to be biased.
The documentary does a good job at structuring images and contextualizing them so they are understandable. With such a variety of footage, low quality footage, news footage, high resolution footage and even hidden camera footage it must have been hard to organize it all in an understandable way. Scenes from the hidden footage were often reenacted and filmed separately with audio from the original scene. I assume that the hidden camera footage at times must not have been great so they chose to visually supplement it with high resolution shots of a reenactment of the scene. Something like this may seem confusing but because of how they chose to structure the footage it makes sense to the viewer.
C
` In my opinion the film is cinematically very well done. It incorporates many different sources of film and images, including old news films, war footage, hidden camera footage, high production interviews and impressively done birds eye view shots of the country and landscape. It is clear that even some theatrical scene are added to supplement some of the footage gathered from reporters and film crew in the congo. Shots like high resolution close up shots of cigarettes being lit or other simple close up shots, are added to supplement the visual experience for the viewer. In the section of the film where Melanie films members of SOCO with a hidden camera there seems to be staged scenes made to look like part of the interview. Shots are rarely very long, most ranging from 5 to 10 seconds, however some scenes like, war footage, interviews and gorillas remain for some time longer.
D
The film attempts to provide two perspectives on the situation in the congo but focuses mainly on one of the two perspectives. The perspective of SOCO, the oil business is presented clearly during the scene when Melanie talks to SOCO representatives with a hidden camera. Most of the documentary takes the perspective of the conservationists defending the park, interviews with Andrea, the gorilla caretaker and Melanie, supporter of the park as well as other locals and soldiers that contest M23 and SOCO. I would consider the people responsible for this film reporters and observers. This is because the film takes a pretty unbiased perspective, the documentary gives SOCO the chance to justify themselves for wanting the land that the park is on. The film also observes the interaction between the two groups, they film M23 rebels entering the town on tanks and actions that SOCO tries to take to buy the park. I think the choice of exposing both sides of the tension was a proper way to go about making this documentary.
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