10 “Damn The Man” Documentary Films: A List For Occupying Wall Street

Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story

[buy/watch]

You wanna see the ugly underbelly of American Politics? You wanna know how we got here? Look at Lee Atwater, former chairman of the GOP, who mentored George W. Bush and Karl Rove and helped turn “liberal” into a dirty word. You could say he had a “deal with the devil” or something.

Boogie Man examines Atwater’s role in shifting America to the right, “his irreverent sense of humor, his understanding of the American heartland, and his unapologetic vision of politics as war. It ends with a portrait of a cynic’s deathbed search for meaning.”

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Capitalism: A Love Story

[watch/buy]

“I refuse to live in a country like this, and I’m not leaving.” 

Michael Moore gets extra Michael Moorey in this movie but at the same time, his pace and scope is as-per-ushe triumphant and the information he covers is, again, shit you need to know.

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The Corporation

[watch/buy]

This 2003 documentary is Canadian and from 2003, but it’s just as relevant now as it was then and gives you a good background/history on the idea of the corporation and how it fundamentally threatens human rights, democracy, and overall life on earth.

“The documentary is critical of the modern-day corporation, considering its legal status as a class of person and evaluating its behaviour towards society and the world at large as a psychiatrist might evaluate an ordinary person.”

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What’s the Matter With Kansas?

[buy/watch]

Why did so many citizens vote against their own financial interests in the 2004 election? This documentary is based on the book by the same name and looks at how the Republican party used conservative issues like gay marriage and abortion to entice a whole chunk of the nation into voting GOP — a chunk presently getting behind things like We are the 53%.

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Maxed Out

[buy/watch]

I haven’t seen this one yet, I’m gonna watch it tonight. It seems to be “foreshadowing.”

“Maxed Out takes viewers on a journey deep inside the American style of debt, where things seem fine as long as the minimum monthly payment arrives on time. With coverage that spans from small American towns all the way to the White House, the film shows how the modern financial industry really works, explains the true definition of “preferred customer” and tells us why the poor are getting poorer while the rich keep getting richer. Hilarious, shocking and incisive, Maxed Out paints a picture of a national nightmare which is all too real for most of us.”

Okay, DAMN THE MAN SAVE THE EMPIRE, y’all!

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3182 articles for us.

28 Comments

  1. Riese. I like the way you think. We should get married.
    I’m supposed to be writing a speech for a class this weekend, but now all I want to do is watch documentaries on Netflix.

    • Fuck yes this Bzzzy I am suppose to write a *slam* poem for coming out but I am filled with OWS rage. <3

  2. When I was in grad school, I taught an intro to Women’s Studies class for my department and every quarter I used to show “The Corporation” to my class. The only thing more depressing than sitting through that film was the way my students reacted. They were just like “Meh. It’s not like we can do anything and stuff costs less this way.” I kind of wanted to stab myself in the face.

  3. I see some storming of the Bastille happening and I’m excited. Also these are good choices. See also The Take about the occupation of factories in Argentina that were closing down and being left empty.

    • I guess watch The Take after you are good and angry because of the other ones because it’s all kinds of empowering to the worker and it shows that you can actually DO something about all this nonsense.

  4. GOD THIS WHOLE THING MAKES ME WANT TO CHANNEL MY LESBIAN FEMINIST ANGER ABOUT THE CLASS DIFFERENCES/CORRUPTION/IFC SCREWING WITH AUTOSTRADDLE/FEELINGS DAMMIT IN US FUCKING A TO HOT LESBIAN SCISSORING SEX*!!!

    *Chances are that I will just knit something sarcastic onto a pillow (about OWS, duh) case, which I will knit in the near future, like tomorrow, gurrl.**

    **If I do have sexy times with a nice lady-friend I promise to be gentle because consent to roughness matters.***

    ***I really hope this makes sense because I am aroused by this rage and want to be productive to society, like killing to birds with one stone (in the most vegan way of course).****

    ****I love you guys, for real.******^200

    Yeah I realize I am being so obnoxious with *…fuck school and endnotes/footnotes!!!!

    HUGS WITH MY LEGS FOR YOU AND YOU…

  5. The list is great… I’ve watched most of the documentaries you mentioned there were few I hadn’t seen so I will be checking them out. If I still lived in the US I would have been there OWS. Sometimes I feel we (the common folk) need to be aggressive in order to be heard. How many times have WS been accused of fraud? Too many times and why is this still happening? I think it needs to be Bastille style revolution, lots of heads must roll (ok not literally but you know like locked up for good!) not just a couple of people going to jail a la Bernard Madoff (s/p). Just a thought!

    • Thanks for sharing the link. I watched the report and it made me super angry again! I feel like crawling under a rock, disappearing into nature so that I have nothing to do with this corrupt world!

  6. For all of you who feel like uniting here on AS, I made an Occupy group. Drop by if you like and share your ideas, stories and experiences !

  7. Great list, Riese.
    I’d also strongly recommend “I.O.U.S.A.” “Zeitgeitst” “Loose Change” and “Gasland.”

    I also recommend perusing stevebeckow.com every single day. Corporately owned mainstream media isn’t reporting anything of substance, and usually it’s also not the truth, because after all, who is going to be the one to talk shit about their boss? So it’s up to us to be critical thinkers, and find the info ourselves.

    I went to the OWS rallies in NYC when I was there, and perhaps surprising to the people who want everyone to be pissed off hippies, it is not a place filled with angry people; passionate, yes, but it feels unbelievably loving, compassionate, peaceful and intelligent. Everyone looks each other in the eye, the people’s mic is a thing of brilliance, and it feels more “safe” and warm there than any place i’ve been in this country.

    I think because…you know, this is a spiritual movement as well as political. This is what must happen now.

    I highly suggest going, in whatever city you’re in. It’s really something to behold, and when we all look back, this will have been a massive, beautiful moment in our history.

    • Another good place for non-corporate news is the Indymedia network. There’s lots of stuff on that main page linked there, plus if you scroll down there’s a list on the left side of the page with links to region-specific Indymedia pages for places all over the world. Lots of news and discussions of events of local importance on those pages.

  8. yes watch “maxed out”! we watched in my econ class. it will really make you hate credit cards. the stories are tragic but need to be heard. its been a couple years since ive seen it but it can still shake me to the core.

  9. TAPPED TAPPED TAPPED you need to watch Tapped. It’s not a ‘Damn the man’ documentary, it’s about bottled water, but everyone really really really needs to watch it. It’s on Instant View on Netflix, so there’s no excuses. WATCH.

  10. after being off occupying, i’m finally back to AS and so glad to return to seeing this article. definitely going to try to watch some of these. thanks for the suggestions, riese.

  11. I love this article. I watched 3 of the documentaries today. And I am angry and fired up about everything. Thank you for posting this

  12. Definitely recommend Gasland and Food, Inc for some more ultra-f*cked up corporate you-are-living-in-a-dystopia-get-angry stuff. The Cove is another really good one, but it’s more environmental than economics. …and yet also not. It’s really hard to believe how everything we do – from entertainment to food to health care to just living on this planet – is tied into banks and stocks and thereby politics and buying votes. But you have to believe it, because that is why everything is going to hell. Our species is so unable to get our heads into the big picture that we can’t give up our systems of power and privilege RIGHT NOW in favor of allowing ourselves, our people and our planet a better chance of survival.

    I really, really have to agree about the Michael Moore stuff. Fast forward over him accosting senators if you have to, because Sicko particularly and also Capitalism: A Love Story are HEARTBREAKING and SO IMPORTANT.

    The Corporation will also make you cry. At least, I seriously hope it does.

  13. I should have been sleeping long ago but I had to watch all these trailers, and then I got sidetracked watching the first couple parts of The One Percent that popped up as related links on YT. I definitely want to watch the rest of that one.

    The Kansas one scared me the most though. The extreme religious right gives me nightmares. *hugs my liberal urban bubble and never leaves* The old guy at the end who was all, “Gay marriage? Who gives a shit?” was awesome though.

  14. i know this comment is late to the game but it just occurred to me… “TOP TEN Queer/Trans Feminist Books for the Occupy Movement”
    1. “Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class” Edited by Michelle Tea. This is a fav contemporary anthology of mine for illuminating some of the everyday experiences of economic injustices in the USA as lived by women and trans folks with a strong queer focus. Great to share across generations when talking about class.
    ….ok yall contribute to the rest of the list…

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