Europeans Can’t Get Enough Of “Wal-Mart” Movie
Posted on February 21, 2006 by webteam
Coming off a European tour that drew wide praise for ”Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price,” we wanted to share the following e-mail filmmaker Robert Greenwald sent to friends and supporters:
Greetings to everyone who worked on the film and everyone who helped get the film out into the world and everyone who helped organize around the film. This trip was put together by our terrific sales agent, Richard Guardian and lightening entertainment, to make sure that the film is sold all over the world. And it is working.
I wish that each and everyone of you could have been with me to see, feel and experience the really quite amazing results to all our work. From Berlin to London to Scotland and then to Ireland we had sold-out theaters people sitting and standing in the aisle and intense and extended conversations after the screenings. On top of this we had enormous press interest from print, radio and television from every country we screened in. It was really quite something.
The tour began with four days at the Berlin film Festival and with so many other high profile films and celebrities I had assumed we would be pretty far down the attention poll. From the first screening on Saturday and despite my jetlagged slightly incoherent state, I was alert enough to see a full houses and people filled with questions, concerns, and wanting to know more. The most fascinating aspects were the tone and depth of the questions after the screenings which immediately focus on the issue of corporations, globalization, and the nature of capitalism itself. The awareness of these issues and Wal-Mart’s connection to them was beyond my expectations. People were very moved and stunned by the stories we tell and information we are providing. And when I describe the alternative distribution and the grassroots groups that work to get the film out into the hands of organizers I can practically feel the lightbulbs going off in the minds of the audience. But just to remind us that our battles continue, the distributor who had purchased the film for Germany, all but disappeared in an apparent effort to distance themselves from any retribution from Wal-Mart.
In the United Kingdom we are fortunate to have a terrific and aggressive distributor Tartan films that will be opening the movie in theaters in May and then following with DVD and television. Tartan has a history of provocative and controversial films and they are very happy to embrace the tone and style of our US release. Within one day of doing press and screenings in London we already had controversy going and I was arguing on two different BBC shows and we got two full pages in the evening standard that could’ve been written by my mother.
In Scotland, another sold-out house and to my utter amazement not one single person left after the screening and before the Q&A. Afterwards a dinner with several of the leading Scottish critics who knew more about American films than I ever will. And my only regret was not being able to stay on longer and experience in the country itself.
In Dublin we were the second day of a terrific and a very exciting film Festival. I got off the plane and was immediately rushed to several hours of nonstop interviews and then on to the theater where once more a question and answer session was vigorous, and quite intense. They have no Wal-Marts in Ireland as of yet and they look on the film as a warning shot.
As I stumbled towards the airplane on Sunday I couldn’t count anymore the number and variety of interviews, but I knew we all had helped the cause significantly by bringing this film to life. It is going to be used by people all around the world to build alliances, tell the story, and act as an organizing tool or as a warning. My deepest thanks and appreciation to everyone of you and I hope that you all enjoy and feel proud of this experience and what you’ve done.. Best Robert
Click here to read Greenwald’s interview with the German Web site Spiegel Online.
