RIP McDonalds
|
Rarely can three activists have felt as positive about their efforts as postman Dave Morris, gardener & bar worker Helen Steel and documentary film-maker Franny Armstrong.
Who said ordinary people cant change the world? says Armstrong. Morris and Steel emerged victorious from a lengthy landmark court case against McDonalds and Armstrongs film, McLibel: Two Worlds Collide, has been seen by an estimated 26 million people and helped turn opinion against the US fast food giant.
In addition, British libel law is under scrutiny. The court case [in which the "McLibel Two" represented themselves against the food giant's £10 million legal team in a two-and-a-half-year battle] and the film played a significant role in all these achievements. Now the film has been re-edited and changed to take account of the recent European Court of Human Rights ruling that there had been an unacceptable inequality of arms with McDonald's during the [original] trial, and that the lack of procedural fairness and equality gave rise to a breach of the right to freedom of expression. That judgement, against the previously untrammeled power of corporations, might prove to be the most important outcome of the threesomes work.
The TV screening is another indicator of how times have changed and how Morris, Steel and Armstrong have changed the times because at the outset of the venture McDonalds quickness on the draw in suing for libel meant few people in the mainstream media would have touched the story. In the early days, everyone was scared, Armstrong told OneWorld this week. What next for the film-maker, whose involvement began when her father (co-founder of the OneWorld network) said, Have you seen about this trial in London? Sounds like your cup of tea. Why dont you borrow my camera and go and make a film? Whats next? Climate change. I hope to do for climate change what Morgan Spurlock [maker of Super Size Me, which documents the effects of eating only at McDonalds] did for junk food. -------------------- * OneWorld interview with Dave Morris dating from September 2004 just before the Strasbourg hearing * Interview with Franny Armstrong, Shooting People (UK filmmakers network): * 15 April: Mc50th - celebration or last rites?, 6-11pm, an evening of entertainment, public debate, showing of the 'McLibel' documentary and the launch of the new McLibel DVD, Conway Hall, Red Lion Sq, London. Entry by donation * Other Events |
Printable version
top of the page