Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno travel the world calling attention to climate change in THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING
THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING (Laura Nix & the Yes Men, 2014)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
June 12-25
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
theyesmenarerevolting.com
Since 1999, culture-jamming pranksters Mike Bonanno (Igor Vamos) and Andy Bichlbaum (Jacques Servin) have been staging events to call attention to economic and environmental abuses perpetrated by big business and international governments, including Dow Chemical, the World Trade Organization, ExxonMobil, and BP. In their latest film, The Yes Men Are Revolting, the follow-up to 2003’s The Yes Men and 2009’s The Yes Men Fix the World, the daring, inventive activists find themselves facing a series of midlife crises, both personal and professional, particularly after one of their hoaxes goes embarrassingly awry. “Whenever we would do actions, I would always think, like, ‘This is the one that’s gonna change everything,’” a distraught Bichlbaum says in the film. “I would convince myself of that, and then afterwards there would be this huge depression, like, ‘Oh, we didn’t change everything.’” The action involving the presentation of a fake polar bear to an Amsterdam zoo might have failed, but it’s not long before Bonanno, who had moved to Scotland with his wife and children, and Bichlbaum, who was struggling to maintain a relationship with his boyfriend in New York City, are back together, fighting the good fight. The Yes Men Are Revolting follows the two men over the course of several years as they take on climate change, focusing on COP 15 and the partnership between Gazprom and Shell Oil, traveling from Zuccotti Park, Amsterdam, and Seattle to Uganda, Copenhagen, and Washington, DC, to call attention to the impact of Arctic drilling and polar ice cap melting on the future of the planet.
Laura Nix, who codirected the film with the Yes Men, goes behind the scenes as they construct their actions, hire actors to play media representatives and lobbyists, choose the wardrobe (and wigs), and build fake websites to help establish credibility. It’s amazing what they get away with and what people will believe — and it’s even funnier when they get caught (and sued). But at the heart of it all is a very real desire to, as their second film proclaimed, fix the world, while also maintaining their long friendship. The new movie begins with them on the Brooklyn shore, announcing the creation of the SurvivaBall, a ridiculous-looking giant costume that promises people protection from the elements “no matter what happens to the climate.” The Yes Men open the public’s eyes to so much infuriating corporate crime and corruption that you might just want to hide away in your own SurvivaBall, hoping and praying that things will get better. But don’t count on it. The Yes Men Are Revolting opens June 12 at the IFC Center, with the Friday-night screening part of the 2015 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, followed by a Q&A with Nix and the Yes Men, who on Thursday were in Columbus Circle, handing out free shaved-ice cones purportedly made from the melting polar ice cap. There will be a live video discussion with the Yes Men in person and Julian Assange after the 2:40 show on June 14, a Q&A with the Yes Men following the 8:25 shows on June 15 & 16, and a Q&A with editor Claire L. Chandler after the 8:25 screening on June 18.