One does not need to look much further than the nightly news to see that American politics and, by extension, American society has become highly polarized. Executive orders on immigration, midterm election turnover, racial tension in Ferguson, the #gamergate controversy and many other issues have deeply divided people in recent months. Birthers, truthers, occupiers and other so-called "social justice warriors" of all stripes have risen up as the moderate middle ground seems to erode further each day. The media and politicians of both parties constantly add fuel to the fire by painting issues in broad strokes in cynical attempts to craft narratives that grab ratings and votes. And as voters and lawmakers entrench themselves in homogeneous camps further and further from the middle, government has reached an unprecedented level of gridlock as the current Congress seems destined to go down in history as the least productive since the "Do Nothing Congress" of 1948.
Director John Wellington Ennis' documentary "Pay 2 Play" looks into what may be a primary cause of all this ideological conflict: the influence of corporate money on politics, elections and even free speech. Ennis' film contends that under current laws, corporate money has a much larger voice politically than the people of the United States. As activist and philosopher Noam Chomsky states in an interview, Democrats and Republicans are really two factions of a single party, the Business Party.
The motif (mascot?) that Ennis has chosen to frame his documentary is the Monopoly board game and its signature top-hat wearing character. As Ennis explains in the film, Monopoly began in 1903 as The Landlord's Game, invented by schoolteacher Elizabeth Magi as an educational tool to illustrate the negative aspects of private monopolies. The fact that Parker Brothers appropriated the game, inverted its goals and convinced most Americans through marketing that the game was the sole invention of Charles Darrow serves as a metaphor for Ennis' take on corporate influence on public opinion.
Ennis examines a number of key issues throughout the film, taking the viewer on a tour of "properties" on an imaginary Monopoly board. Among the topics examined are:
* The 2005 "Coingate" scandal, in which Republican fundraiser Thomas Noe was convicted of money laundering for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign
* The 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United vs. FEC case, which determined that corporations could spend unlimited amounts on campaign ads under the First Amendment; this is where Ennis equates money with free speech
* The Powell Memo, a manifesto of sorts written by then corporate lawyer and later Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. that called for both corporate America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to become more politically aggressive in the form of think tanks and lobbyist groups.
* The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization that writes model corporate-friendly state legislation (including fill-in-the-blank templates of bills), legislation that covers a broad range of political and social issues such as energy, environment, healthcare, education, tax reform, criminal sentencing and prison management, immigration, voter ID laws and "Stand your Ground" laws.
"Pay 2 Play" proposes that the political system is stacked heavily in the favor of corporate interests while still proposing solutions such as campaign finance reform, voter turnout, free airtime for political candidates and public financing. Ultimately the message Ennis gets across is that voters need to be informed and active, that making one's voice heard is the best weapon available to the common person. To that end, the film heavily features activists such as street artists and organizations such as the Occupy movement as examples of private citizens expressing their dissatisfaction with the current system.
While it presents an abundance of good, factual information, at heart "Pay 2 Play" is a morality play demonstrating the plight of the common citizen against corporate greed. The end product could have been more effective if a more bipartisan approach was taken, but unfortunately the film resorts to a little too much type-casting. Although the documentary speaks generally about how corporate influence and dirty tricks exist on both sides of the aisle, Democrat and Republican, what it unfortunately shows are mostly liberal activists and ideals pitted against conservative organizations and incumbents. The result is a solid piece of agit-prop rather than a true documentary.
It's a disappointment in the sense that even a slightly more balanced approach would reach more viewers and perhaps change minds. Without more examples of Democratic cronyism or Republican integrity, some will tune out the many valid, important points made throughout the film. It's even more disappointing given that early on Ennis makes the case that the two parties are really two sides of the same broken system. If Ennis could have shown more clear examples of people of differing ideologies united against a common foe (the "Business Party") then the film would have achieved a less impeachable level of credibility.
"Pay 2 Play" is available on VOD and DVD on December 2. DVD extras primarily include extended interviews and footage with street artist subjects from the film. These vignettes are well done and work well even as stand-alone short films. One of the extras is a piece on Surya "Chili" Yalamanchili, a former Congressional candidate in Ohio who ran on a platform of campaign law reform that included not accepting a single dollar from corporate or PAC interests.
* Who is Alec Monopoly? * Free Humanity: Diamond in the Lotus * Lydia Emily the Tattooed Artist Lady * Teacher: Teaching Peace * MBW Art Show 2011 * The Chili Hustle * Pay 2 Play trailer
Film: 3 Yaps Extras: 3.5 Yaps
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/pay2play/107816110