Overview
Ted Talks, documentaries, and more. Some are long, some are short, all are worth a watch for one reason or another.
The Corporation
The Corporation charts the spectacular rise of the corporation as a dramatic, pervasive presence in our everyday lives. With a deft mix of humor, visual panache and seriousness, this documentary is a timely, entertaining critique of global conglomerates.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
The inside story of one of history’s greatest business scandals, in which top executives of America’s seventh largest company walked away with over one billion dollars while investors and employees lost everything.
Harlan County USA
To make this legendary documentary, filmmaker Barbara Kopple lived with some of the 180 Kentucky families involved in the 1974 miners’ strike against the Eastover Mining Company. Its corporate parent, Duke Power, refused to sign a union contract, a move condemned by the National Labor Relations Board. Kopple’s film showed the miners’ arduous lives, including hard labor and the constant threat of unemployment.
The Queen of Versailles
The Queen of Versailles is a character-driven documentary about a billionaire family and their financial challenges in the wake of the economic crisis. With the epic proportions of a Shakespearean tragedy, the film follows two unique characters, whose rags-to-riches success stories reveal the innate virtues and flaws of the American Dream.
How Classism Is Slowing Down the Fourth Industrial Revolution
What is classism and why do companies need to start tackling it as part of their diversity and inclusion agenda? What does this have to do with the fourth industrial revolution? Alex Barber addresses these questions and more in her TEDx Talk using examples from her personal life as well as from her experience as a manager in the industry to introduce her solution to the problem: becoming a frontline sidekick.
Inside Job
Provided is an analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research, and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia.
Roger & Me
A documentary about Flint, Michigan native Michael Moore and his efforts to meet with General Motors’ president Roger Smith in order to persuade the executive to visit Flint, a city which is economically depressed due to the closure of a General Motors plant
We won’t fix US politics until we talk about class
Class has always been a taboo subject but much of what we do is influenced by it, from the coffee we drink to the candidates we vote for. Legal scholar Joan C. Williams explains why the cultural chasm created by class conflict is at the root of US political polarization and provides some pointers on how to step back from the brink.