3320  The Take

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 01:45:41 -0700
From: Bruno <romerob@TELUSPLANET.NET>
Subject: The Take

https://www.nfb.ca/thetake/

Tonight, I watched a documentary "The Take" on CBC TV about the drama of
workers from Argentina resisting being sucked into economic loss and despair
as their workplaces are shutdown by their owners. Specifically, this
documentary "The Take" narrates the plight of 30 workers from the ceramic
factory "Zanon" in Neuquen, Argentina beginning in 2001 with the economic
fallout of Argentina under the Carlos Menem's presidency. The 30 workers
resisting to become victims of the economic fallout decide to put a fight to
expropriate the ceramic factory from their owner(s), and battle the civil
courts all the way to congress to have their petition approved. Most
significant, these workers battle the preconceived ideas that companies do
require their patrons or owners' intervention to run them effectively.

This documentary is perhaps a great example of grassroots movements making a
precedent in history by fighting back the owner(s) of the ceramic factory,
the Brookman's garment company, and many others (~200), and also fighting
the judicial system, which sides up with the factory owner(s)

What does it have to do with Tango?

Except for the tango music played from Tango Project "Una Musica Brutal" at
the beginning and towards the end of the documentary, there is no other
explicit reference to Tango. However, like Tango "The Take" shows drama
unfold. Quick scenes of the economic fallout of Argentina are briefly
relived on the screen. The narration begins when thirty workers with no
options to turned to decide that the ceramic factory should be reopened.
Through close takes of the cameras this documentary manages to probe deep
into raw human emotions, and calls for deep reflection and questioning on
the laws of neo-liberalism and globalization. The real losers appear to be
the people, whose saving accounts are frozen, while the wealthy et. al. is
allowed to take away 40 billion dollars from the Argentina economy.

The most compelling scenes of this documentary are the interviews with the
owner of the ceramic factory, the past president Menem's use of rhetoric to
compare himself to Jesus Christ at one of his rallies prior to his lost bid
to the presidency in 2003, and the street confrontation of the police and
the unionized workers to retake the Brookman's garment factory.

Best regards,

Bruno