The Coca-Cola Case is an eye-opening documentary that looks at the
labour dispute between unionists in Colombia and The Coca-Cola Company,
which is accused of "alleged kidnapping, torture and murder of union
leaders trying to improve working conditions in Colombia, Guatemala and
Turkey." Using interviews with the lawyers involved in the case against Coke, workers
in the bottling plants, and Ray Rogers, the man behind the Stop
Killer-Coke! Campaign, the film exposes the lack of human rights large
corporations such as Coca-Cola function on, and get away with, in these
smaller countries.
CityNews.ca spoke with The Coca-Cola
Case co-director Carmen Garcia about the challenges of covering a
topic like this and what she hopes to achieve with the documentary.
How
did you come to cover this topic?
This is not the first film
we shot in Colombia. The co-director, Germán Gutiérrez, comes from
there and we've done a couple of films down there. The last one was
called Who Shot My Brother? and it ended up being about the
violence in Colombia in general. During that filming Germán met Dan
Kovalik, one of the lawyers [presented] in The Coca-Cola Case.
Dan has spent many years involved in cases against companies and he's
very much [focused] in the interest of unionists in Colombia. Dan
informed Germán about the killings of unionists so Germán decided to
make a film about that situation.
Why focus on The Coca-Cola
Company when other companies are involved as well?
We chose
to focus on Coca-Cola because it was a well known company and would
attract attention to the subject because of the name. It's not the only
company involved directly in the bad treatment of unionists down there
but it's [probably] the most famous one.
Was getting funding
for a film this political difficult?
We got the help of
producer Yves Bisaillon at the National Film Board of Canada. He had
co-produced our two previous films and was very interested in the
subject so the NFB was onboard from the beginning. Without them we could
not have done this film. Each time we had to go to Colombia or to the
U.S. they paid for the equipment rental and all that. Usually, the way
we produce a film, is through a broadcaster but this time we couldn't
get that.
Did you find getting clearances to film in the
bottling plants hard to get?
The only one we could film was
because the workers let us in...we didn't have official permission to do
that. Towards the end of the filming we got permission from the
Coco-Cola plant in Bogata but the film was almost finished when we got
that. During all the months and years we were filming we couldn't
[officially] get into one plant.
What about using the
Coca-Cola logo?
A couple of years ago it would have been
really hard to film this type of [documentary] because the lawyers were
concerned about using logos. Lately it's become less difficult because
of fair use...we can use some advertising and logos for a company as
long as we have a comment on the part we're showing.
No one
from Coca-Cola ever speaks to you on camera, was that a disappointment?
Since
the beginning of filming we wanted to talk to them directly...we would
have liked to speak to both parties. When we filmed in colleges we would
have liked to film the Ray Rogers [Stop Killer-Coke] campaign and also
the answer from Coke but we were never allowed to do that. Dan or Terry
Collingsworth [the other lawyer involved] went to court and we talked to
them in front of the court building and would have liked to talk to
Coke but they never agreed. At one point the Coke lawyer said, 'Yes. We
agree. Let's talk.' But each time we sent an email the answer was always
that it was never possible. We didn't want to have formal interviews
with the Coke people... we wanted to shoot them the way we shot the other
people; on the spot where something was happening.
Are you
concerned that Coca-Cola will try to sue you over the release of the
film?
We've been taking a lot of precautions during the
editing. We had a lot of stuff we knew we couldn't use. We had the NFB
lawyers look at the film and our lawyer who was preparing the filing for
the insurance company...even the insurance company's lawyer had a look
at the film. When we got the Errors and Omissions insurance we felt
safe.
Have you run
into any problems with theatres or broadcasters refusing to show 'The
Coca-Cola Case'?
There was one broadcaster who was very
direct and when he talked to us about not buying the film he said they
had some contracts with Coca-Cola and there was no way they could air
it. Maybe some other people thought the same or maybe it just wasn't
good enough or entertaining enough for them.
What do you hope
to achieve with the documentary?
We want to make people aware
of what is happening in places like Colombia where workers are not
protected. The examples we give in the film are a bit extreme because
they happen in places like Colombia and Turkey, where the justice system
is corrupt. It couldn't happen here in Canada for instance. But unions
are not very popular lately. In Quebec we had Wal-Mart employees who
wanted a union and the answer for Wal-Mart was to shut the store down.
The problem of the rights of workers is a global problem. Companies
wanted to make more money and give less money and rights to the workers.
The
Coca-Cola Case plays at the Royal Cinema (608 College St. West)
from March 26 to April 1. Gutiérrez and Garcia will attend the
screenings on March 26 at 7 p.m. and March 27 at 3 p.m. for
introductions and audience Q&As, and on March 28 at 7 p.m. for an
introduction only. More info on the film can be found on the NFB website. If you're interested in
finding out more about the Stop Killer-Coke! Campaign visit
killercoke.org.
brian.mckechnie@citynews.rogers.com
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image: A scene from The Coca-Cola Case. Courtesy Angus Films and
National Film Board of Canada.