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The Yes Men.
'The Yes Men' is a new feature film starring Mike Bonanno and
Andy Bichlbaum, two pranksters who rose to fame by exploiting
new technologies to impersonate and ridicule corporate entities,
especially the World Trade Organisation. Their stunts have been
well-covered by the often-gullible international mainstream
media and now feature in the latest film from the makers of
the hilarious 'American Movie.'
When I spoke on the phone to Mike Bonanno he was just down the road from the imminent G8 Summit - the meeting of the leaders of the world's most powerful nations - in Dundee, Scotland. I wondered whether he was planning to be inside the conference instead of outside the barricades. His response was to neither confirm nor deny this, but to suggest the possibility that he might be jamming with Sir Bob Geldof and Bono.
"We're impostors. We get invited to things and when we show up we try to be more real than the real thing. More honest," he says. Bonanno believes that the prevailing corporate and political attitude that dominates our lives is that "Might is Right." Audacity is the Yes Men's weapon against this, and making the world a fairer, safer place is their motivation. To this end, they've always aimed their attacks high.
"We had the website gwbush.com in 1999 when he was governor of Texas and used it to announce the release of all prisoners doing time for drug related offences. The only condition was that they felt that, like Bush himself, they had 'grown up' since doing drugs," recalls Bonanno. "Bush attacked the site, saying there should be limits on freedom."
Mike Bonanno first achieved notoriety as the Barbie Liberation Organisation (BLO), swapping Barbie and GI Joe voice-boxes at retail level one Christmas. He and Andy Bichlbaum were working independently on Barbie dolls prior to friends suggesting a meeting. Their ensuing collaboration began with artmark.com in 1997 and continues today with the Yes Men. As the Yes Men, they are a dynamic duo with great rapport. "A 'yes man' is someone who agrees with their boss' idea no matter how repugnant it is," explains Bonanno.
He sees their work in highlighting the 'post-human' attitudes of our corporate and political rulers as part of a proud tradition stretching back through the Situationists to Shakespeare and even Aristophanes. "The Yes Men are just one independent and effective part in a community of creative activists working in different ways," says Bonanno. He admires the work of the Biotic Baking Brigade for instance, believing that sometimes a well-aimed pie in the face is an appropriate method for drawing attention to a situation. "They're really doing much the same thing as us, in a way," he explains, adding a wicked laugh.
The new film 'The Yes Men' lets us inside and behind the scenes. We see the pair's modus operandi neatly captured and presented by star directors Chris Smith and Sarah Price. The filmmakers were long-time friends of the increasingly notorious duo, so the project became "a natural". The result is polished and thoroughly entertaining.
There is always an amount of stress and anxiety in the execution of their highly-planned, high-tech brazen deeds, which provides suspense for cinema goers; audiences will sweat as they share Mike's paranoia and the adrenalin rush he gets doing a stunt. However, it seems pushing the boundaries of freedom of speech to highlight hypocrisy isn't all that dangerous. "You're your own worst enemy, really. No one's ever given us any trouble and we've never been arrested. There just don't seem to be any laws anyone can find against impersonating members of the WTO," he concludes, somewhat wistfully.
Andrew Bunney
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'The Yes Men' is screening at Nova right now.
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