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A Movie by Avi Levis and Naomi Klein

The Story

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave.

All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - The Take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.

 In the wake of Argentina's dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action. They're part of a daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of the failed system.

But Freddy, the president of the new worker's co-operative, and Lalo, the political powerhouse from the Movement of Recovered Companies, know that their success is far from secure. Like every workplace occupation, they have to run the gauntlet of courts, cops and politicians who can either give their project legal protection or violently evict them from the factory.

The story of the workers' struggle is set against the dramatic backdrop of a crucial presidential election in Argentina, in which the architect of the economic collapse, Carlos Menem, is the front-runner. His cronies, the former owners, are circling: if he wins, they'll take back the companies that the movement has worked so hard to revive.

Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale.

With The Take, director Avi Lewis, one of Canada's most outspoken journalists, and writer Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller No Logo, champion a radical economic manifesto for the 21st century. But what shines through in the film is the simple drama of workers' lives and their struggle: the demand for dignity and the searing injustice of dignity denied.

*****

Avi Lewis, Director/ Producer

 Avi Lewis is one of Canada's most controversial and eloquent media personalities, and has recently emerged as an acclaimed documentary filmmaker as well: The Take is his feature-length documentary directing debut. Shot in digital format over seven months in Argentina, Lewis worked with a fifteen-member crew originating from Canada, Argentina and Britain. Often using two cameras or more, the crew shot in situations including 50,000-strong political rallies, a surprise visit to the IMF contingent at their hotel in Buenos Aires, violent police repressions on the capital's streets, and behind the lines of a worker-occupied factory in Patagonia. Lewis made The Take with journalist and author Naomi Klein (No Logo), who is also the film's writer.

Changing the Conversation: Podcast interview with Avi Lewis for Bioneers In 2002, Lewis directed, shot and edited Gustavo Benedetto: Presente!, a short film on one of the victims of the Argentine police repression of December 19th & 20th, 2001. The film played in festivals in Canada, the UK and Argentina and was broadcast nationally by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Prior to directing, Avi Lewis worked as the host and producer of counterSpin on CBC Newsworld, where he presided over more than 500 nationally televised debates in three years.
 

As host of City TV's landmark music journalism show “The New Music” in the mid 1990s, he interviewed hundreds of celebrities from David Bowie and Leonard Cohen to The Rolling Stones and the Spice Girls. Mr. Lewis was also MuchMusic's Political Specialist in those years, pioneering political “uncoverage” in two federal elections and the 1995 referendum on Quebec separation. His 1993 election night special won a Gemini Award for best Special Event Coverage.

Avi Lewis lives in Toronto, Canada

Naomi Klein, Writer/ Producer

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist and author of the international best seller No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Translated into 27 languages and with over a million copies in print, The New York Times called No Logo “a movement bible.” In 2000, The Guardian Newspaper short-listed it for its First Book Award, and in 2001, No Logo won the Canadian National Business Book Award, and the French Prix Médiations.

Naomi Klein writes an internationally syndicated column for The Nation, The Guardian and The Globe and Mail. A collection of her work, entitled “Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate” was published in October 2002.

She is a former Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics and is presently the Freda Kirchway Fellow of the Nation Institute.
 

Ms. Klein lives in Toronto.

Credits

Produced by Barna-Alper Inc. and Klein Lewis Productions,
in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada
and in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Directed by:
Avi Lewis

Written by:
Naomi Klein

Editor:
Ricardo Acosta

Director Of Photography:
Mark Ellam

Location Sound:
Jason Milligan

Composer:
David Wall

Produced by:
Avi Lewis
Naomi Klein

Co-Producer:
Katie Mckenna

Producer for fhe NFB:
Silva Basmajian

Executive Producer:
Laszlo Barna

For The CBC:
Jerry Mcintosh
Marie Natanson

Line Producer:
Pim Van Der Toorn

Field Producers:
Esteban Magnani
Julian Massaldi-Fuchs
Cecilia Sainz
Silvana Santiago

Senior Field Prod/ Visual Research:
Dawn Makinson

Second Camera:
John Jordan
Robin Mckenna

Second Sound:
Susana Guichal

Prod. Mngr. (Arg)/ Post Co-Ord:
Paula Talesnik

Logistics Coordinator:
David Meslin

Research:
Tomas Bril
Joseph Huff-Hannon

Please see also:

www.thetake.org