by Robert Alstead

Power hungry
Enron, the energy company that went from being a darling of the dot com era to bust, has become a household word, synonymous with spectacular failure, and unbridled greed. Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room tries to answer the obvious question: how did they get away with it? How could a multi-billion dollar company, that was once the seventh largest in the States employing 21,000, have duped so many people for so long? While the company was losing money hand over fist, it still managed to post profits for its shareholders, pushing its shareprice ever higher (almost $90 before crashing through the floor). Not only did top executives maintain the illusion of an incredibly successful company, they did it as they sold out their shareholdings for multimillions.
Alex Gibney’s documentary starts off by saying this is a story about people. However, the script is adapted from a book by Fortune magazine journalists Peter McLean and Peter Elkind (ironic, since Fortune regular lauded Enron between its sheets), which means the focus is on the drama at the top of the failed mega corp. An electricity linesman tells us briefly about how he watched his pension evaporate with Enron’s collapse and a chaplain confides that some of the workforce are still recovering emotionally from the debacle, but the documentary retains a cool distance from the misery suffered by the rank and file. It seems there was not enough room to fit them into the Greek tragedy schema of the doc.
It does however paint a vivid picture of the cut-throat atmosphere that executives CEO Jeff Skilling and chairman Kenneth Lay (“the smartest guys” of the ironic title) cultivated within their organization, the corporate sleaze and the hubris that would complete their undoing. In the course of this post-mortem, and pre-trial primer – Skilling and Lay go to trial in early 2006 – it shows that Enron was only part of a web of collusion that involved major banks, accountants, stock analysts, politicans, and even the president. As one interviewee puts it: “No one who was supposed to say no, said no.”
At times it is hard to keep up with all the personalities and the byzantine business structure. The doc’s style is fairly conservative, there’s just a lot of detail. But the impact is undeniable, like having the ground hollowed out from under your feet. It leaves you with a queasy sensation that somewhere out there in the financial ether this kind of thing could be happening all the time.

Being Caribou
Last month the house of Representatives voted to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, that could lead to a spider’s web of drilling platforms and pipelines. Up to a million barrels of oil a day will be pumped out of the ground with, according to George Bush, “almost no impact on land and local wildlife.” The true absurdity of that comment really struck me watching NFB documentary Being Caribou. There’s a moment in this courageous and inspiring Northern adventure, where BC couple Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison are sitting utterly still inside their tent in the caribou calving ground in North Alaska. They’ve slogged hundreds of kilometres on foot and ski with huge packs, fought hunger, scared off grizzlies, and are now peeing in tins and whispering to the camera lest they disturb the nearby herd. For more about the film and links to sites campaigning to save the Refuge visit www.beingcaribou.com.

Dear Frankie
Also, just opened is Dear Frankie, a sweet romance from Scotland. A lonely, single mother (Emily Mortimer) pays a handsome stranger (Gerard Butler) to pretend that he is her deaf son’s absent father, leading to unexpectedly emotional attachments. Reviewers at iofilm found the tone of the film forced, although it is redeemed somewhat by the performances.

Robert Alstead, who also writes for iofilm, is currently making a documentary about cycling called You Never Bike Alone.