(M) Our Brand is Crisis (Rachel Boynton, 2006) Grade: B+
It’s politics as usual in the U.S., but filmmaker Boynton explores how well those politics travel internationally in her study of the 2002 Bolivia presidential campaign of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (“Goni”), who hired a team of American political consultants to help him win the election. Of the talking heads here, strategist James Carville offers the most interesting and amusing insights, comparing a political campaign to intercourse: “You don’t have all that control over when you’re going to peak.” The tactics used by Goni’s team mirror those in the States—focus groups, smear campaigns, political ads—but Bolivia is obviously a very different country; though Goni wins the election, he gains only 22.5% support. Goni also faces a poverty crisis—nine out of 10 indigenous people are poor—and must combat the general fear of foreign investment, which most Bolivians believe is a threat to jobs. All these obstacles prove too large for Goni to overcome, and he flees for Washington, D.C., after 14 months in office. The self-assured strategists are left somewhat flabbergasted during Goni’s short term, watching as more than 100 Bolivians are killed in violent riots. Reflecting on his team’s role, pollster Jeremy Rosner says, “You come in as an outsider and you advise people and you have an impact … so you do feel responsible.”