MoveOn: The Movie (DVD)
APPROX. 94 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 2009 - MPA RATING: NR
" There’s nothing wrong with preaching to the choir, but the film’s slack pacing makes it a real drag.
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MoveOn.org was formed by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Wes Boyd and Joan Blades in 1998 as an e-mail group protesting the Clinton impeachment hearings. In the ensuing decade it has grown virally to become a grass roots organization capable of raising millions of dollars and mobilizing hundreds of volunteers at the drop of a hat.
If you believe some of the movers and shakers of the organization, they delivered hundreds of thousands of votes to John Kerry in swing states in 2004, and have single handedly swayed elections throughout the country in the last few cycles. If you listen to right-wing radio, Moveon.org is a "far, far left" shadow group bent on destroying America. "Far far left" in this case being what most of the world considers "centrist."
MoveOn is a poster child for viral marketing, a small e-mail list which grew to a larger e-mail list which migrated to multiple websites and now has brick-and-mortar offices throughout the country. They have also made tremendous use of platforms such as YouTube to expose their advertising to a large audience at minimal cost.
Another key tactic has been to court controversy. MoveOn´s ads are strident and often intentionally inflammatory. Just as the so-called liberal media is currently giving Sarah Palin hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free press for her new book release, MoveOn has always banked on free exposure for their controversial campaigns. This has generally been an effective strategy but also led the group to one of its lowest moments when they described General David Petraeus as "General Betray Us," drawing scorn from both the right and left, including some of the Democratic Congresspeople they had helped get elected.
By the 2004 election, MoveOn had clearly become a force to be reckoned with, enough so that it became a primary target for right-wing talk shows across the country. Bill O´Reilly assumed his usual statesman-like demeanor when he claimed that "these people use propaganda techniques perfected by Dr. Joseph Goebbels." Ouch, MoveOn, you´ve such been loofahed! Of course this was even more free press that vaulted the organization from relative obscurity outside of politico circles to the national. Membership expanded even more rapidly.
"MoveOn: The Movie," directed by Scott Stevenson, documents the group´s development through interviews and on-the-fly footage of the activists at work. It is essentially a 90-minute long advertisement for the organization focusing on a few key figures like Board President Eli Pariser and Cultural Director Laura Dawn, a former punk rocker who also toured with Moby. Moby, filmed while sitting next to a giant banana, is one of several celebrities featured in this recruiting video along with Al Gore, John Kerry, Bruce Springsteen (in concert) and others.
