"It's the Economy, Stupid!"

"It's the Economy, Stupid!"

"It is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism."
-- Frederic Jameson/Slavoj Zizek/Mark Fisher

Is it even possible to understand and engage with political economy, the invisible force that seems to shape how we live and die, via film?

How to make sense of economic history and theory, or poverty, inequality, and class relations?

With dramas like THE CLEARSTREAM AFFAIR, a story of financial corruption exposed, and THE OUTSIDER, recounting the extraordinary tale of how one young trader lost $ 4.9 Billion for a French bank, to Michael Apted’s unique documentary 56 UP, a mirror of the British class system, and Ilan Ziv’s monumental six-part CAPITALISM series, filmed in 23 countries, OVID has assembled an unmatched collection of original, illuminating, and well-argued films that take on this daunting challenge.

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"It's the Economy, Stupid!"
  • System Error

    Directed by Florian Opitz • Documentary • 2017 • 96 minutes

    SYSTEM ERROR takes us from to the roots of the expectation of unlimited growth, particularly in the post-World War II years, to the financial crash of 2008 and beyond. Does the subsequent decade of simultaneous inequality, austerity, an...

  • As Goes Janesville

    Directed by Brad Lichtenstein • Documentary • 2012 • 87 minutes

    As Goes Janesville catapults viewers to the front lines of a national debate over the fate of the American economy and the survival of the middle class – a debate that turned into a pitched battle in the normally tranquil state of W...

  • Domestic Labor (six films)

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    Films on (paid) domestic labor, and the fraught relationships that follow.

  • The Outsider

    Directed by Christophe Barratier • Drama • With Arthur Dupont, François-Xavier Demaison, Sabrina Ouazani • 2018 • 117 minutes

    Before the subprime mortgage crisis began unfolding in 2008, causing chaos in world markets and misery among millions of homeowners, another financial apocalypse was alre...

  • The Dirty War on the National Health Service

    Directed by John Pilger • Documentary • 2019 • 106 minutes

    Britain's National Health Service, the NHS, was the world's first universal public health service. Designed to give millions of people "freedom from fear" following World War II, the NHS today is under threat of being sold off and conver...

  • Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train

    Directed by Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller • Documentary • With Matt Damon • 2010 • 78 minutes

    This acclaimed film looks at the amazing life of the renowned historian, activist and author. Following his early days as a shipyard labor organizer and bombardier in World War II, Howard Zinn became an a...

  • In the Aisles (w/ Franz Rogowski & Sandra Huller)

    Directed by Thomas Stuber • Drama • With Franz Rogowski, Sandra Huller • 2018 • 125 minutes

    When the reclusive Christian (Franz Rogowski, TRANSIT) takes a job working the night shift at a big box store, his new manager, Bruno from the Beverage Department (Peter Kurth, BABYLON BERLIN), teaches hi...

  • Miners Shot Down

    Directed by Rehad Desai • Documentary • 2014 • 86 minutes

    In August 2012, mine workers in one of South Africa's biggest platinum mines began a wildcat strike for better wages. Six days into the strike, the police used live ammunition to brutally suppress it, killing 34 and injuring many more. Th...

  • The Forgotten Space (Allan Sekula & Noel Burch)

    Directed by Allan Sekula & Noel Burch • Documentary • 2010 • 112 minutes

    The 'forgotten space' of Allan Sekula and Noel Burch's essay film is the sea, the oceans through which 90% of the world's cargo now passes. At the heart of this space is the container box, which, since its invention in the ...

  • Chicago Boys

    Directed by Carola Fuentes and Rafael Valdeavellano • Documentary • 2015 • 85 minutes

    In the middle of the Cold War, the University of Chicago gave scholarships to a group of Chilean students to study economics under the teachings of Milton Friedman. Twenty years later, during Pinochet's dictato...

  • When Banana Ruled

    Directed by Mathilde Damoisel • Documentary • 2017 • 52 minutes

    Bananas are everywhere: Americans eat nearly 10 billion of them per year, consuming more pounds of bananas than apples and oranges combined.

    WHEN BANANA RULED tells the story of the men who made bananas the most ubiquitous fruit in...

  • 300 Trillion – The Debt Trap

    Directed by Rudolph Herzog • Documentary • 2022 • 80 minutes

    The worldwide mountain of debt is more than 300% of the world's annual economic output. Since the pandemic, debt expansion is out of control. Will the system collapse under its weight?

    The film explores the significance of our debt si...

  • Master of the Universe

    Directed by Marc Bauder • Documentary • With Rainer Voss, Angela Merkel • 2014 • 88 minutes

    A brilliant documentary dissecting the global financial system as told by leading German investment banker Rainer Voss. A real life former master of the universe, Voss gives a disturbing insider's account...

  • Going Private

    Directed by Stina Werenfels • Drama • With Michael Neuenschwander, Susanne-Marie Wrage, Bettina Stucky • 2005 • 98 minutes

    H-P is an investment banker who lives with his wife and son in a luxurious lakeside villa. But things aren’t as perfect as they seem. H-P is involved in some dodgy deals and...

  • Germinal

    Directed by Claude Berri • Drama • With Renaud, Gérard Depardieu, Miou-Miou • 1993 • 160 minutes

    Winner of France’s prestigious César Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design, this epic film is based on the novel by Émile Zola.

    During the Second Napoleonic Empire (the mid-19th cen...

  • A History of the European Working Class (series)

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    The working class has played an essential part of European countries’ history – through revolutions, wars and social progress. In four episodes of a spectacular tale, this show reminds us of what our societies owe to the workers’ movements and its struggles.

    The story begins in the 18th century,...

  • How to Steal a Country

    Directed by Rehad Desai, co-directed by Mark Kaplan • Documentary • 2020 • 87 minutes

    [02/05/2025: Anyone see the NYT article today "What Is ‘State Capture’? A Warning for Americans." ? Here's a doc thriller about what went on in South Africa not so long ago!]

    HOW TO STEAL A COUNTRY opens like ...

  • Waiting for the Carnival

    Directed by Marcelo Gomes • Documentary • 2019 • 86 minutes

    The small village of Toritama is a microcosm of relentless capitalism. Each year, more than 20-million pairs of jeans are produced in make-shift factories. The locals work non-stop hours, proud to be the masters of their own time. Durin...

  • Thinking Existenz - Ep 06 - Esther Duflo

    Directed by Graça Castanheira • Documentary • With Esther Duflo • 2013 • 30 minutes

    Ten personalities from diverse social and geographical backgrounds reflect on the world and its future. A portrait in multiple voices of contemporary reality, revealing the deep connections that exist between our...

  • Third Avenue: Only the Strong Survive

    Directed by Jon Alpert • Documentary • 1980 • 60 minutes

    This Emmy Award-winning documentary tells the stories of six "ordinary" people who live or work along New York City's Third Avenue, which runs for sixteen miles through Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, cutting through the complex social...

  • Marx for Beginners

    Directed by Bob Godfrey • Animation • 1978 • 6 minutes

    How many people have actually read the work of Karl Marx? Based on the book by the Mexican cartoonist Rius, MARX FOR BEGINNERS is a hilarious animated film that highlights Marx's most influential ideas, and places them into the context of we...

  • The Society of the Spectacle

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    Six years after the publication of his Situationist classic The Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord released this semi-experimental, essay-film adaptation. Using the classic Situationist technique of “détournement” (think pre-digital remixing), Debord overlays a dizzying array of still and film ...

  • Art and Oligarchs

    Directed by Tania Rakhmanova • Documentary • 2010 • 52 minutes

    A popular trend among Russian oligarchs is to purchase works of art. Why? It's a way to get into the Kremlin's good graces, to gild their image...and to cover up the origin of their fortunes, often acquired in the shadow of post-Sovi...

  • The Price of Progress

    Directed by Víctor Luengo • Documentary • With Angelika Hilbeck, Gilles-Eric Seralini, Bernard Url, Nathalie Moll, Jean-Phillippe Azoulay • 2019 • 80 minutes

    In the urgent context that shapes much of the discourse on the future of agriculture in the E.U., "The Price of Progress" delves into the ...