Co-op company part of Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" DVD
BobbyG
See, all I'm talkin' about is applying the same business model as the
company featured in this story, except applying it to food production
on a co-op owned farm. Simple, right?
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Top of the Queue: Madison’s Union Cab part of ‘Capitalism’ DVD
by ROB THOMAS
The Capital Times
Posted: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 5:00 am
It was movie night last week for many of the cabbies at Union Cab.
The DVD of Michael Moore's recent movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story"
arrived in stores last week, and the drivers had a particular
interest
in it. Because they're the stars -- of one of the bonus features,
anyway.
Rent or buy the DVD, go to the second page of the bonus features
menu,
and you'll see "Commie Taxi Drivers -- "You Talkin' To Me?" -- in
Wisconsin," a seven-minute short film about Union Cab.
Last April, Moore sent a producer and cameraman to Madison to film
both
Union Cab and Isthmus Engineering for the documentary. Both companies
embody the spirit of what Moore was looking for the film, which was
not
only to show how the little guy gets fleeced by the current
profit-driven system of corporate capitalism, but to showcase
companies
that are finding alternative ways to do business and aren't just
surviving, but thriving.
Union Cab, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in October, is a
worker
cooperative, owned and operated by its employees. In the film, a
dispatcher is showing off a new computer system he's designed to a
fellow employee, and his friend enthuses, "You could make a mint
selling
this!" The dispatcher corrects him: "WE could make a mint."
But while Isthmus Engineering made it into the final cut of
"Capitalism"
that played in theaters last fall, Union Cab was left on the
cutting-room floor.
"When we found out we didn't make the theatrical cut, everybody was
disappointed," cab driver Fred Schepartz, who is featured prominently
in
the segment, said. "We're pretty happy to be in the DVD."
Schepartz said he that while he would have appreciated a little more
detail on the nuts and bolts about how the cooperative actually
operates, he liked what he saw.
"It was a real honor to be included," he said. "The underlying
message
of the film was that capitalism is inherently evil. And here's Union
Cab
cited as an example of an antidote to capitalism. That's something
we're
well aware of at Union Cab, but it's good to have that kind of
acknowledgment."
The company comes off looking awfully well in the featurette. It
opens
with a noir-esque shot of downtown Madison at night, as Schepartz's
taxi
cruises up State Street, with The Pipefitter, Triangle Market and
Parthenon Gyros in the background.
"They wanted to go for a visual effect, like ‘Taxi Driver,'"
Schepartz
said. "It was funny, because a day or two before the shoot, Basel
(Hamdan, a senior field producer on the film) e-mails me and asks me
if
I can find steam rising, like that opening shot in ‘Taxi Driver.' I
busted my ass trying to find steam. But it was April and there was
just
no steam to be had."
To get that evocative exterior shot of the cab riding up State
Street,
the cameraman rode in a minivan next to Schepartz's cab, hanging his
camera out the side window while Hamdan held him by his belt buckle.
The
sight naturally drew the attention of Madison police, but once they
learned it was a movie shoot, the officers were fine.
The film finds plenty of organizations that think pooling resources
and
banding together is just common sense, like the state-owned Bank of
North Dakota. But, of course, Moore also zeroes in on the predatory
nature of modern capitalism, where individuals see others'
misfortunes
as a way to make a buck.
The film is vintage Moore, for better or for worse, and it does
include
the expected stunts, like trying to wrap the New York Stock Exchange
in
yellow crime-scene tape.
But in his last two films, "Capitalism" and "Sicko," Moore seems to
be
getting better and better not just at chronicling individual
jaw-dropping abuses, but stitching them together into a larger and
troubling look at an unraveling social contract in America.
In the documentary, cab driver Rebecca Kemble said she believes that
contract will unravel entirely and the current economic system will
collapse. When it does, businesses will be looking for alternative
models to follow, and they'll be looking at places like Union Cab.
"Our company structure gets us away from our addiction to profits,
and
thinking that money is the be-all and the end-all," Kemble says in
the
film. "Money is not a life force. Life is a life force."
--
Dan Clore