Wal-Mart movie's huge success in Europe

From a four-day stint at the Berlin Film Festival to standing-room only theaters in Ireland (where Big Blue hasn't even appeared yet!), the Wal-Mart film's success overseas pleasantly surprised the filmmakers. Says producer Robert Greenwald:

"The most fascinating aspects were the tone and depth of the questions after the screenings which immediately focus on the issue of corporations, globalization, and the nature of capitalism itself. The awareness of these issues and Wal-Mart's connection to them was beyond my expectations.. People were very moved and stunned by the stories we tell and information we are providing."

It's interesting how different the conversations are, and which dots people connect. In my own experience, once my (mostly) conservative parents had seen the movie, my centrist mother started talking about healthcare again. She's long believed that national healthcare is a good idea, and watching Wal-Mart workers being encouraged to go on state-level healthcare has her talking about it again. (I even get near-weekly reports about which friends she's evangelized to and how it was done.)

Greenwald also took a moment to point out one of the reasons why the film is important not just as a piece of are, but as an active and ongoing instrument for dialog and change:

As I stumbled towards the airplane on Sunday I couldn't count anymore the number and variety of interviews, but I knew we all had helped the cause significantly by bringing this film to life. It is going to be used by people all around the world to build alliances, tell the story, and act as an organizing tool or as a warning.