Laura Nix / Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno, Margareth Matembe – filmmakers and activists – The Yes Men Are Revolting

FRED’s Angelo Acerbi meets director Laura Nix and political activists Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno, Margareth Matembe to talk about the film “The Yes Men Are Revolting” from the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.

How difficult is it to be an activist today? Even more if you have a family, a job and media attention that sometimes gets in the way. Through thick and thin, highs and lows, these guys manage to keep their passion high and our attention awake.

Plot: After almost two decades of humorous guerrilla activism against economic greed and political corruption as The Yes Men, everyday life and a crisis of identity seem to have caught up with the duo: Mike Bonanno now has a wife and children, and Andy Bichlbaum has not given up hope of a lasting relationship with his male partner. Their critical interventions, in which amongst other ruses they pretended to be spokespeople for the US Chamber of Commerce or for Shell and announced a change of tack to nonplussed members of the press have fizzled out without having had the desired effect. Growing responsibilities in their private lives have influenced their ability to stage interventions together.

In spite of this they still feel a duty to oppose climate change – which far overshadows any of humanity’s other problems – with all they have. Alternating between Andy and Mike’s diary-like perspectives, this third film about The Yes Men (2009 Panorama Audience Award), describes the ups and downs of a creative friendship and takes an amusing look at the duo’s successful and not so successful interventions from 2009 to the present.