The American documentary U.N. Me, which had its world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in November, puts the United Nations under the microscope. What it reveals is not pretty.
The United Nations was established at the end of the Second World War to ensure a safer, more peaceful and just world. But as reports of human rights violations and international conflicts make daily headlines, the question arises: Is the United Nations living up to its founding ideals?
Filmmakers Ami Horowitz and Matthew Groff believe the answer is a resounding no. Their darkly humorous documentary exposes the inefficiencies and corruption at the heart of the United Nations, showing how an organization created to ennoble mankind now enables evil.
Inefficient and Corrupt
U.N. Me reveals how a U.N. peacekeeping force stationed in Cote d'Ivoire fired into a crowd of unarmed protesters, injuring and killing dozens; how the Oil for Food Program, the largest U.N. humanitarian effort ever conceived, devolved into one of the world’s largest international scams; how the organization that should be leading the international effort to eradicate terrorism cannot, seven years after 9/11, agree on a definition of 'terrorism'; how the U.N.'s Human Rights Council prolonged the genocide in Darfur, Sudan by attempting to discredit the recommendations of its own investigative team.
These revelations are balanced against interviews with former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, former CIA director James Woolsey, former U.N. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, Nobel Laureate Jody Williams and others, delivering a damning account of how the world's leading humanitarian organization has been used by dictators and tyrants to line its own pockets, and how there appear to be few mechanisms in place to stop it.
Investment Banker Turned Filmmaker
The film is based on an idea Ami Horowitz had one night while watching television. Reflecting on the genocide in Rwanda and why the U.N. had not stopped it and the current situation in Sudan, he describes how small and powerless he felt. “I looked over at the screen and said, wow, this medium is very engaging and entertaining if done right. Here’s the megaphone I need. I spent the whole night thinking about it, and next morning I said I’ve got to make a movie.” This was no small decision given that he was working as an investment banker at the time and had no experience of filmmaking.
Matthew Groff, who like Horowitz acted as writer, director and producer on the movie, started having similar thoughts around the same time. “You could see how Oil for Food was losing the public’s interest and journalists were covering it less and less. I started looking a little bit more at the U.N. and I realized that this was a really undocumented story. For an institution that ostensibly represents all the people of the world, it’s incredibly opaque. Transparency is just not there and Oil for Food was probably the biggest manifestation of that to date.”
A mutual friend put the two men in touch. In addition, Horowitz was able to line up a crew whose credits include An Inconvenient Truth, My Architect, Borat and Bruno.
U.N. Stills Serves a Purpose
Although the documentary, which was in competition for the IDFA feature-length documentary award, pummels the United Nations hard, Horowitz says he believes the organization still serves a purpose. “This is a point-of-view movie. We don’t make an argument that we’re trying to present an unbiased view. We’re critical. Having said that, we come from a place of love. I call it tough love. We’re attacking it only because we think it can do better and it needs to do better.”
U.N. Me is a bold, big-budget attempt, particularly from a first-time filmmaker, to shine some light through the U.N.’s opacity. After spending five years realizing the project, Horowitz and Groff say they will take some time off before embarking on anything new. In the meantime, Groff’s work can be seen in the documentary Sid Bernstein Presents…, scheduled for release in 2010.
Cecily Layzell - Cecily Layzell is a food and travel writer and founder of restaurant review site www.eat-amsterdam.com.
Join the Conversation