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4th annual event returns to Victoria Theatre in San Francisco

The CounterCorp Anti-Corporate Film Festival, now in its fourth consecutive year, is moving to May in 2009, with a three-day event spanning May 28 through May 30.

 The Festival -- nicknamed "Tipping Man" in reference to its logo, which depicts a crowd pulling down a statue of a corporate executive-- has taken place in October in previous years.

      But as the Bay Area's autumn cinema calendar got more crowded, the organizers decided to move the event -- described as "the world's only dedicated anti-corporate film festival" -- to the Spring.

      "We just felt that there were too many festivals in the Fall," said CounterCorp director John Wilner, "and that given the corporate-driven economic crisis, we needed to do it sooner rather than later."

      Wilner said that the organizers are particularly interested in screening films that address the broader financial and economic system, but that films on those subjects were rare before the current crisis.

      "We'll probably see films on those issues coming out in the next year or so," he said. "As more and more people make documentaries, they're going to make them about the things they're dealing with."

      Among the recurring themes in the previous Anti-Corporate Film Festivals were industrial agriculture, intellectual property and artistic creativity, privatization, and corporate culture, crime, and abuses.

      Although most of the films they screen are documentaries, Wilner said the programmers always include at least one narrative (fictional) film each year, usually as the "centerpiece" of the three-day Festival.

      Last year's centerpiece film, VISIONEERS, featured stand-up comedian and rising television and film star Zach Galafiniakis as a dissatisfied drone who rebels against his job at an all-encompassing dystopian corporation.

      Previous centerpiece films include THE METHOD, a "Survivor"-like thriller from Spain, and SEVERANCE, a horror-comedy that the organizers described as "The Office" meets  "Friday the 13th".

      The CounterCorp Festival also screens both short and animated films. 

Some of the films are submitted by filmmakers, and others are curated by the Festival's staff and advisors.

      Founded in 2006, CounterCorp seeks to raise public and media awareness, promote critical thought and analysis, and encourage informed discussion and debate about how corporations actually operate, and what they really add to - and subtract from - humanity's "bottom line".

      The organization does not accept corporate funding or sponsorships, relying instead on donations from individuals and small, local businesses, and ticket sales to fund the Festival and other year-round events.

      The final program for this year's Festival will be announced in early May. For more information, visit CounterCorp's website at http://www.countercorp.org/ , or e-mail the organizers at filmfest@countercorp.org.