The full title of this film is Encirclement: Neo-liberalism Ensnares Democracy. But I couldn't fit it all into one line, so there you have it. The long title of this film is fitting as the film itself is a rockin' 160 minutes. And those are 160 minutes of black and white footage of talking intellectual heads discussing the various aspects of neo-liberal economic theory, its genesis, evolution, and present day place in society.

Richard Brouillette, who was at the screening, took 12 years to compile and edit this film. I can't even imagine the insane amount of effort it would have taken to shoot all the interviews and then edit them into a coherent and interesting discussion of neo-liberalism that is accessible to audiences. Considering the formidable feat, I think he did a pretty good job. I'm sure the 3 or 4 people I saw walk out of the film after an hour would disagree.

This is not a movie to see late at night, or after you've been drinking. Luckily, I had only time for one beer in between films and so my head was clear and ready to soak in the mostly french film (with english subtitles).

If you are interested in economic theory, social justice, world trade, and financial systems then you will probably be interested in at least some of this film if not the entire thing. I never found myself bored despite the length and heavy content; and I was only lost once to what was going on, which is less of a testament to my intellect and more of a testament to the frankness of the interview subjects.

That all being said, I do have some criticisms of the film.

• The first being that there is definitely room to make the film shorter without losing the flow of the argument or making the film unintelligible.
• The second is that out of the many interview subjects in the film they were all old white guys except for one woman. A little diversity would have been welcomed.
• The third, which builds on the second, is that, even though the topics were often 'developing countries' there was no inclusion of interviews of any representatives of those countries (maybe due to budget constrictions, who knows). However, this led the film to have a clinical and cold aspect that saw the topic removed from the actual people it impacts. This left the film feeling too heady and abstract with not much to connect the ideas with real life examples. Since being cold, clinical, and far removed from real life is one of the major criticisms of neo-liberal economic theory, it's too bad a film criticizing it fell into the same trap.

It's easy to make a film attacking neo-liberal policies and so I commend Brouillette's inclusion of interviews with libertarians and neo-liberal champions; however, the last half of the film had a noticeable deficit in balanced interviews. I would have liked to hear more from the other side of the debate in order to see things clearer.

I have no doubt that many parts of this film, if not all, will be shown in university classrooms across the country and beyond.

This film has also finished screening, however, it will be released in early 2010 in theatres in Vancouver, so if you're interested keep your eyes open for information about screenings. DVDs can also be purchased through the provided link above.