''Our Brand Is Crisis'' is a 2005 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

by Rachel Boynton on American political campaign marketing tactics by Greenberg Carville Shrum (GCS) in the 2002 Bolivian presidential election. The election saw

Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada Sánchez Bustamante (born 1 July 1930), often referred to as Goni, is a Bolivian businessman and politician who served as the 61st president of Bolivia from 1993 to 1997 and from 2002 to 2003. A member of the Revolu ...

elected President of Bolivia, ahead of

Evo Morales Juan Evo Morales Ayma (; born 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to c ...

. The film is distributed by Koch-Lorber Films. "This film is a cautionary tale which comes at a very timely moment," said Koch-Lorber Films president Richard Lorber in a statement to ''

indieWIRE IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

''. "The parallels to the current U.S. administration's approach to selling the war in Iraq are staggering."

Cast

* Mauricio Balcazar (Goni's Press Advisor) *

James Carville Chester James Carville Jr. (born October 25, 1944) is an American political consultant, author, and occasional actor who has strategized for candidates for public office in the United States and in at least 23 nations abroad. A Democrat, he is a ...

(GCS Strategist) *

Tad Devine Thomas A. "Tad" Devine (born June 11, 1955) is an American political consultant. Devine was a senior adviser in Al Gore's 2000 and John Kerry's 2004 Presidential campaigns. He was also the chief strategist for Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential ...

(GCS Advertising Consultant) * Mark Feierstein (GCS Pollster) * Stan Greenberg (GCS Pollster) *

Carlos Mesa Carlos Diego de Mesa Gisbert (; born 12 August 1953) is a Bolivian historian, journalist, and politician who served as the 63rd president of Bolivia from 2003 to 2005. As an independent politician, he previously served as the 37th vice pres ...

(VP Candidate) *

(Opposing Candidate) * Jeremy Rosner (GCS Pollster) *

(aka "Goni"; Bolivia's Presidential Candidate) * Robert Shrum * Tal Silberstein (GCS Management Consultant) *

Manfred Reyes Villa Manfred Armando Antonio Reyes Villa Bacigalupi (born April 19, 1954) is a Bolivian politician, businessman, and former military officer. He was elected mayor of the city of Cochabamba five consecutive times, and became the elected Prefect of ...

(Opposing Candidate) * Amy Webber (GCS Associate)

Awards

* The film won the Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award at the 2005 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival; * Boynton was nominated for the Truer Than Fiction Award at the Independent Spirit Awards; * The film shared the International Documentary Association's top prize for Best Feature Documentary in 2005. * Official Selection at the 2005 South by Southwest Festival * Official Selection at the 2005

Edinburgh International Film Festival The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) is a film festival that runs for two weeks in June each year. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all ti ...

Reception

The film has a 92% approval rating with a score of 7.29/10 on Rotten tomatoes.

Remake

Actor George Clooney produced a 2015 fictionalization of ''Our Brand Is Crisis'', starring Sandra Bullock.

References

External links

* * * * * {{rotten-tomatoes, our_brand_is_crisis
''Our Brand Is Crisis''
at

SourceWatch The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a progressive nonprofit watchdog and advocacy organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. CMD publishes ExposedbyCMD.org, SourceWatch.org, and ALECexposed.org. History CMD was founded in 1993 by prog ...

2005 films Documentary films about elections Films scored by Marcelo Zarvos Films set in 2002 Films set in Bolivia Works about Bolivia Works about marketing