The Yes Men Are Revolting is a funny, action-packed adventure. With the environment on the brink of collapse, we ask a pressing question: at a time when corporate forces have bought and sold democracy, how can we effect real change? Our answer: get every viewer involved in the struggle.
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For the last four years we’ve worked with dozens of groups on infiltrations, impersonations, and mass actions to try to make a difference. Check out the video on this page for a little taste! After the part where we ask for your support, you’ll see a scene where we hold a press conference pretending to be from the US Chamber of Commerce (big-money lobbyists who spend hundreds of millions blocking and dismantling environment, labor, housing, and health laws). The press conference goes well, and the Chamber’s real PR guy even shows up—comedic vigilante justice at its best. Stay tuned to this page for more videos in coming weeks.
But as we continued pulling off actions like the one against the Chamber, the Obama years rolled by, and as money's chokehold on democracy got tighter, we got more frantic. We even took it out on each other, and our “band” almost split up. But then, a sequence of unbelievable global uprisings, from Tahrir Square to Occupy Wall Street, got us excited about the idea of a global revolution–and we began to realize that we can do it too.
Then, energized by our involvement with the Occupy movement, we came to realize our true role in social change. Now, we're hatching our most ambitious plan ever: a human-staffed platform to help every inspired viewer of our film—or anyone at all—get active as well. This “Action Switchboard” taps our 100,000-person database, as well as some much bigger lists, to create fun, meaningful, movement-building projects around the issues we all care about.
This is a plan that invites everyone to join us in revolt. But we need your help now to get the movie and the Switchboard off the ground.
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WHY KICKSTARTER?
The Yes Men Are Revolting completes a trilogy of funny feature docs we started a decade ago. In our first film, The Yes Men (2004), we posed as spokespeople for the World Trade Organization, acting out comedic vigilante justice against the elite. In The Yes Men Fix the World (2009), we delivered a bunch of hard-hitting, hilarious stunts that show why we must change our corporations-first system, and what’s in store if we don’t. The Yes Men Are Revolting will be even more jam-packed with screwball comedy, nail-biting suspense, nasty stings, and informative documentary. It'll also have a gripping personal storyline the first two films lacked—as well as a human-staffed platform to convert viewer enthusiasm into direct action, letting everyone join in the fun and contribute to the movement for change.
But to get there, we need money. When our first movie came out, studios and television networks were paying pretty well—but then the the market for indie films went into freefall.
Today, we're really in a pinch. Corporate sponsorship, of course, is right out. (Duh.) So we're turning to you. The money we raise will go towards paying for a few more shoots and a couple more actions around the globe. We also need money to pay for editors, equipment, archival footage, legal counsel, and all the technical work it takes to get a movie finished and into the world. Finally, we'll need funds for "outreach," mainly the creation and staffing of the Action Switchboard, a way to plug inspired viewers into ongoing projects and help generate new ones. It'll come out at the same time as the film.
If you kick in now, you can join in this steamy synergy. Hurry!
HOW DOES KICKSTARTER WORK?
Kickstarter is a way to “crowdsource” fundraising. In the absence of real funding for films or activist platforms, it enables a lot of people to give what they can in order to make good things happen—which is a bit like how social movements work, sort of.
MAKE A DONATION TO THE FILM AND YOU GET A REWARD. Choose the amount you’d like to donate and the gift you’d like. When funding is completed, you will be charged for your pledge and we will send rewards.
a revolting T-shirt
IF WE DON’T MEET OUR GOAL, WE DON’T GET ANY OF THE MONEY. That’s right, even if we’re $10 short of our goal, we won’t get a dime. That’s why we need you to kick in!
the McRevolutionaries poster series
the ultimate creative activist handbook
THE TEAM
Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno (the Yes Men) (directors)
The Yes Men are an activist duo known for their outrageous satirical interventions at business events, on the internet, television, and in the streets. Their award-winning documentaries, The Yes Men and The Yes Men Fix the World--official selections at Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, and SXSW, and broadcast on HBO and many international TV outlets--chronicle the their mind-blowing pranks that expose and publicize vital issues at critical times. They have authored several books, lectured internationally on art and social change, and are founders of the Yes Lab, an educational organization devoted to training next-generation activists.
