Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Big Men (2015)

Title: Big Men
Director: Rachel Boynton
Call Number:  HD9577.G42 B54 2015

"Not for nothing does 'Big Men,' Rachel Boynton’s astonishing documentary about the 2007 discovery of oil off the coast of Ghana, open with a quotation on greed from the economist Milton Friedman. Dropping us into a perfect storm of avarice, this cool and incisive snapshot of global capitalism at work is as remarkable for its access as for its refusal to judge. . . . Tagging neither heroes nor villains, Ms. Boynton wonders instead who benefits from, and who is harmed by, the billions of dollars in play. Should the enormous risks and staggering costs of getting to 'first oil' guarantee its finder—in this case, a small Texas start-up called Kosmos Energy—a sweetheart deal from the Ghanaian government? The amiable chief executive of Kosmos at the time, Jim Musselman, certainly hopes so; eager to satisfy his corporate backers, and with Ms. Boynton’s camera in tow, he schmoozes with West African royalty and glad-hands middlemen." 
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times