Political Protest 3 - Berlusconi’s Mousetrap (Indymedia Ireland/ Eamon Crudden, 2002)
Author: redactie redactie
In Berlusconi’s Mousetrap we see the G8 2001 in Genova as an ancient arena, where the clash between authority and activists is carefully staged and monitored by Berlusconi, the mediatic puppet master.
Betting on two horses, the Cavaliere’s police force planted aggressive infiltrators to serve as agents provocateurs in the midst of the more radical groups such as Black Block and thus discrediting the whole anti-G8 protest as a group of violent thugs. Simultaneously the resulting riots and confrontations serve as fodder for the camera’s, as an alternative to the Sunday soccer match.
Saturated with image, text and voice-overs, the two-hour video-documentary is a staggering experience, which deals with the pervasive mechanisms of the spectacular -both in content and form. A spectator in the Melkweg Cinema was wondering whether it was necessary for the filmmakers to adopt these same mechanisms in the editing mode of their film. The suggestion to look for new ways of staying out of the sensationalist trap was shared by the makers, but in this case the truth-finding aspect of the project prevailed. Especially since a part of the Indymedia Ireland team, like 93 others, were caught up in the Diaz School raid by the police and subsequently brutally assaulted. And so the filmmakers unintentionally became protagonists of their own film. A court case against the carabinieri and all those who allowed the events to degenerate is currently being prepared and will probably be held in April 2004.
Sarah van Lamsweerde