Killer Coke
A Never-ending Story of Exploitation, Greed, Lies, Cover-ups and Complicity in Kidnapping, Torture, Murder and other Gross Human Rights Abuses

Killer Coke Update | January 22, 2010


Film That Coca-Cola Seeks To Censor To Be Shown at Carleton University

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and Cinema Politica have teamed up to organize a tour of the documentary "THE COCA-COLA CASE," a film which focuses on labor and human rights abuses and the legal cases brought against The Coca-Cola Company and its Colombian bottlers. The film also highlights the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke and its Director Ray Rogerswho the Financial Times called "the company's fiercest foe."

On Monday, January 25, "The Coca-Cola Case" will be shown in 301 Azrieli Theater at Carleton University in Ottawa at 7 pm. Appearing at the film-showing to address questions will be the film's director German Gutierrez and Ray Rogers. In addition, Gauri Sreenivasan of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation and Nelson Ross Laguna of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) will participate in a panel following the film-showing. OPSEU, Canada's largest provincial union, has banned Coke products from its facilities and functions and called for a boycott of Coca-Cola products.

Concordia University-based film collective Cinema Politica and the National Film Board of Canada received threatening letters earlier this month from the lawyers for Coca-Cola stating that the film tour for "The Coca-Cola Case" violates a confidentiality agreement. A similar letter was sent to the Alliance in France in efforts to censor the film from being shown at the International Human Rights Film Festival in Paris in March.

At the opening film-showing by Cinema Politica on January 18th at Concordia University, the theater was filled to capacity with an audience of 700. Two hundred others had to be turned away. One audience member, a journalist, commented in a blog on the film, "It is remarkable the number of times in the film where Coca-Cola's representatives are public no-shows; they always insist on doing everything behind closed doors."

At the Concordia University premiere, Rogers applauded the courage of the National Film Board of Canada, filmmakers Carmen Garcia and German Gutierrez of Argus Films and Cinema Politica for "standing up to the veiled threats, bullying and intimidation tactics of The Coca-Cola Company which has unsuccessfully tried to censor and suppress this film."

Rogers has further noted: "The Coca-Cola Company and Colombia's largest bottler, Coca-Cola FEMSA, which have been defendants in human rights abuse lawsuits, are directly linked to Coca-Cola Enterprises which distributes Coca-Cola beverages throughout Canada."

For more information, go to www.KillerCoke.org.