New Orleans Film Festival 2009

The Yes Men are anti-corporate pranksters who create phony Web sites to get themselves invited to high-level corporate conferences and media events—where they give hilarious, Swiftian analyses that unmask global injustice and satirize human rights abuses. They are the 21st-century's answer to Timothy Leary's proselytizing for acid and Ken Kesey's busload of hipsters. The big difference is that they care less about changing minds than changing policy. But announcing, as spokespeople for Dow Chemical, that they will at last take full financial responsibility for the victims of Bhopal, they create a media sensation that embarrasses the real powers that be. And, outfitted in their wacky "SurvivaBall" getups, the Yes Men address a room full of straight-laced suits who don't think there's anything funny about going to insane lengths to assure one's personal safety in the event of any and all calamities. The Yes Men don't exactly speak truth to power. But their hearts are in the right place—right next to their funny bones.