Marilyn Waring on Politics: Local & Global Show One
1996 · 30m · Canada
Directed by Terre Nash
Genres: biography, documentary, essay film
Tones: contemplative, humorous, provocative
Former New Zealand MP Marilyn Waring explains how global economic rules she encountered chairing a public expenditures committee benefit a narrow group while most citizens pay the price, challenging conventional politics in plain language.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A politician explaining macroeconomics in plain language sounds like the opposite of subversive—until you realize Waring's spent 30 minutes demolishing the invisible architecture everyone accepts as inevitable, and she does it with more wit than rage, which somehow makes it more dangerous.
Nash's essayistic approach—letting a sharp mind think aloud about policy architecture—sits in a proud lineage of political documentary that trusts language and argument over spectacle, recalling the rigor of Straub-Huillet or Godard's later work, where form and content refuse separation.
The film's entire impact hinges on Waring's unguarded directness—no archival B-roll crutches, no scores to manipulate mood—just her voice and presence carrying the weight of structural critique, a choice that demands absolute clarity from both filmmaker and subject.