The Luckiest Nut In The World

followthethings.com
Grocery

A singing peanut and his gang of shelled friends explain that sometimes free trade is just nuts (Source: Fulcrum TV nd link).

Using a mix of songs, animation and archive footage an American peanut looks at how his experiences are compared to other nuts around the world. The end result is an amusing look at Trade Liberalisation and why it works for some countries but not for others (Source: IMDb 2002 link).

Mr Nut does this all in song … [which] is intercut with original animation, existing cartoons, propaganda films, public information films and bits and pieces from the anthropology archive (Source: Anon 2002a).

The film follows an animated American peanut, who sings about the difficulties faced by nuts from developing countries. Supported by a mixture of animation, music, our American peanut takes the viewer through the stories of the cashew, brazil and ground nuts – all of whom suffer as world trade is liberalized. But it is a different story in America – where the peanut is protected by tariffs and heavily subsidized, and worth over four billion dollars a year to the American economy. Certainly the luckiest nut in the world. The film helps people to understand how the pressure to embrace ‘free market’ economics, with it’s promise of a wealthy, abundant market place has actually driven many countries further into poverty (Source: James 2002a link).

Animated films are increasingly being used in ways where the focus is on communication or in a social-political criticism and commentary. Many of these films are non-narrative animation, utilised to critique abstract, historical or contemporary socio-political, economic and industrial agendas, systems and practices … Films such as these not only represent the integration of aspects of radical thought and utilitarian thought in their conception, exhibition and distribution, but, they also integrate tools of propaganda and persuasion. … A contemporary example is Emily James’ documentary animated film The Luckiest Nut in the World (2002, UK) … (Source: Lavine 2010 link).

“It’s important to give a nod to what you’re doing. I’m presenting a strong opinion using techniques that were also used to persuade people” [Emily James] explains. “It’s like sampling in music – you appropriate it, but it maintains its origins and allows me to have my tongue in my cheek and not become too preachy.” One difference between James and the propagandists whose material she has appropriated is that they had a lot more money to play around with. So how did she manage on a £40,000 budget? “Well, it was time-consuming,” she explains. “Most people do films for ‘Alt-TV’ in six or eight weeks. I took six months. And it wouldn’t have been possible if we’d paid people properly – I had to call in favours from friends” (Source: Anon 2002a).

When the pressure on young television makers is to play safe and stick to familiar formulae, finding a prime-time slot to tell your own story in your own way is like winning the lottery. In an increasingly crowded and constricted field of programme ideas, Alt TV offers new television producers and directors the opportunity to make half-an-hour of prime- time television in their own idiosyncratic way. The results are an eclectic mix of stories and styles. In The Luckiest Nut in the World a singing peanut presented the second programme of the series. … Alt TV gives new programme makers an opportunity – in fact actively encourages them – to experiment with highly personal films, some moving, some entertaining, some hilarious. It has provided an invaluable stepping stone for talented new directors on their way to larger and more testing projects – another example of Channel 4 offering something new and different to its audience while fulfilling its role as the R+D lab of creative television in Britain (Source: Channel 4 2002, p.27).

I had been reading a lot about global economics and simply became obsessed with the idea that one could make a film which would give people enough economics and history with which they could engage, while still being thoroughly entertaining. I must have pitched a dozen different ideas on the subject before I came up with the concept for The Luckiest Nut (Source: James 2002b link).

No longer stuffy, didactic or earnest, the new breed of documentary … is attracting audiences who would normally shy away from the genre. These films prove you can make a non-fiction film entertaining and provocative, even if it’s about tragic events. But is a documentary still a documentary when the narrator is a singing peanut suffering from Western liberal guilt? (Source: Hughes 2004).

It’s somewhat disorientating to say the least to see a whimsical, faintly surreal animation straight after an ordinary weekday edition Channel 4 News, but as it soon became apparent, … The Luckiest Nut in the World was much more than just a whimsical, faintly surreal animation. Cleverly drawing in its audience with a prolonged introduction that made it look as though the viewer was about to enjoy half an hour’s worth of the adventures of some talking nuts, this … had weightier issues on its mind. …  this was no mere exercise in preachy tautology, and neither was it couched in the sometimes off-putting over-earnestness of the sort of programme that would normally tackle this kind of subject. … Coming across like a strange fusion of Victor Lewis-Smith and Mark Thomas, … The Luckiest Nut in the World was a programme that was impossible to ignore on any level once you’d started watching it. On the one hand, it was impossible to avoid smirking at the animated nuts singing “the IMF, mmmmmmmmmmmmm, they put their foot down!”, yet at the same time it was also impossible to avoid taking in the blunt facts that the programme was relating or fully understanding the unfair nature of the trade practices at work in the world today. It’s easy to ignore a graph charting an economic downturn if it’s presented to you with the cold graphical style, ominous narration and sparse editing that characterises literally dozens of programmes per week. It’s much harder to ignore it, however, if it splurges onto the screen like some escaped Nickelodeon graphic and is explained to you by a chorus of singing nuts. Far from alienating any viewers who weren’t particularly interested in the subject matter, the programme actually drew them in, entertaining and amusing them while never losing its grasp on the need to make its point as unequivocally and effectively as possible. Some may sneer and deride this as a “dumbed down” way of tackling a serious topic, but the blunt truth of the matter is that a lot more thought and intelligence went into the planning of … The Luckiest Nut in the World than goes into the average identikit production line current affairs documentary. The intention here was clearly to reach out to a wider audience than might normally be expected for a show with such heavyweight subject matter, and the makers took a dazzling and refreshingly different approach to accomplishing this feat. Certainly, it’s likely that more than a few stragglers left over after the news and channel-surfers who had grown tired of Match of the Day will have found their interest sufficiently aroused to persuade them to keep watching. What’s more, they probably learned quite a lot in the process (Source: Worthington 2002 link).

I work for an environmental charity, but I do dislike all these `greens’ who harp on about the evils of world trade and organisations like WTO, IMF, The World Bank as if they were Satan on earth! So this short really won me over because it took a reasonable line, was fun but actually said what all the hippies say! Using nuts as an example of a commodity the film looks at several examples of how free trade has failed to be just that. We are taken on this journey by a country- singing, all-American peanut who has been protected by free trade. He looks at several other cases from Africa and South America where the nut trade has collapsed due to free trade and the influence of organisation like the WTO, IMF, The World Bank and even the EU itself. This is all delivered with animation, puppets and songs – all with a great sense of fun and wit that amazingly comes across despite the subject material! It is very funny and very educational. Whereas many protestors against globalisation tend to just group together and chant slogans to no great effect (how am I supposed to learn from you?) this actually sets out the facts and shows you why it may not all be a great idea. The animation and editing is superb, the voice artists are great and the songs are clever and funny. It’s such a mix of styles and content but it works very well. Overall I really enjoyed this and felt I learnt from it. Next time you see armies of teenage protestors throwing stones at the police, with their point lost in a sea of violence, switch off the news and instead try and find this short film which will make the case against Trade Liberalisation in a much better way (Source: bob the moo 2002 link).

Using jaunty music, animation and old films, Emily Joyce managed to convey clearly the complexity of a difficult subject to comprehend. I had an economics teacher who managed to explain macro and micro economics by illustrating examples using Vimto as his “cash crop” but a film like this would have helped enormously. It certainly sinks in and can be easily remembered (Source: Anon 2002b)

… the most singular success in my mind was when Christian Aid in the UK used the film and its characters in the “Trade Rules are Nuts, Let’s Crack’m!” campaign. The fact that the film has been picked up in this way and is still being shown to help people see the follies of free market economics is a source of endless gratification to me (Source: Emily James in Anon nd link).

Dear Tony [Blair]

You’ve said a lot about the importance of ending world poverty but words are not enough. To really tackle poverty, we need to change the way world trade works – at the moment it’s absolutely nuts! Poor countries are forced to open up their markets to foreign competition and are not able to give their own producers the help they need.

Please will you use your authority to call for trade rules that are weighted to benefit poor countries and communities? I look forward to seeing how trade rules change.

Yours sincerely

(Source: text from postcard in the ‘“Trade Rules are Nuts, Let’s Crack’m!” campaign pack for young people)

The first-time director behind The Luckiest Nut In The World – the Channel 4 film presented by a singing peanut that was feted in the broadcaster’s 2002 annual report – has secured a four-part series for C4.Producer/director Emily James’ 4 x 30-minute as yet untitled series will spotlight the behaviour of European multinational giants in the oil, pharmaceutical, food and plastics industries and contrast it with the image being pushed by their relevant PR departments. One example could be oil giant BP ’s recent “green washing” rebrand.The series, which will be presented by a glove puppet, has been dubbed “a cross between (comedian) Mark Thomas and Sesame Street”. Each film will blend animation and live-action and will be set in a studio with a puppet audience. The series will take its irreverent tone from the puppet presenter’s pro-corporate voice. James said she was also hoping to create a subtext about the manipulation of public opinion by entertainment television. Commissioned by C4 editor, independent film and video Jess Search, the series will be made by Fulcrum Productions and executive produced by the indie’s joint managing director Christopher Hird. No transmission date has been set but it is due for delivery in April next year. (Source: Anon 2003a).

For the past two years, Emily’s attention has been focused on her feature project Just Do It – a tale of modern-day outlaws, a behind the scenes look at environmental direct action. Gaining unprecedented access, the film tells the story of the activists who put their bodies in the way to fight against climate injustice. Their adventures will entertain, illuminate and inspire (Source: Shacham 2011).