Market Update (2003)

Joshua Oppenheimer reimagines a sixty-second stock market update as maniacal monologue by a mumbling madman giving a bizarre play-by-play of floor traders and urban pedestrians as the trading day comes to an end. Created while in the midst of production on the feature-length GLOBALIZATION TAPES, this brief film is Oppenheimer's most concentrated piece of socio-political commentary: a quick, colorful political cartoon of capitalism plucked out-of-context and set to a soundtrack that is both comic and somewhat sinister. The upbeat musical accompaniment only enhances the empty celebration of meaningless activity.