Jim Finn’s films have had more exposure recently, thanks to OVID releasing some of his films in their platform last month, and they continue that, pardon the parlance, trickle down this month with documentaries like Sunday School with Franz Hinkelammert, where the man, among many things, breaks down the semantics of the anti-communist sentiment that Reagan has been spouting since the latter discovered politics. Hinkelammert, for instance, shows Reagan say things like comparing communism as a free market against capitalism. Centre-right people in the West caught on to that lie eventually. Finn gives space to both interviews of Hinkelammert and archive footage of Reagan’s ads.
There’s also the talk show appearances of economist Milton Friedman. The film basically uses Friedman’s words against him. Friedman compares communism to force and instead proposes that the world can achieve a capitalist utopia through voluntary action. And we all know that that’s a lie. Specifically, that the United States forced Chile to take an unelected president. Along with Pinochet, America forced an economic system that the majority of Chileans did not prefer. The film also shows proof of how capitalism requires force. The film, through Hinkelammert, also explains that Chile was a destination for intellectuals worldwide before Kissinger’s intervention. The man dog whistles to his past, basically comparing Allende to Hitler.
This is, for the most part, a great addition to OVID’s programming it’s not without its flaws. For instance, the film doesn’t necessarily answer the question of who Hinkelammert is and what he does and his expertise. Yes, he seems to know what he’s talking about. Even though yes, he makes his wild swings from one topic to another. The film explains his German roots and his choice to move to Costa Rica. It later shows how Cornel West writes the foreword to one of his books. Anyway, the same goes with why this is a Sunday school. Although in fairness, the film answers that question in a more conventional sense. Pardon the parlance but thank God.
This film is like a Sunday school because of Hinkelammert introducing the idea of liberation theology. It’s an philosophy that came and went so quickly the second time. And that’s because the other person who bothered discussing it to the west is Glenn Beck. Remember him? Anyway, the film slightly abandons the nuances and deeper points of liberation theology. After all, it is a school of thought that proves that #NotAllChristians. It segues from that topic by showing its viewers CIA’s secret airports in Poland. And a mild spoiler alert, the camera captures the site to make a very obvious comparison.
The Soviet Union collapsed more than thirty years ago. Yet economists like Hinkelammert are still litigating the ideas behind that doomed utopia. They also litigate the man who came up with that utopia, Karl Marx. Hinkelammert does so for good reason. Besides, capitalism’s recent failures remind viewers that maybe there’s a way out of all of this. Religion also finds its way into the dichotomy between capitalism and Marxism. And there’s a neatness to this conclusion despite its messy middle.
Jim Finn’s Sunday School with Franz Hinkelammert is coming soon to OVID.
