The Coca-Cola Case Film Tour 2010 is coming to Halifax. Image: Cinema Politica.

HALIFAX – The Coca-Cola Case, a controversial documentary about corporate-sponsored illegal activity in Colombia, is making its rounds in a nationwide tour. Organized by the National Film Board (NFB) and documentary film group Cinema Politica, the tour has hit major cities like Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver, and is now making its way towards Halifax.

On January 11th, Cinema Politica received a letter from Coca-Cola representatives threatening to take legal action against the documentary organizers. They claimed the film was defamatory and violated confidentiality agreements between the film makers and the Atlanta-based multinational.

The NFB and Cinema Politica have refused to cave under pressure, continuing the tour despite legal intimidations. They argue that Coca-Cola disagrees with a number of accounts made by characters in the film and refuses to put the company under documentary criticism.

In an interview with The Dominion Paper, Ezra Winton, Program Director for Cinema Politica said, “for one of the world’s most successful corporations to make the effort to shut down this tour illustrates that the film-makers are doing something right, and that we are doing something right by circulating and screening the film.”

The soft drink tycoon has faced public scrutiny due to charges of associating with right-wing paramilitary groups operating in near-total impunity in Colombia, a country ravaged by a half-century of civil war. Allegations by SINALTRAINAL, Colombian food industry trade union, include death threats, kidnapping and the murder of eight Coca-Cola bottling employees. All eight of these employees were union leaders, a frequent target of paramilitary violence in Colombia.

Coca-Cola and its bottling companies have denied all accusations pertaining to human rights violations at the Colombia plants.

In The Coca-Cola Case, directors Carmen Garcia and German Gutierrez point their cameras at the beverage giant’s alleged crimes. Their purpose for creating the film was “to show that the company is not so friendly and not so good with the workers,” said Gutierrez in an interview with The Link Newspaper.

The film follows lawyers Daniel Kovalik and Terry Collingsworth as they fight against the injustices at the Colombian bottling plant. Both are involved in the 2001 Miami lawsuit filed by the United Steelworkers of America on behalf of SINALTRAINAL. The suit charges Coca-Cola, and its two bottlers, Bebidas y Alimentos and Panamerican Beverages, with serious crimes, including the murder of the eight union leaders.

The film also profiles activist Ray Rogers and the Stop Killer Coke campaign. In recent years, Rogers has been successful in encouraging universities across America to ban Coca-Cola products on campus as an act of protest against the bloodshed in Colombia.

Abad Khan is the Halifax-based coordinator of Cinema Politica, and is co-organizing the local film screenings. “Cinema Politica … [is] a student-run grassroots organization, whose main audience consists of students. [That] is a very strong sales demographic [for Coca-Cola], they probably see this affecting their bottom line,” Khan wrote in an email to CKDU.

Khan points to the successful ban of Coca-Cola products on other campuses as a real threat to Coca-Cola. “As you know, many universities, including Saint Mary’s University and University of King’s College in Halifax, sign exclusivity contracts to market and sell soft drink products on campus. [T]his film could be used as a catalyst to spur debate, to challenge Coke’s Olympic branding image, ultimately leading the schools to divest from Coke if these tactics don’t change. Coke has stated that bottling plants act independently but the influence of the company is undeniable; they not only own shares in those plants but the bottlers are beholden to Atlanta. They could stop this if they wanted to.”

The Coca-Cola Case, presented by the NFB, Cinema Politica, NSPIRG and SMU-NSPIRG, is showing in Halifax on February 1st at the Alumni Hall, New Academic Building of the University of Kings College, and February 2nd in Room 160, Sobey’s Building of St. Mary’s University. Both screenings run from 7pm to 9pm. Admission is free, but donations are accepted. For more information on The Coca-Cola Case, visit http://films.nfb.ca/the-coca-cola-case/film.php