Rage against Wall Street

Rage against Wall Street

On a cold January day, militant rock band Rage Against the Machine took to the heart of the world financial system to film a video clip for "Sleep Now in the Fire", a track from the band's The Battle of Los Angeles.

The new clip is directed by radical US film-maker Michael Moore. Moore directed the award-winning documentaries Roger and Me (1989) and The Big One (1998). He is author of Downsize This! and the creator and host of The Awful Truth, an anti-corporate television show being shown on SBS.

Moore and Rage swung into action on January 26. Band and crew set up their gear on the steps of Federal Hall in lower Manhattan. New York City authorities denied Moore a sound permit, which left all concerned subject to arrest. However, a federal permit was obtained for the shoot.

Rage had time to run through six takes of "Sleep Now in the Fire" before the shoot was broken up by the New York Police Department. While police manhandled Moore and threatened him with arrest, the band members rushed the New York Stock Exchange. They made it through the building's first set of doors before Exchange security hit a button, bringing down metal bars and closing the financial capital of the world at 3.15pm.

"We decided to shoot this video in the belly of the beast", said Moore, "and for a few minutes, Rage Against the Machine was able to shut down American capitalism — an act that I am sure tens of thousands of downsized citizens would cheer".

"Sleep Now in the Fire" premiered on US MTV on March 6.

[From <http://www.michaelmoore.com>.]

From GLW issue 397