Global Haywire (ATOM study guide)

Global Haywire (Bruce Petty, 2007) is a 79-minute semi-animated documentary about the state of the modern world.

It is a very broad-brush overview that raises issues about the nature and future of the world today, and especially the current east–west divide that is characterized by ‘terrorism’.

It traces key forces, events, ideas and movements that have shaped the modern world since the time of the Crusades.

It presents these in the form of a metaphor – a Freedom Machine designed to liberate the world, but which in fact works to privilege one part of the world against the rest.

The broad sweep of history is presented through animated figures interacting with historical images and footage, and with interviews with some commentators and students.

The aim of the film is to encourage viewers to recognize the unfairness that exists in the world, and how that unfairness has come to exist through our history. This understanding and recognition will be a first step towards creating something different and better and more just.

The film is full of visual images and references to people, ideas, places and events in world history over the last 700 years.