Many lives may have been saved by rock 'n' roll, but no music video has ever saved the world. Go back to one of the first charity videos — USA For Africa's "We Are The World" — and you'll be reminded of celebrity, rather than the actual issue at hand. This b&w video — off the John Lennon tribute album Instant Karma, which benefits the Amnesty International campaign to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur, Sudan and increase pressure on the international community to intervene — sidesteps that problem nicely: Green Day are seen performing in a rehearsal studio, effectively taking a backseat to the people actually affected by the grave humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Director Samuel Bayer utilizes gorgeous portraiture shots and interview segments to let these Sudanese refugees share their harrowing stories and bare their emotional, if not scars. If the video leaves you feeling a bit powerless, maybe that's the point. "Working Class Hero" is a masterpiece of ambivalence, after all, full of much more invective rhetoric and despair about the system than actual praise for those common folks trying to change it. (review by SJ Gottlieb with Kevin Holy) --> watch "Working Class Hero" (YouTube)
Green Day "Working Class Hero" (Warner Bros.)
Samuel Bayer, director/DP | Oualid Mouaness & Antoinette Parkinson, producers | HSI, production co | Robert Duffy, editor
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