U.N. Me on AllMovie

Filmmakers Ami Horowitz and Matthew Groff take a satirical but sharply pointed look at the failings of one of the world's most powerful political organizations in this documentary. The United Nations was established in 1945 as an international forum to promote peaceful alternatives to war, defend human rights, and help establish social progress and better living conditions around the globe. Today, 192 nations are members of the U.N. and the organization is world-recognized, with peacekeeping forces at work in many countries. So why isn't the United Nations more effective? Why are so many countries with histories of violent aggression and dismal human-rights records represented on some of the U.N.'s most important committees? How did one of the U.N.'s most publicized humanitarian programs, Oil For Food, become a debacle that profited the corrupt and failed to help the needy with no sanctions against those responsible? And what of incidents in which the U.N. has failed to prevent genocide, waffled on cooperating with terrorists, and been responsible for acts of illegal violence? Horowitz and Groff use both humor and investigative reporting to call the United Nations to task for not living up to its ideals, and suggests how they could do a better job. U.N. Me received its world premiere at the 2009 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival.