"Donald Trump was able to see that the people didn't believe him anymore" - Documentarian ANTHONY BAXTER on A DANGEROUS GAME

Documentarian Anthony Baxter takes on the arrogance of the rich and the powerful, represented once again by Donald Trump, in a film that exposes the environmental trashing of wonderful natural landscapes for the sake of building luxurious golf courses. This is a story of global relevance, and in A Dangerous Game it focuses on the people of Croatia and Scotland in their struggles to fight back the evil will of wealthy jet setters.

 

(This interview was done at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014. Click here to listen to it on FRED Film Radio.)

 

MATT MICUCCI: What compelled you to deal with Trump’s arrogant ways again?

ANTHONY BAXTER: I would find myself into a situation and people would say that I should come and investigate this story. Obviously I couldn’t do them all, but some particularly compelled me. And the thing about the Dubovnik story was that it triggered people to hold their first ever referendum. They won in and the idea was that they would stop the golf resort to happen, but the government gave it the go ahead anyways. So, it’s a real threat that these communities are faced with and they find at the end of the day that their voices are not being heard.

MM: Do you think there is a great deal of corruption behind these injustices?

AB: The mayor of Dubrovnik was charged with corruption, one of the fears that the people have locally is that the authorities are corrupt and certainly Croatia does not have a good tracking record on corruption. In the case of the mayor, he was unable to answer those questions and unable to make a real case as to why it was a good idea to build a golf course in a rocky plain where there is no natural water and which will suck water resources from a town that is already struggling for its water supplies.

 

MM: Do you feel like you have given a voice to the voiceless, and how did you do it?

AB: All these people have a voice, what they don’t have is the ability to have their voices heard. It’s my job and responsibility to give them just that. But you have to build this sort of trust, which happens over time, and that’s how we have to work as documentarians, reporters and journalists. All the residents were deeply suspicious at first. Michael Forbes certainly was, because he experienced some dreadful reporting over the years especially from the local press.

 

MM: What’s your opinion on how the media acts when these things happen?

AB: The problem we have at the moment is that there isn’t a scrutiny of the figures we are spoon fed from the likes of Donald Trump. Quite recently, it has been announced that Trump would be buying the Turnberry Club which he is going to be renaming Trump Turnberry and he has promised 100 million pounds investment and that figure has been reported as fact. But we know from past investments that Trump has made that he has promised billion pound investments and usually only a tiny fraction of that ever really materialised. The real problem we have in journalism is the struggle to pay the bills because of the fall in circulation, so there is a fear in my mind that there is no facilities or result to carry this scrutiny out.

 

MM: Did you feel a little more powerful in your confrontation with Trump after the success of your previous documentary You’ve Been Trumped?

AB: I didn’t really feels like I had any more power. I think he understood what the people of Scotland felt about his plans for golf course development. Before that, he was appearing on television stating his figures as facts, but after he saw You’ve Been Trumped, Donald Trump was able to see that people didn’t believe him anymore. It was a PR disaster. So when he heard that we were making another film, his decision was to do an interview and I think it was the right decision. I think it’s disappointing that Alec Salmon declined an interview, because it is important for everyone to answer the question, because that prevents the people from thinking that they may have something to hide.