McLibel (also known as McLibel: Two People Who Wouldn't Say Sorry) is a British documentary film directed by Franny Armstrong and Ken Loach for Spanner Films about the McLibel case. The film was first completed in 1997 as a 52-minute television version after the conclusion of the original McLibel trial. It was then extended with new footage to 85-minute feature length in 2005, after the McLibel defendants took their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Production
The 1997 version was shown at film festivals worldwide, and sold to TV in about ten countries. The 2005 extended version was released theatrically in the UK, U.S., Australia, and other countries and sold to TV around the world, notably to BBC 2 (as part of their prestigious "Storyville Classics" season, where it achieved one million viewers at 10pm on a Sunday night) and CBC in Canada.
McLibel features courtroom reconstructions of the trial directed by well-known UK film director Ken Loach, who gave his time for free. It also features interviews with Eric Schlosser (author of the 2001 book Fast Food Nation), Morgan Spurlock (writer/director of the 2004 film Super Size Me), Keir Starmer (who provided free legal support to the McLibel defendants for many years), and Howard Lyman of Oprah/Mad Cow infamy.