Press release
BULLY
(aka 'THE BULLY PROJECT')
Opens in NYC & LA on March 30, 2012
Directed by Sundance and Emmy-award winning filmmaker, Lee Hirsch, Bully (aka 'The Bully Project') is a beautifully cinematic, character-driven documentary. At its heart are those with huge stakes in this issue whose stories each represent a different facet of America’s bullying crisis.
BULLY (aka 'The Bully Project') follows five kids and families over the course of a school year. Stories include two families who have lost children to suicide and a mother awaiting the fate of her 14-year-old daughter who has been incarcerated after bringing a gun on her school bus.
With an intimate glimpse into homes, classrooms, cafeterias and principals’ offices, the film offers insight into the often cruel world of the lives of bullied children.
As teachers, administrators, kids and parents struggle to find answers, Bully (aka 'The Bully Project') examines the dire consequences of bullying through the testimony of strong and courageous youth. Through the power of their stories, the film aims to be a catalyst for change in the way we deal with bullying as parents, teachers, children and society as a whole.
Release Date: March 30, 2012
Directed by: Lee Hirsch
Written by: Cynthia Lowen
Genre: Documentary
Distributed by: The Weinstein Company
Produced by: Lee Hirsch, Cynthia Lowen
Website: http://www.thebullyproject.com/
Link to Exclusive
Clip:
http://www.movietickets.com/movie_detail.asp?movie_id=114943&showdate=0&tstate=4&vid=2330&vxr=312294
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/TheBullyProject
Twitter:https://twitter.com/#!/TheBullyProject
Ellen Degeneres discusses the importance of a PG-13 rating for The Weinstein Company’s Documentary “Bully” on her show! Please see the links below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYxfMODhCPk
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BULLY
(aka 'THE BULLY PROJECT')
Opens in NYC & LA on March 30, 2012
Directed by Sundance and Emmy-award winning filmmaker, Lee Hirsch, Bully (aka 'The Bully Project') is a beautifully cinematic, character-driven documentary. At its heart are those with huge stakes in this issue whose stories each represent a different facet of America’s bullying crisis.
BULLY (aka 'The Bully Project') follows five kids and families over the course of a school year. Stories include two families who have lost children to suicide and a mother awaiting the fate of her 14-year-old daughter who has been incarcerated after bringing a gun on her school bus.
With an intimate glimpse into homes, classrooms, cafeterias and principals’ offices, the film offers insight into the often cruel world of the lives of bullied children.
As teachers, administrators, kids and parents struggle to find answers, Bully (aka 'The Bully Project') examines the dire consequences of bullying through the testimony of strong and courageous youth. Through the power of their stories, the film aims to be a catalyst for change in the way we deal with bullying as parents, teachers, children and society as a whole.
Release Date: March 30, 2012
Directed by: Lee Hirsch
Written by: Cynthia Lowen
Genre: Documentary
Distributed by: The Weinstein Company
Produced by: Lee Hirsch, Cynthia Lowen
Website: http://www.thebullyproject.com/
Link to Exclusive
Clip:
http://www.movietickets.com/movie_detail.asp?movie_id=114943&showdate=0&tstate=4&vid=2330&vxr=312294
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/TheBullyProject
Twitter:https://twitter.com/#!/TheBullyProject
Ellen Degeneres discusses the importance of a PG-13 rating for The Weinstein Company’s Documentary “Bully” on her show! Please see the links below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYxfMODhCPk
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Press release
First Run Features presents
WINDFALL
Opens Friday, February 3, 2012 at New York’s Quad Cinema
and other cities nationally as well as on select VOD platforms!
Wind power: it’s clean; it’s green; it’s good. Or is it?
Wind power…it’s sustainable…it burns no fossil fuels…it produces no air pollution. What’s more, it cuts down dependency on foreign oil. That’s what the residents of Meredith, New York first thought when a wind developer looked to supplement
the rural farm town’s failing economy with a farm of their own – that of 40 industrial wind turbines.
WINDFALL, Laura Israel’s richly photographed feature-length film, documents how this proposal brutally divides the people of Meredith as they fight over the future of their community. Attracted at first to the financial incentives that would seemingly boost their dying economy, many residents grow alarmed once they discover that the 400-foot high windmills slated for Meredith may bring side effects they never dreamed of.
Opposition intensifies when they discover that the fiscal model for wind energy development produces huge profits, not for host towns like Meredith, but for a mysterious group of outside investors, aided and abetted by huge tax breaks and Wall Street sleight-of-hand.
Israel also turns her camera on Tug Hill, New York, another small upstate town, where wind power is a done deal. Tug Hill’s 195 wind turbines create low frequency “whomping” sounds and strobe-like effects, which have significantly downgraded the quality of life and in some cases, the health of wind turbine neighbors unable to sell their homes.
Meanwhile, the Meredith Town Board pushes to put their wind turbine plan through.
With wind development in the United States growing annually at 39 percent, WINDFALL, is an eye-opener that should be required viewing for anyone concerned about the environment and the future of renewable energy.
Honors and acclaim for WINDFALL:
World Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2010
WINNER: Grand Prize, Doc NYC 2010
HONORABLE MENTION: Talking Pictures Festival 2010
WINNER: Best Documentary, Woods Hole Film Festival 2011
OFFICIAL SELECTION: IDFA
Green Screen Competition 2010
Screened in 30 festivals internationally since TIFF
Windfall
83 minutes, English, Digital, 2010, Documentary
Director/Producer: Laura Israel
Director of Photography: Brian Jackson
Art Direction: Alex Bingham
Editors: Laura Israel, Stacey Foster, Alex Bingham
Technical Advisor: Lisa Linowes
Animation: Deen Modino
Voice Over: Chuck Coggins
Soundtrack Composer: Wade Schuman
Music Supervisor: Olivier Conan
Music: Hazmat Modine, Barbès Records
Producer: Autumn Tarleton
Co-Producer: Stacey Foster
Executive Producer: Don Faller
Production Services: Doublewide Media
Director Laura Israel was born in New Jersey and after earning a degree in film from NYU, she edited music videos for Lou Reed, Keith Richards, David Byrne, New Order, Patti Smith, Ziggy Marley, Sonic Youth and many others.
Laura has worked as photographer/filmmaker Robert Frank's editor for two decades. The films have screened all over the world and won many awards. She also edited Stephanie Black's feature documentary Africa Unite; Life For a Child directed by Academy Award-nominated DP Ed Lachman; and Music of Regret, by photographer Laurie Simmons. Editing credits include advertising and television promo campaigns that have garnered AICP awards, International Film and TV awards, a GLAAD award, an Emmy award, and a Monitor award for editing. This is Laura Israel's first film as director, and she was
named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film. Laura is currently working on her next film, a documentary about Robert Frank.
FRF
Founded in 1979, First Run Features is one of American's notable distributors of documentary and foreign films.
Recent releases include Jason Cohn's and Bill Jersey's EAMES: THE ARCHITECT AND THE PAINTER, DA Pennebaker's and Chris Hegedus's KINGS OF PASTRY, Ken Bowser's PHIL OCHS: THERE BUT FOR FORTUNE, Joe Berlinger's CRUDE, and Judith Ehrlich's and Rick Goldsmith's Academy Award-nominated THE MOST DANGEROUS
MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS.
SnagFilms will be the exclusive digital on-demand distributor for WINDFALL across all platforms.
MOVIE website-firstrunfeatures.com/windfall
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
First Run Features presents
WINDFALL
Opens Friday, February 3, 2012 at New York’s Quad Cinema
and other cities nationally as well as on select VOD platforms!
Wind power: it’s clean; it’s green; it’s good. Or is it?
Wind power…it’s sustainable…it burns no fossil fuels…it produces no air pollution. What’s more, it cuts down dependency on foreign oil. That’s what the residents of Meredith, New York first thought when a wind developer looked to supplement
the rural farm town’s failing economy with a farm of their own – that of 40 industrial wind turbines.
WINDFALL, Laura Israel’s richly photographed feature-length film, documents how this proposal brutally divides the people of Meredith as they fight over the future of their community. Attracted at first to the financial incentives that would seemingly boost their dying economy, many residents grow alarmed once they discover that the 400-foot high windmills slated for Meredith may bring side effects they never dreamed of.
Opposition intensifies when they discover that the fiscal model for wind energy development produces huge profits, not for host towns like Meredith, but for a mysterious group of outside investors, aided and abetted by huge tax breaks and Wall Street sleight-of-hand.
Israel also turns her camera on Tug Hill, New York, another small upstate town, where wind power is a done deal. Tug Hill’s 195 wind turbines create low frequency “whomping” sounds and strobe-like effects, which have significantly downgraded the quality of life and in some cases, the health of wind turbine neighbors unable to sell their homes.
Meanwhile, the Meredith Town Board pushes to put their wind turbine plan through.
With wind development in the United States growing annually at 39 percent, WINDFALL, is an eye-opener that should be required viewing for anyone concerned about the environment and the future of renewable energy.
Honors and acclaim for WINDFALL:
World Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2010
WINNER: Grand Prize, Doc NYC 2010
HONORABLE MENTION: Talking Pictures Festival 2010
WINNER: Best Documentary, Woods Hole Film Festival 2011
OFFICIAL SELECTION: IDFA
Green Screen Competition 2010
Screened in 30 festivals internationally since TIFF
Windfall
83 minutes, English, Digital, 2010, Documentary
Director/Producer: Laura Israel
Director of Photography: Brian Jackson
Art Direction: Alex Bingham
Editors: Laura Israel, Stacey Foster, Alex Bingham
Technical Advisor: Lisa Linowes
Animation: Deen Modino
Voice Over: Chuck Coggins
Soundtrack Composer: Wade Schuman
Music Supervisor: Olivier Conan
Music: Hazmat Modine, Barbès Records
Producer: Autumn Tarleton
Co-Producer: Stacey Foster
Executive Producer: Don Faller
Production Services: Doublewide Media
Director Laura Israel was born in New Jersey and after earning a degree in film from NYU, she edited music videos for Lou Reed, Keith Richards, David Byrne, New Order, Patti Smith, Ziggy Marley, Sonic Youth and many others.
Laura has worked as photographer/filmmaker Robert Frank's editor for two decades. The films have screened all over the world and won many awards. She also edited Stephanie Black's feature documentary Africa Unite; Life For a Child directed by Academy Award-nominated DP Ed Lachman; and Music of Regret, by photographer Laurie Simmons. Editing credits include advertising and television promo campaigns that have garnered AICP awards, International Film and TV awards, a GLAAD award, an Emmy award, and a Monitor award for editing. This is Laura Israel's first film as director, and she was
named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film. Laura is currently working on her next film, a documentary about Robert Frank.
FRF
Founded in 1979, First Run Features is one of American's notable distributors of documentary and foreign films.
Recent releases include Jason Cohn's and Bill Jersey's EAMES: THE ARCHITECT AND THE PAINTER, DA Pennebaker's and Chris Hegedus's KINGS OF PASTRY, Ken Bowser's PHIL OCHS: THERE BUT FOR FORTUNE, Joe Berlinger's CRUDE, and Judith Ehrlich's and Rick Goldsmith's Academy Award-nominated THE MOST DANGEROUS
MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS.
SnagFilms will be the exclusive digital on-demand distributor for WINDFALL across all platforms.
MOVIE website-firstrunfeatures.com/windfall
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2011 ARCHIVES (in reverse chronological order)
Press release
The Big Fix
Opening theatrically on December 2, 2011 in New York City
The new film The Big Fix is part daring journalism, part archival investigation and part eco-horror story. Opening theatrically on December 2nd in New York exclusively at the AMC Loews Village 7 from Green Planet Productions, The
Big Fix features Peter Fonda and received critical acclaim earlier this year as the only Official Selection documentary of the Cannes Film Festival.
The Big Fix is the new movie from the filmmakers of the award winning Sundance documentary “Fuel,” husband and wife directing/producing team Josh and Rebecca Harrell Tickell. It’s executive produced by Tim Robbins, Maggie Wachsberger and Peter Fonda.
Through interviews with scientists, government officials, journalists (including Rolling Stone’s Jeff Goodell who examined the Gulf spill in his article “The Poisoning”), attorneys (including New Orleans Toxic Tort attorney Stuart Smith) and Gulf States natives, The Big Fix recounts the events surrounding the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico and paints a disturbing picture of the aftermath of the largest oil spill in America’s history.
“We never intended to make this movie,” Josh Tickell said. “It was only after going home, to my native Louisiana, and being dumbstruck by the true level of destruction and the downplaying of the situation, that we picked up our cameras and began to document this unparalleled man-made disaster.”
The Big Fix reveals the powerful political and corporate system that put profits over the health and long-term sustainability of people and the environment. No matter what the petroleum and government officials say, the oil is still coming ashore, the seafood industry is wiped out, and many people of the locals are sick.
“We’ve got shrimp with no eyes, fish with tumors, fish with oil in their guts – this disaster is happening right now,” said Dean Blanchard, once the largest processor of brown shrimp in the United States, in the film. Despite claims from the Louisiana Department of Fisheries and Wildlife that the fish are safe to eat, Blanchard’s liability insurance was recently cancelled. “I’ve been in business 25 years; I grew up on a shrimp dock, I never had a problem getting insurance, now nobody will insure us,” Blanchard said.
Up to 30% of the nation’s seafood in a given year comes from Louisiana. Toxicologists studying the fish from Louisiana waters are finding heightened levels of cancer-causing carcinogens.
The Big Fix also explores the complicit behavior of the US government in the long-term use of the chemical dispersant, Corexit 9527, a known hemolytic (blood thinner). In an unexpected twist of fate, Co-Director/Producer Rebecca Harrell Tickell became severely ill after being exposed to the oil and Corexit mixture while filming. Her health struggle is cataloged in the film.
“Making this movie and living with the consequences,” said Harrell Tickell, “changed everything I thought I knew about America.”
MOVIE website-www.TheBigFixMovie.com
Facebook:www.facebook.com/thebigfix
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Big Fix
Opening theatrically on December 2, 2011 in New York City
The new film The Big Fix is part daring journalism, part archival investigation and part eco-horror story. Opening theatrically on December 2nd in New York exclusively at the AMC Loews Village 7 from Green Planet Productions, The
Big Fix features Peter Fonda and received critical acclaim earlier this year as the only Official Selection documentary of the Cannes Film Festival.
The Big Fix is the new movie from the filmmakers of the award winning Sundance documentary “Fuel,” husband and wife directing/producing team Josh and Rebecca Harrell Tickell. It’s executive produced by Tim Robbins, Maggie Wachsberger and Peter Fonda.
Through interviews with scientists, government officials, journalists (including Rolling Stone’s Jeff Goodell who examined the Gulf spill in his article “The Poisoning”), attorneys (including New Orleans Toxic Tort attorney Stuart Smith) and Gulf States natives, The Big Fix recounts the events surrounding the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico and paints a disturbing picture of the aftermath of the largest oil spill in America’s history.
“We never intended to make this movie,” Josh Tickell said. “It was only after going home, to my native Louisiana, and being dumbstruck by the true level of destruction and the downplaying of the situation, that we picked up our cameras and began to document this unparalleled man-made disaster.”
The Big Fix reveals the powerful political and corporate system that put profits over the health and long-term sustainability of people and the environment. No matter what the petroleum and government officials say, the oil is still coming ashore, the seafood industry is wiped out, and many people of the locals are sick.
“We’ve got shrimp with no eyes, fish with tumors, fish with oil in their guts – this disaster is happening right now,” said Dean Blanchard, once the largest processor of brown shrimp in the United States, in the film. Despite claims from the Louisiana Department of Fisheries and Wildlife that the fish are safe to eat, Blanchard’s liability insurance was recently cancelled. “I’ve been in business 25 years; I grew up on a shrimp dock, I never had a problem getting insurance, now nobody will insure us,” Blanchard said.
Up to 30% of the nation’s seafood in a given year comes from Louisiana. Toxicologists studying the fish from Louisiana waters are finding heightened levels of cancer-causing carcinogens.
The Big Fix also explores the complicit behavior of the US government in the long-term use of the chemical dispersant, Corexit 9527, a known hemolytic (blood thinner). In an unexpected twist of fate, Co-Director/Producer Rebecca Harrell Tickell became severely ill after being exposed to the oil and Corexit mixture while filming. Her health struggle is cataloged in the film.
“Making this movie and living with the consequences,” said Harrell Tickell, “changed everything I thought I knew about America.”
MOVIE website-www.TheBigFixMovie.com
Facebook:www.facebook.com/thebigfix
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Press release
GRANITO: HOW TO NAIL A DICTATOR
OPENS SEPTEMBER 14, 2011
AT IFC CENTER-NYC
(New York, NY) – Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, a new documentary by award-winning filmmaker Pamela Yates (Loss of Innocence, When the Mountains Tremble) will debut theatrically on Wednesday, September 14 at New York
City’s IFC Center, 323 Ave. of the Americas in Greenwich Village.
Part political thriller, part memoir, Granito is a story of dark deeds, a quest for justice, and the power of collective action. As a young filmmaker in 1982, Pamela Yates went to Guatemala to make a documentary, When the Mountains Tremble, about a hidden war. Fast forward to today: lawyers prosecuting an international genocide case have asked her to comb through that old film and its outtakes for possible evidence to be used against the Guatemalan dictator, Ríos Montt, who boasted of his power to her on camera three decades earlier. Suddenly the old footage takes on a second life, and Pamela jumps at the chance to help.
“Ever since I filmed these generals in 1982 I’ve wanted to see them pay for their crimes,” said Yates, who points to the film as illustrative of a documentary filmmaker’s power to make a difference in the world.
Surrounded by the dusty film cartons and old 16mm reels, Yates begins to dig through long-buried outtakes from thirty years ago. At that time in Guatemala, a democracy movement sweeping the country was being attacked by government death squads, a guerrilla army was surging in the countryside, and the Guatemalan military was launching a scorched earth policy to wipe out 200,000 Maya Indians in the mountainous highlands.
Weaving together the loose threads of a forgotten story, Yates transports us back in time through a riveting tale of genocide, returning to the present joined by a cast of characters who are united in their quest to bring a malevolent dictator to justice. An epic tale story unfolds as each person in the film adds their “granito,” or tiny grain of sand, to the
story.
Granito: How to Nail a Dictator is directed by Pamela Yates, produced by Paco de Onís, and edited by Peter Kinoy.Granito premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Yates was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to support the making of
Granito.
Granito is in English and Spanish with English subtitles. The film is not rated with a running time of
103 minutes.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GRANITO: HOW TO NAIL A DICTATOR
OPENS SEPTEMBER 14, 2011
AT IFC CENTER-NYC
(New York, NY) – Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, a new documentary by award-winning filmmaker Pamela Yates (Loss of Innocence, When the Mountains Tremble) will debut theatrically on Wednesday, September 14 at New York
City’s IFC Center, 323 Ave. of the Americas in Greenwich Village.
Part political thriller, part memoir, Granito is a story of dark deeds, a quest for justice, and the power of collective action. As a young filmmaker in 1982, Pamela Yates went to Guatemala to make a documentary, When the Mountains Tremble, about a hidden war. Fast forward to today: lawyers prosecuting an international genocide case have asked her to comb through that old film and its outtakes for possible evidence to be used against the Guatemalan dictator, Ríos Montt, who boasted of his power to her on camera three decades earlier. Suddenly the old footage takes on a second life, and Pamela jumps at the chance to help.
“Ever since I filmed these generals in 1982 I’ve wanted to see them pay for their crimes,” said Yates, who points to the film as illustrative of a documentary filmmaker’s power to make a difference in the world.
Surrounded by the dusty film cartons and old 16mm reels, Yates begins to dig through long-buried outtakes from thirty years ago. At that time in Guatemala, a democracy movement sweeping the country was being attacked by government death squads, a guerrilla army was surging in the countryside, and the Guatemalan military was launching a scorched earth policy to wipe out 200,000 Maya Indians in the mountainous highlands.
Weaving together the loose threads of a forgotten story, Yates transports us back in time through a riveting tale of genocide, returning to the present joined by a cast of characters who are united in their quest to bring a malevolent dictator to justice. An epic tale story unfolds as each person in the film adds their “granito,” or tiny grain of sand, to the
story.
Granito: How to Nail a Dictator is directed by Pamela Yates, produced by Paco de Onís, and edited by Peter Kinoy.Granito premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Yates was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to support the making of
Granito.
Granito is in English and Spanish with English subtitles. The film is not rated with a running time of
103 minutes.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Press release
"American Teacher raises important questions about America's teachers. It should spark a much-needed conversation." -Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
First Run Features presents the premiere of
AMERICAN TEACHER
A definitive look at the state of teaching in America that offers a solution to the education crisis.
Narrated by Matt Damon
Opens Friday, September 30, 2011
In New York at the Empire AMC Cinemas and In Los Angeles at the Broadway AMC Santa Monica
Showtimes at both theaters: 1:00 & 7:15 pm daily
... San Francisco and other cities to follow
AMERICAN TEACHER is the feature-length documentary produced and directed by Academy Award–winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth; produced by Nínive Calegari, co-founder of the literacy non-profit 826 National, and bestselling author Dave Eggers; and narrated by Academy Award-winner Matt Damon.
AMERICAN TEACHER chronicles the stories of four teachers - Erik Benner, Jonathan Dearman, Jamie Fidler, and Rhena Jasey - who live and work in disparate urban and rural areas of the country. By following these teachers as they reach different milestones in their careers, the film tells the deeper story of the teaching profession in America today. The film
shows us the experience of these four young teachers as they recognize the importance of what they do, and how much they love what they do, but ask: can I afford to continue to teach?
Undeniable research shows that a child's school success depends on quality teaching. In the next ten years, more than half of the current 3.2 million teachers will be eligible to retire. We will then have a choice: continue with the current, broken system of trying to attract talented college graduates to the teaching profession by offering low pay, long hours, little support, and no prestige - a system that results in high turnover and low morale and translates into 85 percent of graduates refusing to even consider the profession.
Or we change: increase compensation and improve conditions to attract the best college graduates who might otherwise go into law, finance, or other lucrative fields. With the best and the brightest in the profession, schools will get better.
Based on the New York Times bestselling book, Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers (The New Press:2005), AMERICAN TEACHER is an endeavor of The Teacher Salary Project, a nonprofit organization offering an interactive online resource and a national outreach campaign to change how teachers are valued in our society.
The New York and LA premieres will be followed by premieres in other cities as well as community screenings hosted by teachers all over the country.
About the Director and Producers:
Vanessa Roth (Producer/Director) has been making pivotal non-fiction films for over a decade. Her films have been honored with dozens of awards including an Academy Award for Freeheld and an Alfred I Dupont Award for Taken In.
Other film include Close to Home, Aging Out: Schools of the 21st Century, The Third Monday in October, 9/11's Toxic Dust, and No Tomorrow. They have been released theatrically and broadcast on PBS, HBO, the Discovery Channel, A&E, and the Sundance Channel, screened at hundreds of film festivals, used in colleges and universities across the
country as training for lawyers, social workers, journalists, and fellow filmmakers, and appeared on Oprah, NPR, and as part of the Youth Inaugural Events in Washington D.C. Vanessa also teaches at NYU and is a frequent guest speaker about using social issue media and storytelling for progressive change.
Nínive Calegari (Producer) is a veteran teacher with almost ten years of experience in the classroom, in both charter schools and large comprehensive high schools. She is the cofounder and former executive director of 826 Valencia and most recently served as the CEO of 826 National, a literacy nonprofit that galvanizes volunteers in eight cities to support teachers and help students improve their writing skills. She holds a Master’s Degree in Education in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education,and is co-author of the New York Times bestselling book Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers. She is an advisory board member of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, was appointed a San Francisco Arts Commissioner by Mayor Gavin Newsom, and is a recipient of Edutopia’s 2007 Daring Dozen award for being one of twelve people “reshaping the future of education.”
Dave Eggers (Producer) is the author of six books: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, How We Are Hungry, Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers, What Is the What, and Zeitoun. He is the founder and editor of McSweeney’s, a quarterly magazine and book-publishing company, and is co-founder of 826 Valencia, a nonprofit tutoring, writing, and publishing organization with locations in eight cities across the country. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, and The Believer. In 2004 he co-taught a class at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, out of which grew the Voice of Witness series of books, designed to illuminate contemporary human crises through oral history.
Thao Nguyen
of Thao With Get Down Stay Down, an up and coming alternative folk rock band from San Francisco California, scored the music.
American Teacher
81 mins, US, 2011, English, Digital
Produced and Directed by Vanessa Roth
Produced by Nínive Calegari and Dave Eggers
Edited and co-directed by Brian McGinn
Music by Thao Nguyen
Narrated by Matt Damon
MOVIE website-http://www.theteachersalaryproject.org/index.php
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"American Teacher raises important questions about America's teachers. It should spark a much-needed conversation." -Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
First Run Features presents the premiere of
AMERICAN TEACHER
A definitive look at the state of teaching in America that offers a solution to the education crisis.
Narrated by Matt Damon
Opens Friday, September 30, 2011
In New York at the Empire AMC Cinemas and In Los Angeles at the Broadway AMC Santa Monica
Showtimes at both theaters: 1:00 & 7:15 pm daily
... San Francisco and other cities to follow
AMERICAN TEACHER is the feature-length documentary produced and directed by Academy Award–winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth; produced by Nínive Calegari, co-founder of the literacy non-profit 826 National, and bestselling author Dave Eggers; and narrated by Academy Award-winner Matt Damon.
AMERICAN TEACHER chronicles the stories of four teachers - Erik Benner, Jonathan Dearman, Jamie Fidler, and Rhena Jasey - who live and work in disparate urban and rural areas of the country. By following these teachers as they reach different milestones in their careers, the film tells the deeper story of the teaching profession in America today. The film
shows us the experience of these four young teachers as they recognize the importance of what they do, and how much they love what they do, but ask: can I afford to continue to teach?
Undeniable research shows that a child's school success depends on quality teaching. In the next ten years, more than half of the current 3.2 million teachers will be eligible to retire. We will then have a choice: continue with the current, broken system of trying to attract talented college graduates to the teaching profession by offering low pay, long hours, little support, and no prestige - a system that results in high turnover and low morale and translates into 85 percent of graduates refusing to even consider the profession.
Or we change: increase compensation and improve conditions to attract the best college graduates who might otherwise go into law, finance, or other lucrative fields. With the best and the brightest in the profession, schools will get better.
Based on the New York Times bestselling book, Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers (The New Press:2005), AMERICAN TEACHER is an endeavor of The Teacher Salary Project, a nonprofit organization offering an interactive online resource and a national outreach campaign to change how teachers are valued in our society.
The New York and LA premieres will be followed by premieres in other cities as well as community screenings hosted by teachers all over the country.
About the Director and Producers:
Vanessa Roth (Producer/Director) has been making pivotal non-fiction films for over a decade. Her films have been honored with dozens of awards including an Academy Award for Freeheld and an Alfred I Dupont Award for Taken In.
Other film include Close to Home, Aging Out: Schools of the 21st Century, The Third Monday in October, 9/11's Toxic Dust, and No Tomorrow. They have been released theatrically and broadcast on PBS, HBO, the Discovery Channel, A&E, and the Sundance Channel, screened at hundreds of film festivals, used in colleges and universities across the
country as training for lawyers, social workers, journalists, and fellow filmmakers, and appeared on Oprah, NPR, and as part of the Youth Inaugural Events in Washington D.C. Vanessa also teaches at NYU and is a frequent guest speaker about using social issue media and storytelling for progressive change.
Nínive Calegari (Producer) is a veteran teacher with almost ten years of experience in the classroom, in both charter schools and large comprehensive high schools. She is the cofounder and former executive director of 826 Valencia and most recently served as the CEO of 826 National, a literacy nonprofit that galvanizes volunteers in eight cities to support teachers and help students improve their writing skills. She holds a Master’s Degree in Education in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education,and is co-author of the New York Times bestselling book Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers. She is an advisory board member of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, was appointed a San Francisco Arts Commissioner by Mayor Gavin Newsom, and is a recipient of Edutopia’s 2007 Daring Dozen award for being one of twelve people “reshaping the future of education.”
Dave Eggers (Producer) is the author of six books: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, How We Are Hungry, Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers, What Is the What, and Zeitoun. He is the founder and editor of McSweeney’s, a quarterly magazine and book-publishing company, and is co-founder of 826 Valencia, a nonprofit tutoring, writing, and publishing organization with locations in eight cities across the country. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, and The Believer. In 2004 he co-taught a class at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, out of which grew the Voice of Witness series of books, designed to illuminate contemporary human crises through oral history.
Thao Nguyen
of Thao With Get Down Stay Down, an up and coming alternative folk rock band from San Francisco California, scored the music.
American Teacher
81 mins, US, 2011, English, Digital
Produced and Directed by Vanessa Roth
Produced by Nínive Calegari and Dave Eggers
Edited and co-directed by Brian McGinn
Music by Thao Nguyen
Narrated by Matt Damon
MOVIE website-http://www.theteachersalaryproject.org/index.php
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
VOD REPORT
What The Hell Has Harry Shearer So Angry He Made THE BIG UNEASY?
08/17/11_On Demand Weekly's VOD Spotlight highlights stories from the On Demand industry. Chris Claro interviews actor turned director Harry Shearer about his film THE BIG UNEASY (FilmBuff). See the review after the interview._
What The Hell Has Harry Shearer So Angry?
On Demand Weekly’s Chris Claro talks to a funny man about a serious documentary._
For comedy aficionados, Harry Shearer’s name was familiar long before “The Simpsons.” Though he broke through as a child actor in the late 50s on “Leave it to Beaver,” it was the 70s and 80s when Shearer started to make an impact on the world of funny.
From writing films and albums with Albert Brooks to two stints as a regular on “Saturday Night Live,” to his creation
of the indelible Derek Smalls, one third of Spinal Tap, Shearer’s comedy has always both wickedly funny and shrewdly observant.
Now, with 23 seasons as a cast member of “The Simpsons” to his name, Shearer has headed in yet another direction, as a documentarian, with his new film, THE BIG UNEASY, currently on demand. A study of the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, Shearer’s film examines the obfuscations of the Army Corps of Engineers in the wake of the levee breaches, and the whistleblowers who tried to stand up for their city.
Shearer has been a resident of New Orleans since 1997 his love for the city was a primary motivator in making the film. “My wife and I got a house in the French Quarter in 2006. New Orleans is a place that, if you talk its language, it speaks to you in very seductive tones.”
THE BIG UNEASY arose out of Shearer’s impatience with the perception that Katrina was a natural disaster, rather than one that resulted from outdated engineering and bottlenecks of bureaucracy. _“I had a long fuse and a short fuse that moved me to make the film,” says Shearer_. “The long fuse was that my property wasn’t damaged so I had the good fortune to have the energy and time to pay attention all this stuff. I was blogging about it in the Huffington Post and interviewing local people on my radio show and getting increasingly frustrated with the failure of the national media to pick up on the story.”...
Click here for the rest of ODW's interview with Harry Shearer... http://ondemandweekly.com/blog/article/what_the_hell_has_harry_shearer_so_angry
Today’s review: THE BIG UNEASY (FilmBuff)
_On Demand Weekly also provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand and from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home.
Harry Shearer’s THE BIG UNEASY By Chris Claro_
Harry Shearer is known as many things – an actor, a comic, a musician, a writer, even the host of the long-running radio series Le Show. _Now, with THE BIG UNEASY, the multifaceted Shearer can add “muckraker” to his resume_.
The documentary, written and directed by Shearer, focuses on the cover-up orchestrated by the federal government and the Army Corps of Engineers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
At the heart of the film is an investigatiointo the destruction of one of the country’s oldest and most organic urban
areas. The callous disregard for the city displayed by both local and federal officials in the aftermath of such a cataclysm that Shearer states, unequivocally, was no “natural disaster,” but a failure of architecture and design, gives THE BIG UNEASY a spine and through-line worthy of any fictional thriller_...
(Click to read the rest of the review...http://ondemandweekly.com/blog/article/harry_shearers_the_big_uneasy
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What The Hell Has Harry Shearer So Angry He Made THE BIG UNEASY?
08/17/11_On Demand Weekly's VOD Spotlight highlights stories from the On Demand industry. Chris Claro interviews actor turned director Harry Shearer about his film THE BIG UNEASY (FilmBuff). See the review after the interview._
What The Hell Has Harry Shearer So Angry?
On Demand Weekly’s Chris Claro talks to a funny man about a serious documentary._
For comedy aficionados, Harry Shearer’s name was familiar long before “The Simpsons.” Though he broke through as a child actor in the late 50s on “Leave it to Beaver,” it was the 70s and 80s when Shearer started to make an impact on the world of funny.
From writing films and albums with Albert Brooks to two stints as a regular on “Saturday Night Live,” to his creation
of the indelible Derek Smalls, one third of Spinal Tap, Shearer’s comedy has always both wickedly funny and shrewdly observant.
Now, with 23 seasons as a cast member of “The Simpsons” to his name, Shearer has headed in yet another direction, as a documentarian, with his new film, THE BIG UNEASY, currently on demand. A study of the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, Shearer’s film examines the obfuscations of the Army Corps of Engineers in the wake of the levee breaches, and the whistleblowers who tried to stand up for their city.
Shearer has been a resident of New Orleans since 1997 his love for the city was a primary motivator in making the film. “My wife and I got a house in the French Quarter in 2006. New Orleans is a place that, if you talk its language, it speaks to you in very seductive tones.”
THE BIG UNEASY arose out of Shearer’s impatience with the perception that Katrina was a natural disaster, rather than one that resulted from outdated engineering and bottlenecks of bureaucracy. _“I had a long fuse and a short fuse that moved me to make the film,” says Shearer_. “The long fuse was that my property wasn’t damaged so I had the good fortune to have the energy and time to pay attention all this stuff. I was blogging about it in the Huffington Post and interviewing local people on my radio show and getting increasingly frustrated with the failure of the national media to pick up on the story.”...
Click here for the rest of ODW's interview with Harry Shearer... http://ondemandweekly.com/blog/article/what_the_hell_has_harry_shearer_so_angry
Today’s review: THE BIG UNEASY (FilmBuff)
_On Demand Weekly also provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand and from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home.
Harry Shearer’s THE BIG UNEASY By Chris Claro_
Harry Shearer is known as many things – an actor, a comic, a musician, a writer, even the host of the long-running radio series Le Show. _Now, with THE BIG UNEASY, the multifaceted Shearer can add “muckraker” to his resume_.
The documentary, written and directed by Shearer, focuses on the cover-up orchestrated by the federal government and the Army Corps of Engineers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
At the heart of the film is an investigatiointo the destruction of one of the country’s oldest and most organic urban
areas. The callous disregard for the city displayed by both local and federal officials in the aftermath of such a cataclysm that Shearer states, unequivocally, was no “natural disaster,” but a failure of architecture and design, gives THE BIG UNEASY a spine and through-line worthy of any fictional thriller_...
(Click to read the rest of the review...http://ondemandweekly.com/blog/article/harry_shearers_the_big_uneasy
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Press release
JUST IN TIME FOR NEW YEAR, REBOOT MEDIA ANNOUNCES
APRIL 1, 2011 RELEASE FOR INSPIRING NEW FILM
“FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD”
NEW YORK, NY (January 6, 2011) – Just in time for the new year and all the promise of fresh starts, resolutions and personal fulfillment that it brings, Reboot Media has announced a April 1, 2011 theatrical release date for FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD, an inspiring film that chronicles one man’s personal mission to regain his health.
The film’s distributor, Reboot Media, is an arm of Reboot Your Life, a health and wellness company that provides information, tools, media and entertainment, consumer products and community support that encourage people to consume more fruits and vegetables in order to improve their health and vitality. FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD marks the company’s first product launch.
Along with the theatrical film release, consumers will be able to buy a DVD, book and nutrition program in order to be inspired to embark on their own Reboot. The nutrition program has been developed by Harvard educator Stacy Kennedy.
The film follows the reboot mission of its filmmaker, Joe Cross. One hundred pounds overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease, Cross is at the end of his rope. In the mirror he saw a 310-pound man, with a gut bigger than a beach ball and a future that wouldn’t end well. With one foot already in the grave, the other wasn’t far behind.
With doctors and conventional medicines unable to provide a solution, Joe turns to the only option left: the body’s ability to heal itself. He trades in the junk food and hits the road with juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for the next 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe has one goal in mind: To get off his pills and get healthy.
While talking to more than 500 Americans about food, health and longevity, it’s at a truck stop in Arizona where Joe meets a truck driver who suffers from the same rare condition. Phil Staples is morbidly obese weighing in at 429 pounds. He is a cheeseburger away from a heart attack. As Joe is recovering his health, Phil begins his own epic journey to get well.
What emerges is nothing short of amazing – an inspiring tale of healing and human connection. Part road trip, part self-help manifesto, FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD defies the traditional documentary format to present an unconventional and uplifting story of two men from different worlds who each realize that the only person who can save them is themselves.
MOVIE website-http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
JUST IN TIME FOR NEW YEAR, REBOOT MEDIA ANNOUNCES
APRIL 1, 2011 RELEASE FOR INSPIRING NEW FILM
“FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD”
NEW YORK, NY (January 6, 2011) – Just in time for the new year and all the promise of fresh starts, resolutions and personal fulfillment that it brings, Reboot Media has announced a April 1, 2011 theatrical release date for FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD, an inspiring film that chronicles one man’s personal mission to regain his health.
The film’s distributor, Reboot Media, is an arm of Reboot Your Life, a health and wellness company that provides information, tools, media and entertainment, consumer products and community support that encourage people to consume more fruits and vegetables in order to improve their health and vitality. FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD marks the company’s first product launch.
Along with the theatrical film release, consumers will be able to buy a DVD, book and nutrition program in order to be inspired to embark on their own Reboot. The nutrition program has been developed by Harvard educator Stacy Kennedy.
The film follows the reboot mission of its filmmaker, Joe Cross. One hundred pounds overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease, Cross is at the end of his rope. In the mirror he saw a 310-pound man, with a gut bigger than a beach ball and a future that wouldn’t end well. With one foot already in the grave, the other wasn’t far behind.
With doctors and conventional medicines unable to provide a solution, Joe turns to the only option left: the body’s ability to heal itself. He trades in the junk food and hits the road with juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for the next 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe has one goal in mind: To get off his pills and get healthy.
While talking to more than 500 Americans about food, health and longevity, it’s at a truck stop in Arizona where Joe meets a truck driver who suffers from the same rare condition. Phil Staples is morbidly obese weighing in at 429 pounds. He is a cheeseburger away from a heart attack. As Joe is recovering his health, Phil begins his own epic journey to get well.
What emerges is nothing short of amazing – an inspiring tale of healing and human connection. Part road trip, part self-help manifesto, FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD defies the traditional documentary format to present an unconventional and uplifting story of two men from different worlds who each realize that the only person who can save them is themselves.
MOVIE website-http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DVD release
COOL IT
Available on DVD March 29, 2011
Climate catastrophe? The end of civilization as we know it? Are the current staggeringly expensive actions on global warming really helping to save the world -- or are we just burning money?
Controversial author and economist Bjørn Lomborg (The Skeptical Environmentalist) tackles these questions and more in the new documentary COOL IT, making its DVD debut from Lionsgate after a national theatrical release last fall. Lomborg challenges viewers to look beyond talking points and to rethink the global warming debate.
Specifically Lomborg follows the money trail to ask, Why in the world are we spending so much money on “green” initiatives…for such little gain? Are there better ways to solve the problems? How else could that money be spent? The result is a film that will appeal to viewers on both sides of the aisle.
Featuring 15 minutes of never-before-shown deleted scenes that take a deeper look into the film’s message, COOL IT will be available on DVD March 29th from Lionsgate. Also available on digital download and On Demand, don’t miss this engaging new voice in the environmental conversation.
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES (subject to change)
· 15 minutes of deleted scenes
· Theatrical trailer
PROGRAM INFORMATION
DVD SRP: $27.98
Year of Production: 2010
Title Copyright: © 2010 Cool It Film, LLC, Yelkenli BV, Elicius Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Type: Theatrical Release
Rating: PG for thematic elements
Genre: Documentary, Nature, Politics
Closed Captioned: English
Subtitles: English and Spanish
DVD Audio Status:5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital
Format: 16x9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
Feature Running Time: 88 Minutes
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
COOL IT
Available on DVD March 29, 2011
Climate catastrophe? The end of civilization as we know it? Are the current staggeringly expensive actions on global warming really helping to save the world -- or are we just burning money?
Controversial author and economist Bjørn Lomborg (The Skeptical Environmentalist) tackles these questions and more in the new documentary COOL IT, making its DVD debut from Lionsgate after a national theatrical release last fall. Lomborg challenges viewers to look beyond talking points and to rethink the global warming debate.
Specifically Lomborg follows the money trail to ask, Why in the world are we spending so much money on “green” initiatives…for such little gain? Are there better ways to solve the problems? How else could that money be spent? The result is a film that will appeal to viewers on both sides of the aisle.
Featuring 15 minutes of never-before-shown deleted scenes that take a deeper look into the film’s message, COOL IT will be available on DVD March 29th from Lionsgate. Also available on digital download and On Demand, don’t miss this engaging new voice in the environmental conversation.
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES (subject to change)
· 15 minutes of deleted scenes
· Theatrical trailer
PROGRAM INFORMATION
DVD SRP: $27.98
Year of Production: 2010
Title Copyright: © 2010 Cool It Film, LLC, Yelkenli BV, Elicius Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Type: Theatrical Release
Rating: PG for thematic elements
Genre: Documentary, Nature, Politics
Closed Captioned: English
Subtitles: English and Spanish
DVD Audio Status:5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital
Format: 16x9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
Feature Running Time: 88 Minutes
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Press release
First Run Features presents
Director Werner Boote's documentary
PLASTIC PLANET
Opens at Cinema Village in New York on January 14, 2011
We live in the age of plastic.
It’s cheap and practical, and it’s everywhere – even in our blood.
But is it a danger to us?
The plastic industry annually generates hundreds of billions of dollars. Every industrial sector in the world today is dependent on plastic. The amount of plastic we have produced since it was invented would be enough to cover the entire globe six times over. But this inexpensive and convenient substance comes with a hefty price. Plastic stays in the ground and water system for up to 500 years. It is found on every beach in the world. Numerous studies have proven that the chemicals it releases (such as Bisphenol A) migrate into the human body and may contribute to or cause grave health problems, from allergies to obesity to infertility, cancer and heart disease.
For Austrian German director Werner Boote, plastic is personal. His grandfather was one of the early manufacturers of plastic and he introduced Boote at a young age to the magic substance that would change the world. Many years later, after reading about the global threat posed by plastic, he decides to embark on a quest to discover the truth about this pervasive substance. Traveling to fourteen countries, he boldly and humorously confronts manufacturers, scientists, government officials and consumers to ask questions that concern all of us:
Why don’t we change our consumption behavior?
Why is the industry not reacting to apparent dangers?
Who is held accountable for hills of garbage mounting in deserts and seas?
Who wins in this game?
And who loses?
This feisty, informative documentary takes us on a journey around the globe - from the Moroccan Sahara to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, from a factory in China to the highest peaks of the Alps - to reveal the far-flung reaches of our plastic problem. Interviews with the world’s foremost experts in biology, pharmacology, and genetics shed light on the perils of plastic to our environment and expose the truth of how plastic affects our bodies and the health of future generations. Interspersing animated sequences and old commercials, this eye-opening film reveals how the world has wholeheartedly embraced the convenience of a substance it knows nothing about.
PLASTIC PLANET
95 min, Color, English narration and subtitles, Dolby Digital
Written and directed by Werner Boote
Original Music by the Orb
Animation by Peter Hoehsl
Produced by Thomas Bogner, Daniel Zuta
Executive producers, Tom Glaeser, Ilann Girard
With: John Taylor, Peter Lieberzeit, Marques Brown, Othman Ilyassa, Klaus Rhomberg, Beatrice Bortolozzo, Felice Casson, Juergen Artner, Frederic Corbin, Robin Tharaldson, Hermann Bicherl, Vicky Zhang, Theo Colborn, Kurt Scheidl, Rupsha Raghuram, Charles Moore, Susan Jobling, Scott Belcher, Patricia Hunt, Gunther von Hagens, Badru Okidi, Hiroshi Sagae, Jeff Harris, Fred vom Saal, Craig Halgreen, Guido Brosius, Stefano Facco, Catia Bastioli, Ray Hammond, Margot Wallstrom, Elfriede Boote. Narrator: Mark Jefferis
Cinema Village
22 East 12th Street, NYC
MOVIE website-http://firstrunfeatures.com/plasticplanet/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
First Run Features presents
Director Werner Boote's documentary
PLASTIC PLANET
Opens at Cinema Village in New York on January 14, 2011
We live in the age of plastic.
It’s cheap and practical, and it’s everywhere – even in our blood.
But is it a danger to us?
The plastic industry annually generates hundreds of billions of dollars. Every industrial sector in the world today is dependent on plastic. The amount of plastic we have produced since it was invented would be enough to cover the entire globe six times over. But this inexpensive and convenient substance comes with a hefty price. Plastic stays in the ground and water system for up to 500 years. It is found on every beach in the world. Numerous studies have proven that the chemicals it releases (such as Bisphenol A) migrate into the human body and may contribute to or cause grave health problems, from allergies to obesity to infertility, cancer and heart disease.
For Austrian German director Werner Boote, plastic is personal. His grandfather was one of the early manufacturers of plastic and he introduced Boote at a young age to the magic substance that would change the world. Many years later, after reading about the global threat posed by plastic, he decides to embark on a quest to discover the truth about this pervasive substance. Traveling to fourteen countries, he boldly and humorously confronts manufacturers, scientists, government officials and consumers to ask questions that concern all of us:
Why don’t we change our consumption behavior?
Why is the industry not reacting to apparent dangers?
Who is held accountable for hills of garbage mounting in deserts and seas?
Who wins in this game?
And who loses?
This feisty, informative documentary takes us on a journey around the globe - from the Moroccan Sahara to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, from a factory in China to the highest peaks of the Alps - to reveal the far-flung reaches of our plastic problem. Interviews with the world’s foremost experts in biology, pharmacology, and genetics shed light on the perils of plastic to our environment and expose the truth of how plastic affects our bodies and the health of future generations. Interspersing animated sequences and old commercials, this eye-opening film reveals how the world has wholeheartedly embraced the convenience of a substance it knows nothing about.
PLASTIC PLANET
95 min, Color, English narration and subtitles, Dolby Digital
Written and directed by Werner Boote
Original Music by the Orb
Animation by Peter Hoehsl
Produced by Thomas Bogner, Daniel Zuta
Executive producers, Tom Glaeser, Ilann Girard
With: John Taylor, Peter Lieberzeit, Marques Brown, Othman Ilyassa, Klaus Rhomberg, Beatrice Bortolozzo, Felice Casson, Juergen Artner, Frederic Corbin, Robin Tharaldson, Hermann Bicherl, Vicky Zhang, Theo Colborn, Kurt Scheidl, Rupsha Raghuram, Charles Moore, Susan Jobling, Scott Belcher, Patricia Hunt, Gunther von Hagens, Badru Okidi, Hiroshi Sagae, Jeff Harris, Fred vom Saal, Craig Halgreen, Guido Brosius, Stefano Facco, Catia Bastioli, Ray Hammond, Margot Wallstrom, Elfriede Boote. Narrator: Mark Jefferis
Cinema Village
22 East 12th Street, NYC
MOVIE website-http://firstrunfeatures.com/plasticplanet/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2010 Archives (in reverse chronological order)---------------
(2010) Josh Fox's GASLAND opens in NYC on Sept. 15, 2010 (Now on DVD!)
Press release
GASLAND
OPENING AT THE IFC CENTER ON SEPTEMBER 15th
When filmmaker Josh Fox received an unexpected offer of $100,000 for the natural gas drilling rights to his property in the Delaware River Basin, on the border of New York and Pennsylvania, he resisted the urge to accept. Instead, he set off on a cross-country journey to investigate the environmental risks of agreeing to the deal.
Part verité road trip, part exposé, part mystery and part showdown, GASLAND follows director Fox on a 24-state investigation of the environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing. What he uncovers is mind-boggling: tap water so contaminated it can be set on fire right out of the tap; chronically ill residents with similar symptoms in drilling areas across the country; and huge pools of toxic waste that kill livestock and vegetation.
GASLAND is Fox’s urgent, cautionary and sometimes darkly comic look at the largest domestic natural gas drilling campaign in history, which is currently sweeping the country and promising landowners a quick payoff. This shocking exposé shows that America’s zeal to produce homegrown natural gas, often touted as “clean burning,” may be poisoning the water and air. The timely documentary won the Documentary Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
____________________________________________________________
ADDENDUM:
GASLAND - NOW ON DVD
Is “fracking” safe?
The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. Beneath our continent lies a vast underground ocean of natural gas waiting to be harvested.
The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing) - exempt by the Bush-Cheney Energy Policy Act of 2005 from our national Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Air Act - has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us.
Across the country, in major cities such as New York and Dallas-Ft. Worth - where drilling is slated to take place or is already occurring directly in nearby water-supply areas - a crisis looms that could affect millions.
A nearby, recently-drilled Pennsylvania town has reported that its residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new documentary called GASLAND.
Other stops on Fox’s journey:
Gas companies have now turned their attention to the massive Marcellus Shale Field, where Fox’s Pennsylvania home rests. Stretching from the Catskill region of New York State to West Virginia, the area is also home to the country’s largest unfiltered watershed, supplying water to millions of Americans, including the residents of New York City. Thousands of leases have already been purchased by drilling companies, prompting a public controversy.
GASLAND is going a long way in spreading public awareness about the risks fracking poses on human and environmental health. The fight against hydraulic fracturing has now moved to Congress, where lobbyists are trying to prevent legislation that would require the chemicals used in the fracking process to once again be subject to the Safe Drinking Water Act.
GASLAND premiered on HBO in June 2010. The 107-minute DVD features deleted interviews and scenes from the film. Available on Amazon.com. Winner - Special Jury Prize Documentary Sundance Film Festival!
GASLAND is directed by Josh Fox; produced by Trish Adlesic; Josh Fox, Molly Gandour; edited by Matthew Sanchez.
MOVIE website-http://gaslandthemovie.com/
_____________
Theatrical release info - GASLAND will also be on tour with Rooftop Films, playing in New York City on September 11, 2010 on the pier along the East River at Solar One!
Rooftop Films Screening Information
Beginning August 27th, Rooftop Films, The Fledgling Fund, and International WOW Company will present a special six city tour of Josh Fox’s powerful new documentary GASLAND which exposes the horrifying effects of a new type of natural gas drilling called hydraulic fracturing.
The tour will bring free screenings of the film to some of the areas most seriously affected by this type of drilling, including Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and Callicoon, Syracuse, and New York City in New York.
The tour is part of Rooftop Films' ongoing expansion into new cities.
TOUR DETAILS:
For more information, please visit:http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/52-gasland
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GASLAND
OPENING AT THE IFC CENTER ON SEPTEMBER 15th
When filmmaker Josh Fox received an unexpected offer of $100,000 for the natural gas drilling rights to his property in the Delaware River Basin, on the border of New York and Pennsylvania, he resisted the urge to accept. Instead, he set off on a cross-country journey to investigate the environmental risks of agreeing to the deal.
Part verité road trip, part exposé, part mystery and part showdown, GASLAND follows director Fox on a 24-state investigation of the environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing. What he uncovers is mind-boggling: tap water so contaminated it can be set on fire right out of the tap; chronically ill residents with similar symptoms in drilling areas across the country; and huge pools of toxic waste that kill livestock and vegetation.
GASLAND is Fox’s urgent, cautionary and sometimes darkly comic look at the largest domestic natural gas drilling campaign in history, which is currently sweeping the country and promising landowners a quick payoff. This shocking exposé shows that America’s zeal to produce homegrown natural gas, often touted as “clean burning,” may be poisoning the water and air. The timely documentary won the Documentary Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
____________________________________________________________
ADDENDUM:
GASLAND - NOW ON DVD
Is “fracking” safe?
The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. Beneath our continent lies a vast underground ocean of natural gas waiting to be harvested.
The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing) - exempt by the Bush-Cheney Energy Policy Act of 2005 from our national Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Air Act - has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us.
Across the country, in major cities such as New York and Dallas-Ft. Worth - where drilling is slated to take place or is already occurring directly in nearby water-supply areas - a crisis looms that could affect millions.
A nearby, recently-drilled Pennsylvania town has reported that its residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new documentary called GASLAND.
Other stops on Fox’s journey:
- Dimock, Pennsylvania - the town closest to the New York City watershed, where residents’ farm and domestic animals started losing hair after drilling started, presumably from drinking contaminated water
- Wyoming - where Fox visits ranchers whose water well erupted for three days with a geyser of natural gas
- Dish, Texas - where emissions from natural gas wells and pipelines measure 55-times the acceptable public health level for cancer-causing benzene and 107-times the health standard for carbon disulfide, a neurotoxin
- Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas - where approximately 10,000 gas wells produce air emissions from gas drilling that are greater than all the air pollution from all cars and trucks in that metropolitan area, the fourth largest in America
Gas companies have now turned their attention to the massive Marcellus Shale Field, where Fox’s Pennsylvania home rests. Stretching from the Catskill region of New York State to West Virginia, the area is also home to the country’s largest unfiltered watershed, supplying water to millions of Americans, including the residents of New York City. Thousands of leases have already been purchased by drilling companies, prompting a public controversy.
GASLAND is going a long way in spreading public awareness about the risks fracking poses on human and environmental health. The fight against hydraulic fracturing has now moved to Congress, where lobbyists are trying to prevent legislation that would require the chemicals used in the fracking process to once again be subject to the Safe Drinking Water Act.
GASLAND premiered on HBO in June 2010. The 107-minute DVD features deleted interviews and scenes from the film. Available on Amazon.com. Winner - Special Jury Prize Documentary Sundance Film Festival!
GASLAND is directed by Josh Fox; produced by Trish Adlesic; Josh Fox, Molly Gandour; edited by Matthew Sanchez.
MOVIE website-http://gaslandthemovie.com/
_____________
Theatrical release info - GASLAND will also be on tour with Rooftop Films, playing in New York City on September 11, 2010 on the pier along the East River at Solar One!
Rooftop Films Screening Information
Beginning August 27th, Rooftop Films, The Fledgling Fund, and International WOW Company will present a special six city tour of Josh Fox’s powerful new documentary GASLAND which exposes the horrifying effects of a new type of natural gas drilling called hydraulic fracturing.
The tour will bring free screenings of the film to some of the areas most seriously affected by this type of drilling, including Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and Callicoon, Syracuse, and New York City in New York.
The tour is part of Rooftop Films' ongoing expansion into new cities.
TOUR DETAILS:
For more information, please visit:http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/52-gasland
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Press release
FILMBUFF PROUDLY PRESENTS
11 / 4 / 08
A FILM BY JEFF DEUTCHMAN
70 MINUTES - NOT RATED
ABOUT 11/4/08:
Two weeks before the election of Barack Obama, filmmaker Jeff Deutchman asked his friends around the world to record their experiences of 11/4/08, a day that had become "historic" before it had even taken place.
He collected footage from a combination of passionate amateurs and acclaimed independent filmmakers, including Henry Joost (Catfish), Margaret Brown (The Order of Myths), Joe Swanberg (Alexander the Last) and Benh Zeitlin (Glory At Sea).
In this vérité documentary, we see the results of that project:
-in St. Louis and Austin, idealistic volunteers think they can turn their states blue
-in Chicago, voter lines are made even longer when Obama shows up to cast his own vote
-in Alaska, children seem to be as invested in the election results as their parents
-in Paris, an organization discusses whether there could ever be a black President of France
-in Dubai, Berlin, Geneva and New Dehli, expatriates express their emotion from a distance
-in Harlem, a felon casts doubt on whether any of this will actually affect his life
As we approach the final announcement of Obama's victory at 11pm EST, what emerges is a portrait of how people choose to live through "history": the celebration of a new future remaining entangled with the universally visible tensions of the past.
FESTIVALS / ACCOLADES:
Special Achievement in Interactive Filmmaking, Chicago International Film Festival
Official Selection, Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival
Official Selection, Indianapolis International Film Festival
Official Selection, Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Series NYC
Official Selection, Sarasota Film Festival
World Premiere, SXSW Film Festival
On October 20, 2010: 11/4/08 will play theatrically followed by a simulcast Q&A with Jeff Deutchman live from the Philadelphia Film Festival.
The film releases nationwide on VOD October 22, 2010 via the following digital platforms:
· iTunes, AmazonVOD, Sony Playstation, and CinemaNow
MOVIE website-http://www.11-4-08.com/
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FILMBUFF PROUDLY PRESENTS
11 / 4 / 08
A FILM BY JEFF DEUTCHMAN
70 MINUTES - NOT RATED
ABOUT 11/4/08:
Two weeks before the election of Barack Obama, filmmaker Jeff Deutchman asked his friends around the world to record their experiences of 11/4/08, a day that had become "historic" before it had even taken place.
He collected footage from a combination of passionate amateurs and acclaimed independent filmmakers, including Henry Joost (Catfish), Margaret Brown (The Order of Myths), Joe Swanberg (Alexander the Last) and Benh Zeitlin (Glory At Sea).
In this vérité documentary, we see the results of that project:
-in St. Louis and Austin, idealistic volunteers think they can turn their states blue
-in Chicago, voter lines are made even longer when Obama shows up to cast his own vote
-in Alaska, children seem to be as invested in the election results as their parents
-in Paris, an organization discusses whether there could ever be a black President of France
-in Dubai, Berlin, Geneva and New Dehli, expatriates express their emotion from a distance
-in Harlem, a felon casts doubt on whether any of this will actually affect his life
As we approach the final announcement of Obama's victory at 11pm EST, what emerges is a portrait of how people choose to live through "history": the celebration of a new future remaining entangled with the universally visible tensions of the past.
FESTIVALS / ACCOLADES:
Special Achievement in Interactive Filmmaking, Chicago International Film Festival
Official Selection, Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival
Official Selection, Indianapolis International Film Festival
Official Selection, Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Series NYC
Official Selection, Sarasota Film Festival
World Premiere, SXSW Film Festival
On October 20, 2010: 11/4/08 will play theatrically followed by a simulcast Q&A with Jeff Deutchman live from the Philadelphia Film Festival.
The film releases nationwide on VOD October 22, 2010 via the following digital platforms:
· iTunes, AmazonVOD, Sony Playstation, and CinemaNow
MOVIE website-http://www.11-4-08.com/
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Press release
THE LOTTERY is on DVD now IN STORES NATIONWIDE!
CONTROVERSIAL DOC EXAMINES THE CRISIS OF U.S. PUBLIC EDUCATION REFORM
THE LOTTERY, the controversial feature-length documentary about the crisis of U.S. public education reform, is available in stores nationwide (starting August 31, 2010).
The film follows four families from Harlem and the Bronx who entered their children in a 2009 charter school lottery, hoping to avoid the failures of the traditional public school system. In a country where 58% of African American 4th graders are functionally illiterate, these families represent the hundreds of thousands of parents attempting to flee the system every year.
Director Madeleine Sackler uncovers a ferocious debate surrounding the U.S. education reform movement, while examining charter schools as a solution to deal with the crisis now before even more children fall behind.
"The four families in THE LOTTERY all have the same goal for their children: a high-quality education that will provide them with the opportunity for a better future. If we continue to be complacent about schools that are failing, and if we don't make it possible for excellent schools to grow, we are not only sentencing the most disadvantaged in our communities to devastating consequences, we are putting the future of the country at risk," said Sackler. "THE LOTTERY makes the case that any child can succeed."
THE LOTTERY features interviews with politicians and educators at the forefront of the education reform movement including: Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO of Harlem Children's Zone; Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, NJ; Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education; and Eva Moskowitz, former Chair of the Education Committee for New York's City Council, and founder and current CEO of Success Charter Network.
THE LOTTERY is directed and edited by Madeleine Sackler, and produced by Blake Ashman-Kipervaser, James Lawler and Sackler. Cinematography is by award-winning director of photography, Wolfgang Held (Brüno, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, Children Underground), and the original score is by Tunde Adebimbe (a founding member of the band, TV on the Radio) and Gerard Smith. 80 minutes. Not rated. For more information, visit www.thelotteryfilm.com.
THE LOTTERY Specifications:
Availability Now!
Genre: Documentary
Run Time: 80 minutes
Rating: Not rated
Sound: Stereo
SRP: $14.99
DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.78.1
Language: English
Special Features: Theatrical trailer, additional scenes
Trailer (link to embed or download):
http://www.divshare.com/download/12891295-e0b
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THE LOTTERY is on DVD now IN STORES NATIONWIDE!
CONTROVERSIAL DOC EXAMINES THE CRISIS OF U.S. PUBLIC EDUCATION REFORM
THE LOTTERY, the controversial feature-length documentary about the crisis of U.S. public education reform, is available in stores nationwide (starting August 31, 2010).
The film follows four families from Harlem and the Bronx who entered their children in a 2009 charter school lottery, hoping to avoid the failures of the traditional public school system. In a country where 58% of African American 4th graders are functionally illiterate, these families represent the hundreds of thousands of parents attempting to flee the system every year.
Director Madeleine Sackler uncovers a ferocious debate surrounding the U.S. education reform movement, while examining charter schools as a solution to deal with the crisis now before even more children fall behind.
"The four families in THE LOTTERY all have the same goal for their children: a high-quality education that will provide them with the opportunity for a better future. If we continue to be complacent about schools that are failing, and if we don't make it possible for excellent schools to grow, we are not only sentencing the most disadvantaged in our communities to devastating consequences, we are putting the future of the country at risk," said Sackler. "THE LOTTERY makes the case that any child can succeed."
THE LOTTERY features interviews with politicians and educators at the forefront of the education reform movement including: Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO of Harlem Children's Zone; Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, NJ; Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education; and Eva Moskowitz, former Chair of the Education Committee for New York's City Council, and founder and current CEO of Success Charter Network.
THE LOTTERY is directed and edited by Madeleine Sackler, and produced by Blake Ashman-Kipervaser, James Lawler and Sackler. Cinematography is by award-winning director of photography, Wolfgang Held (Brüno, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, Children Underground), and the original score is by Tunde Adebimbe (a founding member of the band, TV on the Radio) and Gerard Smith. 80 minutes. Not rated. For more information, visit www.thelotteryfilm.com.
THE LOTTERY Specifications:
Availability Now!
Genre: Documentary
Run Time: 80 minutes
Rating: Not rated
Sound: Stereo
SRP: $14.99
DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.78.1
Language: English
Special Features: Theatrical trailer, additional scenes
Trailer (link to embed or download):
http://www.divshare.com/download/12891295-e0b
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Promo release from www.FirstRunFeatures.com
HOWARD ZINN
This new Commemorative Edition of our best-selling DVD:
Howard Zinn: You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train
... features over an hour of new bonus materials including speeches, interviews, and excerpts with Studs Terkel.
In addition to the reissued bestselling Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Trainyou can learn even more about this remarkable man through our Howard Zinn Sale (ends Sept. 30, 2010).
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HOWARD ZINN
This new Commemorative Edition of our best-selling DVD:
Howard Zinn: You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train
... features over an hour of new bonus materials including speeches, interviews, and excerpts with Studs Terkel.
In addition to the reissued bestselling Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Trainyou can learn even more about this remarkable man through our Howard Zinn Sale (ends Sept. 30, 2010).
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(2010 release)-THE ART OF THE STEAL is On DVD now!
Press release
THE ART OF THE STEAL
OPENS IN NYC & PHILADELPHIA,PA
on
February 26, 2010
Official Selection:
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2009
NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL 2009
AFI FILM FESTIVAL 2009
The true story of a multi-billion dollar heist and how they got away with it.
[(2009)docu-USA/IFC films] - (hr min)
Synopsis: An un-missable look at one of the art world's most fascinating controversies and a celebrated selection of the Toronto, New York and AFI Film Festivals, Don Argott's gripping documentary THE ART OF THE STEAL chronicles the long and dramatic struggle for control of the Barnes Foundation, a private collection of art valued at more than $25 billion.
In 1922, Dr. Albert C. Barnes formed a remarkable educational institution around his priceless collection of art, located just five miles outside of Philadelphia. Now, more than 50 years after Barnes' death, a powerful group of moneyed interests have gone to court for control of the art, and intend to bring it to a new museum in Philadelphia.
Standing in their way is a group of Barnes' former students and his will, which contains strict instructions stating the Foundation should always be an educational institution and that the paintings may never be removed. Will they succeed, or will a man's will be broken and one of America's greatest cultural monuments be destroyed?
Watch Trailer: http://www.ifcfilms.com/videos/the-art-of-the-steal-2
THE ART OF THE STEAL OPENS IN NYC & PHILADELPHIA on February 26TH!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Related article & director interview By Thomas White (from documentary.org):
Art for Art's Sake? A Battle over a Billion-Dollar Collection
Don Argott's The Art of the Steal pits the citizens of Merion, Pennsylvania--home of the magnificent Barnes Collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Modern paintings--against the power conglomerate of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania government officials, museum trustees and foundation heads in a struggle for control of the Collection. Read full article »
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THE ART OF THE STEAL
OPENS IN NYC & PHILADELPHIA,PA
on
February 26, 2010
Official Selection:
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2009
NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL 2009
AFI FILM FESTIVAL 2009
The true story of a multi-billion dollar heist and how they got away with it.
[(2009)docu-USA/IFC films] - (hr min)
Synopsis: An un-missable look at one of the art world's most fascinating controversies and a celebrated selection of the Toronto, New York and AFI Film Festivals, Don Argott's gripping documentary THE ART OF THE STEAL chronicles the long and dramatic struggle for control of the Barnes Foundation, a private collection of art valued at more than $25 billion.
In 1922, Dr. Albert C. Barnes formed a remarkable educational institution around his priceless collection of art, located just five miles outside of Philadelphia. Now, more than 50 years after Barnes' death, a powerful group of moneyed interests have gone to court for control of the art, and intend to bring it to a new museum in Philadelphia.
Standing in their way is a group of Barnes' former students and his will, which contains strict instructions stating the Foundation should always be an educational institution and that the paintings may never be removed. Will they succeed, or will a man's will be broken and one of America's greatest cultural monuments be destroyed?
Watch Trailer: http://www.ifcfilms.com/videos/the-art-of-the-steal-2
THE ART OF THE STEAL OPENS IN NYC & PHILADELPHIA on February 26TH!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Related article & director interview By Thomas White (from documentary.org):
Art for Art's Sake? A Battle over a Billion-Dollar Collection
Don Argott's The Art of the Steal pits the citizens of Merion, Pennsylvania--home of the magnificent Barnes Collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Modern paintings--against the power conglomerate of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania government officials, museum trustees and foundation heads in a struggle for control of the Collection. Read full article »
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(Toronto'09/2010 release)-THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA ... On DVD now!
Press release
OSCAR NOMINEE!
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA:
Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
A film by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
Co-winner of this year's Freedom of Expression Award from theNational Board of Review (and one of their Five Best
Documentaries of the Year), Winner of the Special Jury Award at IDFA, and in contention for the year's Best Documentary Feature Oscar, The Most Dangerous Man in America tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, a high-level Pentagon official and Vietnam War strategist, who in 1971 concluded that the war was based on decades of lies and leaked 7,000 pages of top secret documents to The New York Times, making headlines around the world.
A riveting story of how this one man's profound change of heart created a landmark struggle involving America's newspapers, its president and Supreme Court.
With Daniel Ellsberg, Patricia Ellsberg, Tony Russo, Howard Zinn, Hedrick Smith, John Dean, and, from the
secret White House tapes, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who called Ellsberg "the most dangerous man in America."
Official website: http://www.mostdangerousman.org/
Watch Trailer:
http://echo.bluehornet.com/ct/3285792:1690919185:m:3:66232253:3ED1F7B4E9903BB324A92C530259D938
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
OSCAR NOMINEE!
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA:
Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
A film by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
Co-winner of this year's Freedom of Expression Award from theNational Board of Review (and one of their Five Best
Documentaries of the Year), Winner of the Special Jury Award at IDFA, and in contention for the year's Best Documentary Feature Oscar, The Most Dangerous Man in America tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, a high-level Pentagon official and Vietnam War strategist, who in 1971 concluded that the war was based on decades of lies and leaked 7,000 pages of top secret documents to The New York Times, making headlines around the world.
A riveting story of how this one man's profound change of heart created a landmark struggle involving America's newspapers, its president and Supreme Court.
With Daniel Ellsberg, Patricia Ellsberg, Tony Russo, Howard Zinn, Hedrick Smith, John Dean, and, from the
secret White House tapes, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who called Ellsberg "the most dangerous man in America."
Official website: http://www.mostdangerousman.org/
Watch Trailer:
http://echo.bluehornet.com/ct/3285792:1690919185:m:3:66232253:3ED1F7B4E9903BB324A92C530259D938
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2009 Archives (in reverse chronological order)---------------
(2009 release) Chris Smith's COLLAPSE is On DVD now!!! (Docu/Toronto)
Press release
Vitagraph Films and FilmBuff will release
COLLAPSE
a film by Chris Smith
opens NOVEMBER 6th
in New York City at the ANGELIKA FILM CENTER
COLLAPSE will also be available on Video-On-Demand (VOD) via FilmBuff on 11/15
Watch the trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/collapse/
Americans generally like to hear good news. They like to believe that a new president will right old wrongs, that clean energy will replace dirty oil and that fresh thinking will set the economy straight. American pundits tend to restrain their pessimism and hope for the best. But is anyone prepared for the worst?
Meet Michael Ruppert, a different kind of American. A former Los Angeles police officer turned independent reporter, he predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter at a time when most Wall Street and Washington analysts were still in denial.
Director Chris Smith has shown an affinity for outsiders in films like American Movie and The Yes Men. In Collapse, he departs stylistically from his past documentaries by interviewing Ruppert in a format that recalls the work of Errol Morris and Spalding Gray.
A character study of the apocalyptic imagination, Collapse is a portrait of a man who believes with total conviction that industrial civilization is on the verge of collapse.
Directed by: Chris Smith
Produced By: Kate Noble
Running Time: 82 Minutes / Not rated
Official website: http://collapsemovie.com/
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Joe Berlinger's CRUDE is On DVD now!!!
Press release
CRUDE
Directed by Joe Berlinger
Three years in the making, this cinéma-vérité feature from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet. The inside story of the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case, Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film subverts the conventions of advocacy filmmaking, exploring a complicated situation from all angles while bringing an important story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.
The landmark case takes place in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador, pitting 30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest dwellers against the U.S. oil giant Chevron. The plaintiffs claim that Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – spent three decades systematically contaminating one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, poisoning the water, air and land. The plaintiffs allege that the pollution has created a “death zone” in an area the size of the Rhode Island, resulting in increased rates of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and a multiplicity of other health ailments. They further allege that the oil operations in the region contributed to the destruction of indigenous peoples and irrevocably impacted their traditional way of life. Chevron vociferously fights the claims, charging that the case is a complete fabrication, perpetrated by “environmental con men” who are seeking to line their pockets with the company’s billions.
The case takes place not just in a courtroom, but in a series of field inspections at the alleged contamination sites, with the judge and attorneys for both sides trudging through the jungle to litigate. And the battleground has expanded far beyond the legal process. The cameras rolled as the conflict raged in and out of court, and the case drew attention from an array of celebrities, politicians and journalists, and landed on the cover of Vanity Fair. Some of the film’s subjects sparked further controversy as they won a CNN “Hero” award and the Goldman Award, the environmental equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Shooting in dozens of locations on three continents and in multiple languages, Berlinger and his crew gained extraordinary access to players on all sides of the legal fight and beyond, capturing the drama as it unfolded while the case grew from a little-known legal story to an international cause célèbre. Crude is a ground-level view of one of the most extraordinary legal dramas of our time, one that has the potential of forever changing the way international business is conducted. While the environmental impact of the consumption of fossil fuels has been increasingly documented in recent years, Crude focuses on the human cost of our addiction to oil and the increasingly difficult task of holding a major corporation accountable for its past deeds.
MOVIE website-www.crudethemovie.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ALERT: DOCUMENTARY JOURNALISM UNDER ATTACK
The makers of the award-winning documentary CRUDE are currently embroiled in a legal battle with Chevron, who has subpoenaed the CRUDE filmmakers and nearly 600 hours of raw footage accumulated during the production. The filmmakers' attorneys have argued that their footage is protected by the journalist's privilege, and that forcing them to hand it over to any third party is a violation of their First Amendment rights. But on May 6th, a judge ruled in Chevron's favor, creating a frightening precedent that many --from Bill Moyers to Michael Moore--agree will have a chilling effect on investigative journalism and documentary filmmaking as we know it.
The CRUDE filmmakers are appealing the ruling, but the fight is costly. As the third-largest corporation in America, Chevron has far more financial resources at its disposal than they do. They are asking supporters to help raise funds for their defense against Chevron. If they fail to prevail in this case it will undoubtedly set a frightening precedent for the future of journalism and documentary filmmaking.
To support director Joe Berlinger and his filmmaking team in their fight against Chevron, First Run will donate 15% of all
sales of the CRUDE DVD (and any other DVD we sell) when purchased on our website via the link below. With your purchase, you can play an active role in this historic battle for the freedom of the press, the protection of the journalist, and the foundation of documentary film.
TAKE ACTION: Buy CRUDE on DVD
When you click through this email and buy the DVD, 15% of the purchase pricewill be donated to the CRUDE filmmakers' legal defense fund.
Visit the "CRUDE Fight for the First Amendment" Kickstarter page to learn more about the fund:
http://echo.bluehornet.com/ct/3406631:1770502515:m:3:66232253:5C6701B3569BA9F76BCE8CDE94D947A2
All donations must be received by June 30, 2010, so buy your copy of CRUDE today:
http://echo.bluehornet.com/ct/3406630:1770502515:m:3:66232253:5C6701B3569BA9F76BCE8CDE94D947A2
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CRUDE
Directed by Joe Berlinger
Three years in the making, this cinéma-vérité feature from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet. The inside story of the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case, Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film subverts the conventions of advocacy filmmaking, exploring a complicated situation from all angles while bringing an important story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.
The landmark case takes place in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador, pitting 30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest dwellers against the U.S. oil giant Chevron. The plaintiffs claim that Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – spent three decades systematically contaminating one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, poisoning the water, air and land. The plaintiffs allege that the pollution has created a “death zone” in an area the size of the Rhode Island, resulting in increased rates of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and a multiplicity of other health ailments. They further allege that the oil operations in the region contributed to the destruction of indigenous peoples and irrevocably impacted their traditional way of life. Chevron vociferously fights the claims, charging that the case is a complete fabrication, perpetrated by “environmental con men” who are seeking to line their pockets with the company’s billions.
The case takes place not just in a courtroom, but in a series of field inspections at the alleged contamination sites, with the judge and attorneys for both sides trudging through the jungle to litigate. And the battleground has expanded far beyond the legal process. The cameras rolled as the conflict raged in and out of court, and the case drew attention from an array of celebrities, politicians and journalists, and landed on the cover of Vanity Fair. Some of the film’s subjects sparked further controversy as they won a CNN “Hero” award and the Goldman Award, the environmental equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Shooting in dozens of locations on three continents and in multiple languages, Berlinger and his crew gained extraordinary access to players on all sides of the legal fight and beyond, capturing the drama as it unfolded while the case grew from a little-known legal story to an international cause célèbre. Crude is a ground-level view of one of the most extraordinary legal dramas of our time, one that has the potential of forever changing the way international business is conducted. While the environmental impact of the consumption of fossil fuels has been increasingly documented in recent years, Crude focuses on the human cost of our addiction to oil and the increasingly difficult task of holding a major corporation accountable for its past deeds.
MOVIE website-www.crudethemovie.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ALERT: DOCUMENTARY JOURNALISM UNDER ATTACK
The makers of the award-winning documentary CRUDE are currently embroiled in a legal battle with Chevron, who has subpoenaed the CRUDE filmmakers and nearly 600 hours of raw footage accumulated during the production. The filmmakers' attorneys have argued that their footage is protected by the journalist's privilege, and that forcing them to hand it over to any third party is a violation of their First Amendment rights. But on May 6th, a judge ruled in Chevron's favor, creating a frightening precedent that many --from Bill Moyers to Michael Moore--agree will have a chilling effect on investigative journalism and documentary filmmaking as we know it.
The CRUDE filmmakers are appealing the ruling, but the fight is costly. As the third-largest corporation in America, Chevron has far more financial resources at its disposal than they do. They are asking supporters to help raise funds for their defense against Chevron. If they fail to prevail in this case it will undoubtedly set a frightening precedent for the future of journalism and documentary filmmaking.
To support director Joe Berlinger and his filmmaking team in their fight against Chevron, First Run will donate 15% of all
sales of the CRUDE DVD (and any other DVD we sell) when purchased on our website via the link below. With your purchase, you can play an active role in this historic battle for the freedom of the press, the protection of the journalist, and the foundation of documentary film.
TAKE ACTION: Buy CRUDE on DVD
When you click through this email and buy the DVD, 15% of the purchase pricewill be donated to the CRUDE filmmakers' legal defense fund.
Visit the "CRUDE Fight for the First Amendment" Kickstarter page to learn more about the fund:
http://echo.bluehornet.com/ct/3406631:1770502515:m:3:66232253:5C6701B3569BA9F76BCE8CDE94D947A2
All donations must be received by June 30, 2010, so buy your copy of CRUDE today:
http://echo.bluehornet.com/ct/3406630:1770502515:m:3:66232253:5C6701B3569BA9F76BCE8CDE94D947A2
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(2010 RE-release) THE END OF POVERTY? is On DVD now!!!
Press release
WILL WE EVER SEE ...
‘THE END OF POVERTY?’
A POWERFUL DOCUMENTARY RE-OPENS IN NEW YORK
... AND PROVIDES THE ANSWER
______________________________________________________________________________________
New York, NY– In February, the World Bank issued a stunning report: the spreading global economic crisis is set to trap up to 53 million more people in poverty in developing countries bringing the total of those living on less than $2 a day to over 1.5 billion. This dynamic, where the rich are bailed out by the poor is the focal point of a new documentary film directed by Philippe Diaz, which has been impressing critics and economic justice activists worldwide and will be re-released in US theatres nationwide. The documentary will open in New York (Cinema Village) on January 29, 2010 and will continue to expand throughout 2010.
Award-winning actor and activist, Martin Sheen, provides the narration for THE END OF POVERTY? that connects the dots from colonialism to modern times in an indictment of the creation of the free market system - the system now blamed for the worst global recession in decades.
After premiering at Critics’ Week during the Cannes Film Festival and subsequently invited to over twenty-five international film festivals, the film opened in New York City on November 13, and in Los Angeles on November 25, with a platform release that included Irvine (CA), Portland (OR), San Francisco (CA), Seattle (WA), Austin (TX), and Denver (CO).
“There has been a lot of dialogue in the last few years about ‘the end of poverty’ with technology or micro-financing positioned as the new ‘solution,’” says filmmaker Diaz. “For example, economists such as Jeffrey Sachs cheerfully suggest that poverty can be ended with increased transfers of capital and technology (such as improved mosquito nets), the film shows why that kind of thinking is simplistic at best, harmful at worst. More foreign aid does nothing to rectify the cumulative problems from centuries of exploitation."
Filmed in the slums of Africa to the barrios of Latin America, THE END OF POVERTY? explores how the true causes of poverty stem from actions taken during and since colonial times to perpetuate exploitation: first by forcing people from their land and their access to natural resources, then through unfair trade, debt repayment and unjust taxes on labor and consumption. This system was carefully built and maintained by free market policies, resource monopolies and structural adjustment programs by the World Bank, the IMF and other international financial institutions.
The documentary features: Nobel prize winners in economics Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz; expert authors Susan George (“Another World Is Possible If”), Eric Toussaint (“The World Bank: A Never Ending Coup d’Etat”), John Perkins (“Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”), Chalmers Johnson (“Nemesis: The Last Days of the America Republic”), Brookings Institute fellow and author, William Easterly (“White Man’s Burden”); government ministers such as Bolivia’s Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera, and leaders of social movements in Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Kenya and Tanzania.
The film has been embraced by activists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide for its ‘direct talk’ about the role of debt, free trade, and neo-liberal policies and poverty. Groups including: Action Aid Greece, Amnesty UK, ATTAC (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions to Aid Citizens), CADTM(Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt), Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), InterAction, Jubilee Debt Campaign, Jubilee USA, Jubilee Australia, Make Poverty History,Share the World’s Resources (STWR),Tax Justice Network, Transnational Institute, and the UN Millennium Campaign have screened the films as part of their anti-poverty campaigns in the past year.
Synopsis: Narrated by Martin Sheen, The End of Poverty? is a daring, thought-provoking and very timely documentary by award-winning filmmaker, Philippe Diaz, revealing that poverty is not an accident. It began with military conquest, slavery and colonization that resulted in the seizure of land, minerals and forced labor. Today, global poverty has reached new levels because of unfair debt, trade and tax policies -- in other words, wealthy countries exploiting the weaknesses of poor, developing countries such that today 20% of the planet's population uses 80% of its resources and consumes 30% more than the planet can regenerate. (Produced & distributed by Cinema Libre Studio with the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, 104mins, 2008, USA, documentary in English, Spanish, and French with English Subtitles. Learn more at www.theendofpoverty.com)
View trailer at website or online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRZnEBFYNS0
Additional information to be found on Twitter and Facebook.
About Cinema Libre Studio: Cinema Libre Studio has been a leader in the distribution social issue films that tackle timely issues. The company is a haven for independent filmmakers offering one-stop shopping for production and distribution. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the company is best known for distributing social-issue documentaries that include: Outfoxed, Uncovered, WMD: Weapon’s of Mass Deception, Darfur Diaries, The Future of Food, A River of Waste, Desert Bayou and The Beautiful Truth. The company has recently released the films of French auteur Jean-Jacques Beineix and has partnered with Iranian director, Masoud Jafari Jozani, to bring the first film crew to shoot in US since the Iranian revolution. For more information, please visit www.cinemalibrestudio.com.
WILL WE EVER SEE ...
‘THE END OF POVERTY?’
A POWERFUL DOCUMENTARY RE-OPENS IN NEW YORK
... AND PROVIDES THE ANSWER
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New York, NY– In February, the World Bank issued a stunning report: the spreading global economic crisis is set to trap up to 53 million more people in poverty in developing countries bringing the total of those living on less than $2 a day to over 1.5 billion. This dynamic, where the rich are bailed out by the poor is the focal point of a new documentary film directed by Philippe Diaz, which has been impressing critics and economic justice activists worldwide and will be re-released in US theatres nationwide. The documentary will open in New York (Cinema Village) on January 29, 2010 and will continue to expand throughout 2010.
Award-winning actor and activist, Martin Sheen, provides the narration for THE END OF POVERTY? that connects the dots from colonialism to modern times in an indictment of the creation of the free market system - the system now blamed for the worst global recession in decades.
After premiering at Critics’ Week during the Cannes Film Festival and subsequently invited to over twenty-five international film festivals, the film opened in New York City on November 13, and in Los Angeles on November 25, with a platform release that included Irvine (CA), Portland (OR), San Francisco (CA), Seattle (WA), Austin (TX), and Denver (CO).
“There has been a lot of dialogue in the last few years about ‘the end of poverty’ with technology or micro-financing positioned as the new ‘solution,’” says filmmaker Diaz. “For example, economists such as Jeffrey Sachs cheerfully suggest that poverty can be ended with increased transfers of capital and technology (such as improved mosquito nets), the film shows why that kind of thinking is simplistic at best, harmful at worst. More foreign aid does nothing to rectify the cumulative problems from centuries of exploitation."
Filmed in the slums of Africa to the barrios of Latin America, THE END OF POVERTY? explores how the true causes of poverty stem from actions taken during and since colonial times to perpetuate exploitation: first by forcing people from their land and their access to natural resources, then through unfair trade, debt repayment and unjust taxes on labor and consumption. This system was carefully built and maintained by free market policies, resource monopolies and structural adjustment programs by the World Bank, the IMF and other international financial institutions.
The documentary features: Nobel prize winners in economics Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz; expert authors Susan George (“Another World Is Possible If”), Eric Toussaint (“The World Bank: A Never Ending Coup d’Etat”), John Perkins (“Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”), Chalmers Johnson (“Nemesis: The Last Days of the America Republic”), Brookings Institute fellow and author, William Easterly (“White Man’s Burden”); government ministers such as Bolivia’s Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera, and leaders of social movements in Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Kenya and Tanzania.
The film has been embraced by activists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide for its ‘direct talk’ about the role of debt, free trade, and neo-liberal policies and poverty. Groups including: Action Aid Greece, Amnesty UK, ATTAC (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions to Aid Citizens), CADTM(Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt), Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), InterAction, Jubilee Debt Campaign, Jubilee USA, Jubilee Australia, Make Poverty History,Share the World’s Resources (STWR),Tax Justice Network, Transnational Institute, and the UN Millennium Campaign have screened the films as part of their anti-poverty campaigns in the past year.
Synopsis: Narrated by Martin Sheen, The End of Poverty? is a daring, thought-provoking and very timely documentary by award-winning filmmaker, Philippe Diaz, revealing that poverty is not an accident. It began with military conquest, slavery and colonization that resulted in the seizure of land, minerals and forced labor. Today, global poverty has reached new levels because of unfair debt, trade and tax policies -- in other words, wealthy countries exploiting the weaknesses of poor, developing countries such that today 20% of the planet's population uses 80% of its resources and consumes 30% more than the planet can regenerate. (Produced & distributed by Cinema Libre Studio with the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, 104mins, 2008, USA, documentary in English, Spanish, and French with English Subtitles. Learn more at www.theendofpoverty.com)
View trailer at website or online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRZnEBFYNS0
Additional information to be found on Twitter and Facebook.
About Cinema Libre Studio: Cinema Libre Studio has been a leader in the distribution social issue films that tackle timely issues. The company is a haven for independent filmmakers offering one-stop shopping for production and distribution. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the company is best known for distributing social-issue documentaries that include: Outfoxed, Uncovered, WMD: Weapon’s of Mass Deception, Darfur Diaries, The Future of Food, A River of Waste, Desert Bayou and The Beautiful Truth. The company has recently released the films of French auteur Jean-Jacques Beineix and has partnered with Iranian director, Masoud Jafari Jozani, to bring the first film crew to shoot in US since the Iranian revolution. For more information, please visit www.cinemalibrestudio.com.
(2009/Docu/Rated PG-13)-Louie Psihoyos' THE COVE is On DVD now!!!
Press release
Roadside Attractions presents the Sundance Film Festival’s
Audience Award winning film
THE COVE
OPENS July 31, 2009 in NYC
In the 1960's, Richard O'Barry was the world’s leading authority on dolphin training, working on the set of the popular television program Flipper. Day in and day out, O'Barry kept the dolphins working and television audiences smiling. But one day, that all came to a tragic end.
THE COVE, directed by Louie Psihoyos, tells the amazing true story of how Psihoyos, O'Barry and an elite team of activists, filmmakers and freedivers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate a hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret.
The mysteries they uncovered were only the tip of the iceberg.
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 91 Minutes
Release Date: July 31 – NYC at Beekman Theatre, Angelika Film Center;
July 31 – LA at The Landmark, ArcLight Hollywood 15
Directed by: Louie Psihoyos
Distributor: Roadside Attractions
Website: http://www.thecovemovie.com/
Sundance Interview with the director | Watch Now |
STOP the Dolphin slaughter: http://www.takepart.com/thecove/
The Cove is rated PG-13 for Disturbing Content.
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Roadside Attractions presents the Sundance Film Festival’s
Audience Award winning film
THE COVE
OPENS July 31, 2009 in NYC
In the 1960's, Richard O'Barry was the world’s leading authority on dolphin training, working on the set of the popular television program Flipper. Day in and day out, O'Barry kept the dolphins working and television audiences smiling. But one day, that all came to a tragic end.
THE COVE, directed by Louie Psihoyos, tells the amazing true story of how Psihoyos, O'Barry and an elite team of activists, filmmakers and freedivers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate a hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret.
The mysteries they uncovered were only the tip of the iceberg.
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 91 Minutes
Release Date: July 31 – NYC at Beekman Theatre, Angelika Film Center;
July 31 – LA at The Landmark, ArcLight Hollywood 15
Directed by: Louie Psihoyos
Distributor: Roadside Attractions
Website: http://www.thecovemovie.com/
Sundance Interview with the director | Watch Now |
STOP the Dolphin slaughter: http://www.takepart.com/thecove/
The Cove is rated PG-13 for Disturbing Content.
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Kirby Dick's OUTRAGE "outing" of gay Republican politicians is On DVD now!!!
Outrage
Feature Documentary, 2009, 87 min
Directed by: Kirby Dick
Tribeca'09 synopsis: Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick (This Film Is Not Yet Rated) delivers a searing indictment of the hypocrisy of closeted politicians who actively campaign against the LGBT community they covertly belong to. Outrage boldly reveals the hidden lives of some of our nation's most powerful policymakers, details the harm they've inflicted on millions of Americans, and examines the media's complicity in keeping their secrets. Read More
MOVIE website-http://www.outragethemovie.com/
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THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is On DVD in the USA now!!!
Press release
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD:
Following the Witty, Fearless Exploits of the Anti-Corporate Pranksters
Premieres Theatrically Wed., October 7, 2009 at Film Forum-NYC
The Yes Men, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, are anti-corporate troublemakers who get themselves invited to high-level corporate conferences and onto televi*sion, where they hilariously unmask global injustice. They are the 21st century’s answer to Abbie Hoffman, and like their predecessor, they care less abut changing consciousness than changing policy.
Announcing – as faux spokespeople for Dow Chemical – that Dow will at last take full financial responsibility for the victims of the Bhopal disaster, they create a media sensation. Outfitted in their wacky “Survivaball” getups, they address a room full of straight-laced suits who don’t think there’s anything funny about going to insane lengths to assure rich folks’ safety in the event of climate calamity.
Posing as Exxon executives, they demonstrate a new biofuel made from climate-change victims. The Yes Men collaborated on the en*tirely fake issue of The New York Times, originally printed last fall, to the great amusement of many.
They don’t exactly speak truth to power — but their lies are just as powerful and very, very funny.
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD (2009, 87 mins.)
USA/India. A Shadow Distribution release.
Written and Directed by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno.
Co-Director: Kurt Engfehr. Produced by Doro Bachrach, Ruth Charny, Laura Nix. Editor: April Merl. Original Music: Neel Murgai, Noisola. Animation: Patrick Lichty.
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THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD:
Following the Witty, Fearless Exploits of the Anti-Corporate Pranksters
Premieres Theatrically Wed., October 7, 2009 at Film Forum-NYC
The Yes Men, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, are anti-corporate troublemakers who get themselves invited to high-level corporate conferences and onto televi*sion, where they hilariously unmask global injustice. They are the 21st century’s answer to Abbie Hoffman, and like their predecessor, they care less abut changing consciousness than changing policy.
Announcing – as faux spokespeople for Dow Chemical – that Dow will at last take full financial responsibility for the victims of the Bhopal disaster, they create a media sensation. Outfitted in their wacky “Survivaball” getups, they address a room full of straight-laced suits who don’t think there’s anything funny about going to insane lengths to assure rich folks’ safety in the event of climate calamity.
Posing as Exxon executives, they demonstrate a new biofuel made from climate-change victims. The Yes Men collaborated on the en*tirely fake issue of The New York Times, originally printed last fall, to the great amusement of many.
They don’t exactly speak truth to power — but their lies are just as powerful and very, very funny.
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD (2009, 87 mins.)
USA/India. A Shadow Distribution release.
Written and Directed by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno.
Co-Director: Kurt Engfehr. Produced by Doro Bachrach, Ruth Charny, Laura Nix. Editor: April Merl. Original Music: Neel Murgai, Noisola. Animation: Patrick Lichty.
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