A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council — presents itself as a “nonpartisan public-private partnership”. But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge…
http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-united-states-of-alec-a-follow-up/
Director: Jan Nimmo
Cameroon/ Scotland
between 2.30 mins and 4 mins
A collection of banana workers’ testimonies filmed in the Fako region of Cameroon. These short stories give the viewer an intimate insight into what daily life is like for workers who produce bananas for the European market. The online testimonies were edited for Make Fruit Fair/ Banana Link and these stories are also available as a video wall installation for exhibitions and events.
The films are currently being edited into one short film of around 18 mins for festival distribution – for more information contact Jan Nimmo: jan@greengold.org.uk
90m; U.S.
Director: Craig Zobel
Cast: Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker and Pat Healy
Synopsis: “In the middle of a bad day Sandra (Ann Dowd), the harried manager of a fast-food franchise, receives a phone call from a man claiming to be a police officer. He accuses an employee named Becky (Dreama Walker) of theft and instructs Sandra to subject the pretty teenager to a series of humiliations: detain her in the stock room, confiscate her belongings, conduct a strip search and on and on. As the title suggests, at each step of this increasingly elaborate and unnerving hoax, Sandra and Becky do what they are told.”
–‘Compliance’ Raises Questions About Human Behavior; NYT 8/10/2012
Trailer
97m; U.K.
Director: Ross Ashcroft
Producer: Megan Ashcroft
p. +44 (0) 207 386 5277
m. +44 (0) 7815 117 336
megan@motherlode.org.uk
http://www.motherlode.org.uk
Cast: Noam Chomsky, Herman Daly and Joseph Stiglitz
Synopsis: debut feature from director Ross Ashcroft reveals the fundamental flaws in the economic system which have brought our civilization to the brink of disaster.
23 leading thinkers –frustrated at the failure of their respective disciplines – break their silence to explain how the world really works.
The film pulls no punches in describing the consequences of continued inaction – but its message is one of hope. If more people can equip themselves with a better understanding of how the world really works, then the systems and structures that condemn billions to poverty or chronic insecurity can at last be overturned. Solutions to the multiple crises facing humanity have never been more urgent, but equally, the conditions for change have never been more favourable.
Trailer
Director: Katharine Round
Synopsis: Based on the best-selling book The Spirit Level, this film shows why a more equal society is better for all of us, including the rich. Yet still this gap is at its highest level for 30 years. It’s time for action, and a documentary is the most powerful way we can raise awareness and mobilise people.
Contact: http://thespiritleveldocumentary.com/
Trailer
75m; U.S.
Director: Frances Cause and Donald Goldmacher
Synopsis: HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream? is stunning audiences across the globe, as it exposes the real truth behind the worldwide economic collapse, tracing its origins to a 1971 secret memo entitled Attack on American Free Enterprise. Written over 40 years ago by the future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, at the behest of the US Chamber of Commerce, the 6-page memo, a free-market utopian treatise, called for a money fueled big business makeover of government through corporate control of the media, academia, the pulpit, arts and sciences and destruction of organized labor and consumer protection groups.
Sound familiar? Today’s crisis and heart stopping headlines can be directly traced to Powell’s real “end game” which was business control of law and politics. Powell’s fingerprints are all over Citizens United, the fateful Supreme Court decision which gave corporations and the super rich unlimited ability to shape our elections with virtually unrestricted donations. HEIST’s step by step detail exposes the systemic implementation of Powell’s memo by BOTH U.S. political parties over the last forty years culminating in the deregulation of industry, outsourcing of jobs and regressive taxation. All of which led us to the global financial crisis of 2008 and the continued dismantling of the American middle class.
Today, politics is the playground of the rich and powerful, with no thought given to the hopes and dreams of ordinary Americans. No other film goes as deeply as HEIST in explaining the greatest heist of our time. Moving beyond the white noise of today’s polarizing media, HEIST provides viewers with a clear, concise and fact-based explanation of how we got into this mess, and what we need to do to restore our representative democracy.
Contact: http://www.heist-themovie.com/index.html
Trailer
86m; U.S.
Director: Susan Saldoff
Synopsis: Seinfeld mocked it. Letterman ranked it in his top ten list. And more than fifteen years later, its infamy continues. Everyone knows the McDonald’s coffee case. It has been routinely cited as an example of how citizens have taken advantage of America’s legal system, but is that a fair rendition of the facts?Hot Coffee reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. After seeing this film, you will decide who really profited from spilling hot coffee.
Contact: http://www.hotcoffeethemovie.com/default.asp
Trailer
Director: Robert Greenwald
Synopsis: Koch Brothers Exposed is a hard-hitting investigation of the 1% at its very worst. This full-length documentary film on Charles and David Koch—two of the world’s richest and most powerful men—is the latest from acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, Rethink Afghanistan). The billionaire brothers bankroll a vast network of organizations that work to undermine the interests of the 99% on issues ranging from Social Security to the environment to civil rights. This film uncovers the Kochs’ corruption—and points the way to how Americans can reclaim their democracy.
Contact: http://www.kochbrothersexposed.com/
Trailer
80m; Ireland
Director: Risteard Ó Domhnaill
Synopsis: “The most dramatic clash of cultures in modern Ireland, the rights of farmers over their fields, and of fishermen to their fishing grounds, has come in direct conflict with one of the worlds most powerful oil companies. When the citizens look to their state to protect their rights, they find that the state has put Shell’s right to lay a pipeline over their own.
The Pipe is a story of a community tragically divided, and how they deal with a pipe that could bring economic prosperity or destruction of a way of life shared for generations.”
Contact: http://www.thepipethefilm.com/
Trailer
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