From countercorp-news at countercorp.org Fri Oct 10 21:36:30 2008 From: countercorp-news at countercorp.org (CounterCorp News and Events List) Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:36:30 -0700 Subject: [CounterCorp] Last weekend before the Festival! Help spread the word! Message-ID: <718D3922-4F34-4E86-BAF0-2C229FC1EA7E@countercorp.org> Dear CounterCorp supporter, Well, this is it: The last weekend before this year's Anti-Corporate Film Festival. For those of you who haven't visited the CounterCorp website in a while, you'll notice that we've posted the complete Festival schedule, including the post-screening speakers, as well as links to buy tickets online at the SAME price as those for sale in the theater. Which means there's no reason to delay getting your tickets for the films you want to see. And we're also selling single-night and full-festival passes online that cut the price of the films by 25 percent and 33 percent, respectively. So if you want to see two films in one night, or any five films in the Festival -- or you just want to support the Festival -- it pays to buy a single-night or full-fest pass. It's all right here: We'll be adding trailers to the Festival page shortly, as well as further details about this year's Festival. In the meantime, we're going to try something this year that we've never done before: We're going to enlist our supporters in a "guerrilla marketing campaign". One of our volunteers is a strong supporter of social networking, and she thinks we should let the people who know and support CounterCorp, and who have been to the Festival in previous years, help us to advertise it to people who may not know about it. So attached to this e-mail is a copy of the letter-sized flier that our volunteers are posting in coffee shops, bulletin boards, workplaces, schools, and any place else they think people will be interested in finding out about the Festival. (You can also download the flier directly here: .) If you live in the Bay Area and are willing to post some information about this year's Festival anywhere this weekend (preferably), or early next week (still a good idea), all you need to do is print out the attached or downloaded flier, make some copies of it -- preferably at work -- and put 'em up! As always, we appreciate any support that you can provide -- we couldn't do any of this without you! THANKS!!! CounterCorp: Putting An End to Business as Usual 3rd Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival, Oct. 15-17 Brava Theater Center, San Francisco www.countercorp.org Get the latest CounterCorp event details on your computer/ iPod: webcal://icalx.com/public/CounterCorp/CounterCorp.ics Subscribe to CounterCorp's "Corporation Watch" e-mail list: For more information, visit http://www.corporationwatch.org Donate to CounterCorp by selecting us on the drop-down menu at https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=695 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2008-ACFF-Poster-LTR.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 52077 bytes Desc: not available Url : From countercorp-news at countercorp.org Tue Oct 14 19:42:50 2008 From: countercorp-news at countercorp.org (CounterCorp News and Events List) Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:42:50 -0700 Subject: [CounterCorp] Starts Wednesday! The 2008 Anti-Corporate Film Festival Message-ID: <9C614C3F-7FCA-495D-ACFA-B28920161C68@countercorp.org> Dear CounterCorp supporter, It's ALMOST here! The 3rd Annual CounterCorp Anti-Corporate Film Festival starts TOMORROW, Oct. 15, at 7:00pm with the first of two opening night films, "Growing Awareness", by local filmmaker Jade Ajani. We hope you can make it to this or one of the other films/ programs in this year's Festival. It'll all be over by Friday night ... In the meantime, there are just a few short updates before the whole thing kicks off ... TRAILERS: We've added trailers for all of the films to the CounterCorp website, so if you haven't checked the Festival page in a few days, you can see short clips from each of the films to help you choose which ones you want to see. TICKETS: In addition, there are links to buy tickets to all of the films, as well as our one-night and full-festival passes, on the same page. SPEAKERS: And we've added a couple of speakers to the lists of our Q & A panels, so you might want to check that out as well. Specifically, we do have two recently-added speakers we'd like to let you know about: Scott Roberts, the co-director of GASHOLE is scheduled to attend the screening on Thursday night and answer audience questions afterward. A registered Republican (along with his co-director, Jeremy Wagener), Scott and Jeremy are an interesting story of two guys who got fed up with feeling like they weren't getting the whole story -- or truth -- behind the recent run-up in oil and gas prices, so they decided to investigate -- and, ultimately, make a movie about -- the issue. Both men have said they're now supporting Barack Obama in the upcoming election. And they've showed the film in different parts of the country, and said it's gotten a great reception from conservatives and libertarians as well as liberals and progressives. Talk about affecting political change through film ... And finally, we're thrilled to announce that Brandon Drake, the scriptwriter of our closing night film, VISIONEERS will be attending the screening on Friday night at 9:30, along with his father and other friends and family, and has agreed to answer audience questions after the screening. This film is getting a LOT of buzz, mostly as a result of star Zach Galifianakis, who has a cult following from his stand-up work, as well as from several network and cable TV shows (and a couple of previous films, such as Sean Penn's recent hit, "Into the Wild"). But the film is also getting great reviews for the work of brothers Jared and Brandon Drake -- the director and writer, respectively -- who've managed to balance satire with poignancy in their debut feature. Here's a couple of excerpts from reviews for their work on VISIONEERS: "[F]resh and invigorating. It's a high-concept comedy, but it's down- to-earth and accessible, even a little touching. It's a terrific start for a pair of new filmmakers. ... [W]orks magnificently. ... [I]nsightful, intelligent, and melancholically funny." -- Cinematical.com "[T]he film?s considerable charm rests on its well-worked script, vivid, odd-ball characters, and straight-ahead directing (with an eye for the absurd) to tell its funny, sad, absurd, and ultimately, life- affirming tale. ... Brothers Brandon and Jared Drake have managed something truly remarkable with VISIONEERS: They have conjured up a funny, intriguing, and touching 'vision' that is at once an homage to other great, thematically related works (Brazil, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland), and also a singular work with its own eccentric aesthetic and suppressed, joyous spirit. ... What is so frustrating to me is that VISIONEERS will most likely not get seen by as many people as will see, for example, the next ribald comedy from Adam Sandler. And yet it deserves to be, simply because it has so much more to offer (including a soundtrack by Tim Delaughter of the Polyphonic Spree) than the usual satiric Hollywood fare. And it?s really funny, too." -- IndieExpress.com AND it won the Audience Choice award for Best Drama at this year's CineVegas Film Festival. This one's going to be special, folks, so don't miss it ... ! We'll continue to update you with late-breaking details about films and speakers, and hope you'll make it to at least a couple of films at this year's Festival. And for those of you who do come down to the recently-restored and beautiful Brava Theater in San Francisco this week, there'll be a special announcement about NEXT YEAR'S CounterCorp Anti-Corporate Film Festival. So don't wait -- order your tickets today, and we'll see you there ... A Jeffers afternoon to you all, John Wilner Director CounterCorp: Putting An End to Business as Usual 3rd Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival, Oct. 15-17 Brava Theater Center, San Francisco www.countercorp.org Get the latest CounterCorp event details on your computer/ iPod: webcal://icalx.com/public/CounterCorp/CounterCorp.ics Subscribe to CounterCorp's "Corporation Watch" e-mail list: For more information, visit http://www.corporationwatch.org Donate to CounterCorp by selecting us on the drop-down menu at https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=695 From countercorp-news at countercorp.org Fri Oct 17 16:18:38 2008 From: countercorp-news at countercorp.org (CounterCorp News and Events List) Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:18:38 -0700 Subject: [CounterCorp] CLOSING NIGHT! 2008 Anti-Corporate Film Festival Message-ID: <6D718475-37EC-4566-99F1-010E09407A73@countercorp.org> Dear CounterCorp supporters, Yes, it's the last day of 3rd Annual CounterCorp Anti-Corporate Film Festival. After competing with the final presidential debate on our opening night on Wednesday, we had a great response last night to our program called "The REAL Cost of Oil", and we're glad some of you were able to make it down to the Brava Theater to participate in it. If you haven't come to this year's Festival yet, you have two more chances to see films before it concludes tonight, and we're going to end things on a great note with the two films -- one documentary, one narrative (fictional) work; both California premieres -- that we're screening tonight: "THE BIG SELLOUT" (Germany, 2006, 94 minutes) at 7:30pm documents the effects of the global trend toward the privatization (read: corporatization) of basic human needs such as water, electricity, transportation, and healthcare on five continents. As the film shows, rather than yielding greater efficiencies that are passed on to the public in the form of lower prices, what invariably happens is the company raises prices and reduces services in an effort to maximize profits. For those who can't afford the higher prices -- which often amount to a substantial percentage of their monthly wage or pension, the result is sharply curtailed access to basic needs -- or even no services at all. What's also striking about the film is the similarity of the experiences in what are otherwise very different countries separated by vast distances. In some cases, people are able to fight off efforts to privatize, in others they try to make due with -- or subvert -- the system that is forced upon them. And finally, our closing night film -- "VISIONEERS" (USA, 2008, 94 mins) -- at 9:30pm maintains a longstanding CounterCorp tradition of having a narrative work as the centerpiece of the Anti-Corporate Film Festival. This year we are thrilled to present a satirical look at the effects of corporate culture on the workers at the biggest and most profitable company in the history of the world: the Jeffers Corporation. This debut feature by brothers Brandon and Jared Drake -- the writer and director, respectively -- stars rising comic talent Zach Galifianakis (of Sean Penn's "INTO THE WILD", cable TV's Comedy Central channel, and stand-up comedy across the country), and will be followed by a Q & A with Brandon Drake. Here's what some reviews have said about the film, which won the Audience Award at the 2008 CineVegas Film Festival: "A wicked satire with a warm soul ... truly remarkable ... [A] funny, intriguing, and touching 'vision' ... a singular work with its own eccentric aesthetic and joyous spirit" -- IndieExpress.com "[F]resh and invigorating ... a high-concept comedy ... works magnificently ... insightful, intelligent, and ... funny" -- Cinematical.com "Movies like VISIONEERS are the reason we love to attend film festivals" -- eFilmCritic.com There's a lot of buzz about this film floating out there, and we think it's going to be a real crowd-pleaser that ends the 2008 Festival on a high -- and funny -- note. AND, there'll be an important announcement at tonight's screenings about NEXT year's CounterCorp Festival, which we're already planning. Big changes are afoot, so come to the Brava Theater tonight see one or both films, support us if you can, and hear the big news about the 2009 Anti-Corporate Film Festival ... Tickets are $10 ($5 with valid student ID) and are available at the door or through the CounterCorp website (www.countercorp.org), where you'll also find trailers for all the films at this year's Festival, as well as other information about CounterCorp and past years' Festivals. Thanks as always for your support -- we couldn't do any of this without you! John Wilner Director -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CounterCorp: Putting An End to Business as Usual Get the latest CounterCorp event details on your computer/ iPod: webcal://icalx.com/public/CounterCorp/CounterCorp.ics Subscribe to CounterCorp's "Corporation Watch" e-mail list: For more information, visit http://www.corporationwatch.org Donate to CounterCorp by selecting us on the drop-down menu at https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=695