From countercorp-news at countercorp.org Fri May 14 18:09:07 2010 From: countercorp-news at countercorp.org (CounterCorp News) Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 15:09:07 -0700 Subject: [CounterCorp] NEXT WEEK: 5th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival, May 20-22 Message-ID: Dear CounterCorp supporters, The 5th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival opens on Thursday, May 20, with a film on how small, local/regional beer companies such as San Francisco's Speakeasy Brewery must fight for their daily survival against the three corporate behemoths that together control 90% of the market. It's just the first of three drink-related films in a line-up that includes movies about the bottled water industry (which may soon rival the beer industry in sales and influence), and the grand-daddy of all beverage companies, and an international symbol of American culture and commerce: the Coca-Cola Corporation. Also in the mix is a film about the pharmaceutical industry's effort to sell women drugs and medical treatments that don't work for a disease that doesn't exist (so-called "female sexual dysfunction"), a look at the birth and growth of the Bay Area organic/sustainable food movement as part of the Berkeley counter-cultural politics of 1960s, and a closing night examination of past, current, and future U.S. energy policy as told with distinct drawl by the Texas oilmen who feed the nation's petroleum habit. The Festival kicks off with BEER WARS, which will be followed by a 9:00 reception at the SF Media Archive featuring locally made beer and brewmasters discussing the difficulties they face trying to sell higher-quality, better-tasting "micro brews" amidst the domination of the market by international brewing behemoths Budweiser, Miller, and Coors and their almost unlimited marketing budgets. The opening night film TAPPED is a disturbing look at the bottled water industry, which goes the beer giants one better by pumping millions of gallons of public water ? even during a drought ? from taxpayer funded municipal systems, and then selling it back to the same people for six times the price. The Festival opens its second day on Friday, May 21 with ORGASM, INC, an expose on how the pharmaceutical industry continues to define our notions of what "healthy" is, in its efforts to replicate the success (and profits) of Viagra by developing a similar drug for women. But first it must convince them that the norms of female sexuality actually constitute an illness that can be fixed by taking a drug. The centerpiece film this year is THE COCA-COLA CASE, a taut legal thriller about a court battle by two crusading labor lawyers trying to bring the world's largest beverage company to account for its role in the murders of union organizers in violence-torn Colombia. The film will be followed by a Q&A featuring Ray Rogers of the Stop Killer Coke! campaign, and other experts on the situation in Colombia. The final day of the Festival begins at 7:30 with FOOD FIGHT, a look at birth and development of the local/organic/sustainable food movement right here in the Bay Area, as an outgrowth of the political upheaval of the 1960s. The film will be followed by a Q&A with local chef and San Francisco Chronicle food writer Eric Gower. The Festival concludes with HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM, which looks at the current state of our energy addiction through the eyes (and mouths) of the Texas oilmen who ride the boom and bust cycle like a bucking bronco. Like dealers of any drug, they don't see it as their job to help us kick our oil habit ? but they can also see the day coming when we won't need their product any more. For more information and trailers for each of the films, visit the CounterCorp website. The full Festival schedule and links to buy tickets will be on the site shortly. Thanks and look forward to seeing you next week at the Festival! * * * CounterCorp: Putting An End to Business as Usual 5th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival, May 20-22 www.countercorp.org Follow the breaking news about CounterCorp on Twitter For an inside look at corporate power, influence, culture, and crime, subscribe to our Corporation Watch e-mail list Support your local indie bookseller AND CounterCorp by getting your anti-corporate books in our virtual bookstore Donate to CounterCorp online through the secure PayPal account of our fiscal agent, Independent Arts and Media From countercorp-news at countercorp.org Tue May 18 23:57:08 2010 From: countercorp-news at countercorp.org (CounterCorp News) Date: Tue, 18 May 2010 20:57:08 -0700 Subject: [CounterCorp] 5th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival opens in TWO DAYS! Message-ID: <0851B707-2A68-4A39-AB66-5228922FD860@countercorp.org> Dear CounterCorp supporter, Well, once again it's almost upon us: the annual CounterCorp Anti-Corporate Film Festival. It's been particularly challenging to organize this year's Festival, because we had two films pull out of the Festival just a few weeks ago: One debuted at Hot Docs in Toronto, and the filmmaker decided the voice-over narration that she did in the film wasn't very good (we agreed), and so at the last minute she decided to re-do the narration, and didn't want us to show the existing version at this year's CounterCorp Festival. The second film was one we'd tried to get last year, but the filmmaker was waiting to see if he could show it at the San Francisco International Film Festival. When that didn't happen, he offered the film to us to show this year. So it's been on our calendar for almost a year, but last week the filmmaker contacted us and told us they need to re-edit the film to protect one of the people in it from legal trouble, and they didn't have time to get us a re-edited version in time for the CounterCorp Festival this year ? Sigh. Needless to say, we've managed to overcome those obstacles and present a great line-up of films this year, as well as some excellent post-screening speakers and our second opening night reception, once again at the fabulous San Francisco Media Archive around the corner from the Victoria Theatre. For those of you who didn't make it to the opening night reception last year, you should try to come this year because the Archive is hard to describe, and you just have to see it to appreciate it. (Beer helps.) So along with some excellent craft brews from California, the curator of the SF Media Archive will be screening some classic beer commercials and other cultural artifacts from a bygone era when corporations were seen as efficient, customer-focused institutions that provided goods and services that made people's lives -- and the country -- better, an the envy of the rest of the world. Luckily, we know better, and so we'll be going from a locally owned theater to a non-profit archive to drink some artisanal beers ? YOUR T-SHIRT IS YOUR TICKET Last year we inaugurated sales of the first CounterCorp t-shirt, featuring the iconic Tipping Man logo designed by our volunteer graphics wizard, John Musgrove. And the deal we offered t-shirt purchasers was that if you wore your CounterCorp t-shirt to select screenings at the Festival and elsewhere, you'd get in free -- thus making your t-shirt half price the first time you wear it to a designated screening, free the second time you wear it to a designated screening, and after that it starts *making* you money. A bunch of people bought t-shirts at last year's Festival, and we're rewarding them by announcing that anyone who wears their t-shirt to the opening night film "TAPPED", a disturbing expose of the bottled water industry, will get in free to see the film. We've even created a price category in the online ticket page for the film that allows you to buy the t-shirt *in advance* of the film, so you essentially get either the t-shirt for half price, or a free screening. So we urge you to reserve your t-shirts now and see a free film! WE NEED YOUR HELP Because of the problems with the two films mentioned above, we weren't able to announce this year's program as early as we would have liked, so we're asking all of the CounterCorp supporters on our e-mail list to help us get the word out about the Festival and the films by posting information about it (and links to our website) on your Facebook and MySpace pages, personal websites and blogs, e-mail lists, and Twitter accounts, and telling all of your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers about it. Lastly, please consider making a donation to help us defray the costs of putting on the Festival this year. We've kept ticket prices the same for all five years of the Festival -- which few companies or even small businesses can say -- and are prices are lower than most of the other festivals in town, all of which have bigger budgets than ours. We're an all-volunteer organization, so the money goes to the theater, the filmmakers, and a small amount for local advertising. How's that for lean and efficient! A contribution in any amount would be greatly appreciated. You can do it online, using the the link at the bottom of this e-mail, or by check (made out to our fiscal agent, "Independent Arts & Media") mailed to our office address at the end of this message, or if you're coming to the Festival, handed to one of the volunteers. Thank you for all of the support that you give us in many forms -- we truly couldn't do any of this without you. We look forward to seeing you at this year's 5th Annual CounterCorp Anti-Corporate Film Festival! John Wilner Director CounterCorp: Putting An End to Business as Usual 5th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival, May 20-22 www.countercorp.org Follow the breaking news about CounterCorp on Twitter For an inside look at corporate power, influence, culture, and crime, subscribe to our Corporation Watch e-mail list Support your local indie bookseller AND CounterCorp by getting your anti-corporate books in our virtual bookstore Donate to CounterCorp online through the secure PayPal account of our fiscal agent, Independent Arts and Media 2017 Mission Street, 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94110 U$A