[CounterCorp] 5th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival opens in TWO DAYS!

[CounterCorp News]

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

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