Persistence of Vision

The Cartel keeps on rolling. Here are just some of the exciting things the producers have lined up for September:

• Director Bob Bowdon will appear on the nationally syndicated Lou Dobbs radio show Thursday, September 2 at 4:35 p.m. EDT. Find your local station here and tune in!
• The Los Angeles Times recently released teacher effectiveness data, and The Cartel is offering free tickets for two to Los Angeles teachers with above average effectiveness ratings*, to the Burbank International Film Festival screening on Saturday, September 11 at 6:45pm. Read the full press release here.
• The film premieres this Friday, September 3, at the Peoria Theater in Illinois.
• The Cartel will also screen at the State Policy Network's K-12 Educational Summit and Annual Conference next weekend. The State Policy Network (SPN) is a service organization for the free market, state-based think tank community.

Stay tuned for more updates! And don't forget to join the mailing list at TheCartelmovie.com to become eligible for early DVD purchase.

*as presented by the LATimes.com database; defined by the "overall effectiveness" marker appearing to the right of the word "average"

The wait is almost over. Next month, producers will be holding an exclusive DVD sale to registrants of The Cartel website. To get in and get your copy early, go to TheCartelmovie.com and join today! And while you're there, be sure to check out the screenings page to see if The Cartel is coming to your town -- and if not, drop us a line and we'll see about arranging a screening in your area. Next weekend it opens in Peoria, Illinois!

The Cartel director Bob Bowdon appeared on Fox Business Network's Varney & Co. this morning to discuss the U.S. Education Secretary's move to publicize student test scores. Here is a clip of the segment:

A decade ago, New Orleans had some of the worst public schools in the nation. For the urban poor, this meant that New Orleans was, effectively, a place without opportunity -- one where kids were condemned to lives of poverty and, too often, despair. But every cloud has a silver lining -- and Hurricane Katrina's was arguably education reform.

Today, New Orleans has a thriving charter school system and also offers vouchers to enable disadvantaged kids to attend private schools. And things are looking up.

Check out ReasonTV's coverage above -- and visit TheCartelMovie.com to find out more about why we need school choice to preserve our commitment to equal opportunity for all.

Our friends at Bankrupting America are on a tear right now. Every day this week, they are releasing a "fiscal cheat sheet" to explain a different aspect of overspending. Theirs is a non-partisan message that goes to the heart of our jeopardized freedom: "To be clear, overspending is a problem for both Republicans and Democrats; both parties are responsible, and both parties must be held accountable for finding solutions."

Today's Cheat Sheet is on irresponsible governing -- with special attention paid to Congress' unconscionable and unprecedented failure to pass a budget, to its continued spending spree, and to its failure to take responsibility for its mounting debt.

Check it out -- and feel the pain.

The SPEECH Act, the congressional initiative to protect Americans from frivolous libel law suits abroad, has now been signed into law. The president signed the bill yesterday after it had been overwhelmingly passed by the U.S. House and Senate.

It is a victory for all American journalists, writers, and publishers, but even more so for Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, who fell victim to a harsh libel law suit in the U.K. and has spearheaded a nationwide campaign to end libel suits for the last two years. Her story, told in the MPI film The Libel Tourist, triggered the national movement by prompting the New York legislature to take a look at the libel tourism problem. From there, many states followed suit and it gained momentum all the way to Capitol Hill.

Dr. Ehrenfeld acknowledges the role The Libel Tourist played in raising public awareness for libel tourism. "Thor Halvorssen, the Moving Picture Institute, and Jared Lapidus' film have been most helpful in this important struggle to protect and defend our First Amendment rights," she graciously noted. "The Libel Tourist is a masterpiece, and should be viewed by every American and by freedom-loving people worldwide."

This fall, MPI is collaborating with other dynamic, freedom-loving groups to spread the ideals of liberty. MPI has partnered with the Institute for Justice and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in recent weeks to present our missions and our current projects and initiatives to a wider range of people via Facebook. This month we will partner with Americans for Tax Reform, and in the fall we plan to work with several more organizations.

This move will allow us to build coalitions and will ultimately reveal more areas where we can combine our efforts. Here's to synergy!

The Cartel has been selected to screen at the Atlanta International Documentary Film Festival ("DocuFest Atlanta") this month! The screening will be Friday, August 20 at 7:30pm, at the Young Blood Gallery. Admission is $8. Get tickets and learn more about the festival on their website.

In September, The Cartel will screen at the Burbank International Film Festival. This will be the film's tenth festival appearance since its release in fall 2009.

While being selected is an honor in itself, The Cartel has also won numerous awards. These include the Visionary Award and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2010 Washington DC Independent Film Festival, the Silver Screen Award at the 2009 Nevada Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the 2009 Hoboken International Film Festival, among others. See TheCartelmovie.com for a complete list. Congratulations to The Cartel for its success!

The Lottery, Madeleine Sackler's new film that follows four families in their quest to flee the New York City public school system, is now available on DVD. The film, along with The Cartel, is among four education documentaries produced in 2010 that the USA Today notes has helped to mainstream ideas and discussion about education reform.

Stay tuned for news about The Cartel's DVD release -- due out in September!

Just last week the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the SPEECH Act, protecting American journalists, authors, and publishers from the enforcement of frivolous libel suits filed in countries that do not have our strong free speech protections.

Yesterday, the bill went to the U.S. House and quickly passed with bipartisan support. The legislation is now on its way to President Obama's desk, to be signed into law.

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, who fell victim to a libel suit in the U.K., has steered a national campaign to end libel tourism for the past two years. Ehrenfeld's story, told in MPI's film The Libel Tourist, prompted the New York legislature to take action. Since 2008, several other states have followed suit, including Illinois, Florida, California, Tennessee, Maryland, and Utah. The SPEECH Act is the culmination of her national effort.

What's more, the effort is being echoed abroad. Britain has been feeling the pressure for quite some time to re-examine its libel laws, and has now stated its plans to draft a revised libel tourism bill for March of next year.

Ehrenfeld has graciously acknowledged how The Libel Tourist has had a significant role in raising public awareness about foreign threats to free speech. "Thor Halvorssen, the Moving Picture Institute, and Jared Lapidus' film have been most helpful in this important struggle to protect and defend our First Amendment rights." The Libel Tourist, she says, "is a masterpiece, and should be viewed by every American and by freedom-loving people worldwide."