Persistence of Vision

We are pleased to announce the theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles of Marina of the Zabbaleen, a cinematic documentary from MPI fellow Engi Wassef that explores the world of seven-year-old Marina in the Muqqattam garbage recycling village in Cairo, Egypt. An official selection of the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, Marina of the Zabbaleen focuses on the struggle of a marginalized Egyptian people to support and sustain a culture of family and belief in a world where they are a distinct and oppressed minority. But, as the film shows, a world without religious liberty is a world where efforts at cultural preservation and economic innovation are always radically compromised.

The film shows in New York, September 11-17, at the ImaginAsian Theater, and in Los Angeles, September 16-22, at the Laemmle Grande. For New York showtimes and tickets, visit tickets.torchfilms.com. For Los Angeles, tickets to daily screenings at 1:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. will be available at the Laemmle Grande box office at 345 S. Figueroa Street in downtown LA.

It can be hard to find narrative films that embrace the principles of limited government, free enterprise, and self-reliance. But they do exist -- and there are some gems.

One well worth seeing is Christine Jeffs' Sunshine Cleaning, a 2008 indie film starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, and Allan Arkin. On the surface, it's a bittersweet and quirky look at belated coming of age, at family relationships, at loss, and at the difficulties of making ends meet when one is a single parent without a college education. On a deeper level, this film is a celebration of entrepreneurship, independence, and strength of purpose; it's also a powerful critique of how the public education system crushes creativity and intelligence in exceptional children. Rent it from Netflix now, and enjoy.

The New York Times calls has this to say about MPI's Marina of the Zabbaleen: "Filled with glancing light and happy faces, "Marina of the Zabbaleen," Engi Wassef's compassionate documentary about a poor community of garbage recyclers, fights hard to sweeten the misery of its surroundings." Read the whole thing--and see the film for yourself at the Imaginasian Theater, 239 East 59th Street, New York, NY, from September 11-17. The film will also play in LA, at the Laemmle Grand, from September 16-22.

Writing at the Washington Times, Sonny Bunch draws strong connections between James O'Keefe's spectacular videos exposing corruption at ACORN and MPI's pathbreaking work:

The videos were stunning pieces of citizen journalism: effective, simple and elegant.

Add to that list: almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media.

With the exception of Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and this newspaper, the media elites almost entirely ignored the story. The New York Times didn't publish its first staff-written story until Wednesday, almost a week after the initial video was posted on the Internet. The Washington Post was just as negligent.

The silence was somewhat shocking: ACORN, after all, had been tied to President Obama, and it was starting to gain real influence in the federal government. There already had been calls for a federal investigation into allegations of voter fraud by the group during the last election.

Certainly this was a story worth reporting, right?

Nothing.

No matter. Mr. O'Keefe and Miss Giles are just the latest in a line of self-starting filmmakers who have taken advice offered by none other than Mr. Moore. When a young, libertarian filmmaker named Evan Coyne Maloney stopped the director of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and the upcoming "Capitalism: A Love Story" on the street and asked him how to break into movies, Mr. Moore responded: "Make your movies, and the people will respond or not respond to them."

Mr. Maloney went into action, making the movie "Indoctrinate U," a blistering look at the problems he perceived on America's college campuses.

Or consider Jake Rademacher. Aggravated by the media coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and curious to learn more about his brothers' motivation for joining the military, Mr. Rademacher made "Brothers at War," the single best documentary about the fighting men and women who constitute the post-Sept. 11 military.

Then there's Stuart Browning, who realized that the next great public battle was going to be over public health care; he put together a series of videos called "Free Market Cure" and put them on YouTube and at his own site in order to counter the distortions he saw emanating unchallenged from his opponents. His "Uninsured in America" does more to refute the mythical "45 million people in America are uninsured" claim than any magazine article possibly could.

The democratization of film production - the relative affordability of new equipment and editing software - enabled these filmmakers to burst onto the scene without the backing of major studios or journalistic outlets.

Sure, these artists all had help in their struggle: Mr. Maloney and Mr. Browning both received technical support through the Moving Picture Institute, while Mr. Rademacher found allies in Jon Voight and Gary Sinise, both staunch allies of the U.S. military. And Mr. O'Keefe has certainly received a publicity boost through his appearances on the Glenn Beck show and on Andrew Breitbart's new blog, Big Government.

But their ideas and their drive to see their vision realized are what motivated them and inspired them to impact the debate. These men are the vanguard of a new front in the battle of ideas: They have realized that the time for whining is over; the time for doing has arrived.

James O'Keefe isn't the only one with video exposing ACORN's corruption. MPI fellows Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley have also got some prime footage of ACORN head Bertha Lewis rationalizing eminent domain abuse in Brooklyn.

Reason's Damon Root has the details:

For the past six years, filmmakers Suki Hawley and Michael Galinksy have been working on a documentary called Battle of Brooklyn, which tells the story of a group of Brooklyn, New York property owners who have been fighting state and local officials who want to seize their land on behalf of real estate developer Bruce Ratner. In response to the ongoing ACORN scandal and recent reports discussing ACORN's ties to the Ratner development, the filmmakers have released a fascinating and highly relevent scene from their forthcoming documentary. From their description:

This scene comes about 40 minutes into the film. By this point the audience has witnessed the announcement of the project as well as growing community opposition to it. In addition, the vast majority of condo owners in the footprint of the proposed project have sold their apartments to the developer in order to avoid having them seized via eminent domain. The main character of the film, Daniel Goldstein, has refused to sell and has become one of the main organizers trying to stop it.
In this scene, Daniel attends a press conference announcing an agreement reached between Acorn and Forest City Ratner--in which the developer has agreed to make half of the units in the proposed project "affordable". Further, it is agreed that Acorn will be involved in monitoring the project as well as marketing the "affordable" units. For this work they will be paid.
At the press conference on May 19th, 2005 Bertha Lewis, the head of NY ACORN (currently the head of the national organization), declares that ACORN is working with the current tenants to make sure that they are not pushed out and treated fairly by the developer. Answering a question she further states that there will be apartments set aside for those displaced by the project.

After the event, Daniel Goldstein confronts her with the fact that tenants are already being pushed out. She admits that ACORN hasn't actually talked to any of the tenants yet. She then argues that the developer has nothing to do with greedy landlords forcing out tenants before they buy the property.

That's right -- The Cartel is opening on October 9 at AMC Cherry Hill 24, AMC Jersey Gardens, AMC Menlo Park 12, and the Showroom in Asbury Park!!! Watch TheCartelMovie.com for details about more screenings, and to see more new clips like the one above.