An Inconvenient Tax premieres on April 15--and will be screening in over forty locations nationwide, including theaters in Georgia, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The film will also show at Harvard, M.I.T, University of Florida, New York University, Gonzaga University, Syracuse University, University of Michigan, University of Georgia, Chapman University, Arizona State University, Berkley, University of Baltimore, University of Miami, Temple University, and more.
Today is Tax Day -- and it is also the premiere of An Inconvenient Tax, a new documentary about one of our messiest problems: a fundamentally broken tax code that affects every aspect of our lives. With over 16,000 changes to the tax code in the last two decades alone, many Americans want something better -- but few know where to start. This feature-length documentary film describes the complex evolution of the tax code through U.S. history and reveals the many ways Congress uses the tax code to achieve political goals that have nothing to do with raising revenue.
Tonight, John Stossel will devote an episode of his new Fox Business Network show to the issue of tax reform. An Inconvenient Tax filmmakers Vincent Vittorio and Chris Marshall will appear as special guests. Stossel screens at 8 p.m. and 12 midnight EST.
An Inconvenient Tax will be screening today in over forty locations nationwide, including theaters in Georgia, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The film will also show at Harvard, M.I.T, University of Florida, New York University, Gonzaga University, Syracuse University, University of Michigan, University of Georgia, Chapman University, Arizona State University, Berkley, University of Baltimore, University of Miami, Temple University, and more. An Inconvenient Tax will even screen internationally in Australia and Israel! Visit AnInconvenientTax.com to watch the trailer and to get showtimes, ticket info, and locations.
Bob Bowdon's award-winning documentary The Cartel, an eloquent argument for reforming America's corrupt and wasteful public-school system, premieres today in theaters in New York and Los Angeles. It has already won rave reviews on both coasts!
The LA TimescallsThe Cartel "a punchy, provocative debut" and a "brisk, incisive and mind-boggling ... exposé." It concludes that: "What Bowdon has brought to light so vividly ... applies across the land, and it's hard to imagine any Angeleno watching this timely film without some sense of recognition."
The New York PostcallsThe Cartel "a revelation" and says that "few documentaries have covered such an important matter so convincingly and with such clarity."
The New Jersey Herald notes that "The Cartel is garnering praise from critics and film festivals alike for its portrayal of an educational system [that] sends urban students to 'dropout factories' with no funding for alternative schooling."
And the Village VoicecallsThe Cartel an "information-packed indictment," praising Bowdon for the "patience and logic with which he makes an argument for a state and a system in desperate need of reform."
New York City:The Cartel plays at the Quad Cinema from Friday, April 16, through Thursday, April 22. Showtimes are at 1:10 p.m., 3:10 p.m., 5:10 p.m., 7:10 p.m., and 9:30 p.m. At the 7:10 p.m. screening on April 16, there will be an education reform panel discussion and Q&A with Bob Bowdon, Derrell Bradford (executive director of Excellent Education for Everyone); Carlos Lejnieks (president of the NJ Charter Schools Association), and Marcus Winters (education scholar at the Manhattan Institute).
Los Angeles:The Cartel plays at the Laemmle Sunset 5 theater from Friday, April 16, through Thursday, April 22. Showtimes are at 1:00 p.m., 3:10 p.m., 5:20 p.m., 7:40 p.m., and 10:00 p.m. At the 7:40 p.m. showing on April 16 there will be an education reform panel discussion and Q&A with Ben Boychuk (education scholar at the Heartland Institute), Brian Calle (of the Claremont Institute) Marco Petruzzi (CEO of Green Dot Schools), and Larry Sand (of the California Teachers Empowerment Network).
New Jersey voters vote tomorrow on the state education budget. This film is a vital part of the debate.
The Cartel has been getting rave reviews. Most recently, this in from the Christian Science Monitor: "Director Bob Bowdon is in the Michael Moore mold, except his Gotcha! style of filmmaking is more likely to be supported by facts. ... it's refreshing to see a movie that stands up for charter schools and takes on teachers unions for their hammerlock on educational oversight."
Reason calls the film "an impressive achievement" that is "an engaging, complete account of the arguments and relevant data in the fight over school choice."
The Boston Globe calls the film a "a full-frontal assault ... on the teacher unions and administrators whom Bowdon sees as stubborn stranglers of innovation," and declares that in The Cartel, "the causes and consequences of the failings of public education are chronicled in extraordinary detail."
New Jersey's RedBankGreen notes that "Here in New Jersey, there's probably no bigger "hot-button" issue than public education and its discontents... and there's likely never been anything so poised to push that button than The Cartel." The review also praises the film's distribution strategy, noting that in Jersey, the film "couldn't have been scheduled any better by the savviest movie publicist -- from last Tuesday's historic voter rejection of municipal school budgets, to the ongoing investigation that brought the FBI to the doorstep of the region's biggest education superstar."
The movie, The Cartel, is one of the most revealing documentaries that I have ever watched. In plain language, Bob Bowdon both educated his watchers about the corruption and propaganda schemes used by politicians to support certain systems within schools and gave ideas for reform.
Anyone interested in the future of America should see this movie. After all, the students muddling through schools that are more concerned with money than responsible teaching will be the ones who will be in charge of our country. And the fact is that most students simply aren't getting the education they need from America's K-12 schools.
But the most interesting part of the documentary wasn't the extreme corruption, the teacher unions, or the blatant want for money by some teachers and administrators over the welfare of their students.
The solution to this problem intrigued me most: free markets. Bowdon suggested that more choices of schools should be given to parents. In giving such choices, horrible schools will be forced to make themselves better to keep students -- or close down. Competition will keep schools in much better shape than they are now because there would be no guarantee of students if the school is doing a poor job.
The free market system -- the idea that competition will keep prices lower and improve quality -- is the way to reform the public school system. Funny, but I thought that this was discovered years ago, by the same people who crafted the Constitution of the United States.
VICTORIA YUSKAITIS
Sparta
The Cartel is currently playing in Houston, and in selected theaters across New Jersey. It opens in eight major cities this Friday. Check out TheCartelMovie.com for locations and times.
The Cartel premieres tomorrow night in DC, Philly, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and San Francisco. And tonight it wraps up a spectacularly successful second run in New Jersey, where it has had remarkable impact:
Bowdon started creating his film before Christie even announced he was running for governor, and he is pleased at his fortuitousness that the governor's ongoing attempts to overhaul the state's education system are putting issues like those covered in "The Cartel" in the news almost every day. Gov. Christie has also personally thanked Bowdon for making "The Cartel."
"It turns out that his efforts and mine have coincidentally proven complementary," said Bowdon.
New state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler has also seen the film and reportedly "loved it."
This film has been selling out venues across New Jersey, and also sold out its New York City premiere earlier this month. And small wonder. As the Chicago Reader says,
"... this factual and well-reasoned advocacy documentary presents a devastating conservative critique of public education in New Jersey and, by extension, the United States. ... Bowdon makes a compelling argument against the defensive maneuvers of teachers' unions and in favor of vouchers and charter schools, but his documentary is no exercise in free-market cant. It merely explodes the fiction that funneling more money into the same highly bureaucratized and politicized system will fix our deepening education crisis."
Come out to see it if it opens near you -- and if not, drop us a line and we'll see about arranging a screening in your area.
