Robert Greenwald at Brave New Films

Robert Greenwald to Speak at DIY Days Film Conference

2008-07-25T07:08:06Z

This Saturday, Robert Greenwald will be speaking at DIY Days, a unique film conference in downtown Los Angeles.

What is DIY Days, you ask?

How do we sustain ourselves as filmmakers and storytellers in this day of shifting film distribution systems? How do we monetize our film and get the word out? Presented by From Here to Awesome the Workbook Project and Current TV - DIY DAYS aims to answer these questions with a day of panels, roundtable discussions and workshops: A look at how to fund, create, distribute and sustain.

In addition to Greenwald, there will be some other fascinating speakers and roundtable discussions. Tickets are free if you’d like to go, but you must register in advance.

More info can be found at: diydays.com

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Meet The Bloggers: Arianna Huffington on the Secret to HuffPo's Success

2008-07-25T18:43:57Z

Arianna Huffington talks about the truth in journalism.

Watch the full episode of Meet the Bloggers.

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Meet The Bloggers: Arianna Huffington on the Importance of Blogging

2008-07-25T18:43:57Z

With Meet the Bloggers, Brave New Foundation has created a new live show that features some of the best unconventional minds on the internet today. So they would have been remiss not to have media luminary Arianna Huffington as their first featured guest on today's premiere.

Huffington sat down with Meet the Bloggers host Cenk Uygur and Brave New Films Founder Robert Greenwald to discuss the bourgeoning role of online journalistic outlets like The Huffington Post. According to Huffington, her site fuses the traditional journalism's talent for "ferreting out the truth" with what the new media does best, following up on stories with an almost obsessive-compulsive energy. Greenwald points out that what also matters is the need for these online outlets to "connect the dots," creating a larger picture of how issues are interconnected. There is also the growing concern that the new media must think outside the netroots (h/t Jim Gilliam), just as it's crucial for the mainstream media not to succumb to a beltway mentality.

Catch the full episode of Meet the Bloggers at meetthebloggers.org. And be sure to tune in every Friday at 1PM ET. Next week's guest will be Sen. Harry Reid, so get you questions ready!

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Brave Nation Young Activist Award Winner Cristina Lara

2008-07-25T20:42:15Z

Brave New Foundation hosted a reception in honor of Cristina Lara, the first winner of the Brave Nation Young Activist award. Cristina was selected out of 350 other young activists as this year's recipient and received her award at the reception. In addition, Brave New Foundation president, Robert Greenwald was featured in conversation with activist and author Tom Hayden. It was incredible to celebrate the beginning of a young activist's career while hearing words of wisdom from those who have been entrenched in social movements since the 1960s.

See the full video at bravenation.com

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Take the Stand Up 2 Cancer Film Challenge

2008-07-16T14:14:00Z

Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) is a newly formed national initiative to help raise awareness and accelerate science toward finding an end to cancer. After all, cancer affects all of us. It kills more than half a million people a year in America alone. 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes.

SU2C is inviting emerging filmmakers across the country to join the fight against cancer by turning their cameras on this disease. How has cancer affected your life? Show us your perspective, from the insightful to the irreverent, and take a stand. Each film must focus on the subject of cancer, being affected by cancer, and/or the battle against it.

The entrants will have the privilege of being judged by some of the industry’s top filmmakers and producers, including Laura Ziskin (Producer, Spider-Man, As Good As It Gets, Pretty Woman), Robert Greenwald (Director/Producer Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism), Julie Taymour (Director Across The Universe) and Lauren Shuler Donner (X-Men 1 & 2, Secret Life of Bees, Semi Pro) and Sherry Lansing (Former CEO of Paramount Pictures).

The top three finalists will premiere on Stand Up To Cancer’s website — alongside content produced by top filmmakers, journalists and performers.

Deadline: ALL MATERIALS MUST BE RECIEVED BY August 1, 2008.
Submissions: http://www.standup2cancer.org/filmchallenge/

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A Brave New Worldwide Web

2008-07-25T15:29:21Z

From The Guardian:

When the furor about the Rev Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama was at its height a few months ago, one of the biggest hits on YouTube revealed that the Republican contender John McCain had his own pastor problem.

Sandwiched between the kind of comic clips for which the site is best known, the video produced by Brave New Films showed the Rev Rod Parsley, a spiritual adviser to John McCain, making incendiary comments about Islam. When the mainstream media ran the story, McCain was eventually forced to distance himself from the church leader.

The success of the video and the sequel - The Real McCain 2, which documented several policy flip-flops on issues such as Iraq and the US economy, and was viewed more than 500,000 times within the first 24 hours of being released on to YouTube - justified the decision by Robert Greenwald, Brave New Films' founder, to move from feature films into an online career.

NY Times Salutes Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films

2008-07-25T15:29:26Z

From AlterNet:

Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films is garnering accolades for its hard-hitting, commercial free political videos, which are available for free online and circulate virally throughout the blogosphere. Greenwald's anti-McCain videos are racking up millions of hits and attracting the attention of big media players, including the Sunday New York Times (which has an even larger subscription than the weekday editions).

Times reporter Jim Rutenberg described the BNF phenomenon:

"The video blasted across the Internet, drawing political blood from Senator John McCain within a matter of days. It juxtaposed harsh statements about Islam made by the Rev. Rod Parsley with statements from Mr. McCain praising Mr. Parsley, a conservative evangelical leader. The montage won notice on network newscasts this spring and ultimately helped lead Mr. McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, to reject Mr. Parsley’s earlier endorsement."

Learning from YouTube Masters...

2008-07-25T18:48:39Z

From CitizenTube's Steve Grove:

I just finished spending the last two days at the Personal Democracy Forum's annual conference in New York, "Rebooting the System." In addition to learning from technocrats and politicos buzzing with great ideas and insights, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel entitled, "Mastering the World of Online Video." It featured three YouTube greats - Robert Greenwald of bravenewfilms, Josh Marshall of TPMtv, and Matthew Sheffield of NewsBusted. Each had some great thoughts to relay on how to succeed in the world of online video.

Just for some reference, here is the incline that anyone faces when they decide to start uploading video to YouTube:

Hundreds of millions of videos are viewed on YouTube every day
Hundreds of thousands of new videos are uploaded to YouTube every day
In just one minute, 10 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube

How do you succeed and get your videos to rise to the top of that chaotic stream of content?

Here are some of the ideas that Robert, Josh, and Matthew had:

David Sirota Speaks at Brave New Films

2008-07-25T15:29:43Z

Brave New Films was excited to host David Sirota last Monday evening to talk about his latest book, The Uprising: An Unauthrorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington. A great crowd from the Los Angeles progressive community came and sat in our courtyard to hear Sirota speak.

The talk started with Robert Greenwald saying a few words about how he had come to know Sirota and the importance of his work. Then, Sirota discussed his book and described the “uprising” to which he refers in his title. This uprising is a point where people are angry enough about the current state of the nation that they want to channel this anger in to a populist revolt, on either the right or the left. We are at a point where there is an uprising happening, but it is yet to be seen into which direction the country will move. Sirota encouraged people to think about how they can be most powerful in effecting change.

It was an interesting talk by an insightful person and the BNF staff was glad to be a part of Sirota'’s book tour.

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NCMR 2008: A Look Back

2008-06-15T12:48:06Z

A great look at last weekend's National Conference on Media Reform from Adbusters.

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What Bill O'Reilly Doesn't Want You to See

2008-07-25T20:48:29Z

Free Press has put together a terrific highlight reel of the media fallout from O'Reilly sending his spies to the National Conference for Media Reform. I'm not sure what my favorite part is: Robert Greenwald calling out FOX's camera crew; O'Reilly calling us "fascists" who do harm to this country; Bill Moyers sticking it to O'Reilly's crony Porter Berry; or Keith Olbermann quoting LL Cool J to O'Reilly, "Listen to the way I slay your crew."

What's your highlight?

Tell Bill O'Reilly: Stop Pretending to Be a Journalist
http://freepress.net/smackdown

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Irony of All Ironies: FOX Shows Up at Media Reform Conference

2008-07-25T18:48:40Z

FOX News once again had the gall to show up with a film crew to a progressive conference (their last escapade involved an assault on Arianna Huffington at Take Back America). Ironically, this time they were at the National Conference for Media Reform. They're not the only ones with cameras, though!

Of course, as Greenwald points out, this guy in the green striped shirt isn't the enemy per se, but his bosses are. FOX is propaganda, and will be greeted as such. Please digg.

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Citizen Tube Interview: Robert Greenwald on Brave New Films

2008-07-25T18:48:40Z

From Citizen Tube:

Robert Greenwald, director of Brave New Films, answers questions posed to him by the You Tube News and Politics Staff:

1) What motivated you to start Brave New Films?

2) Could you briefly explain the process of making a BNF video, from concept to posting?

3) What have you found to be some of the challenges of producing and distributing online political content? And what have been some of the rewards?

4) Compared to most political channels on YouTube, your videos receive a ton of traffic. At last count, your latest McCain video is at 1.5 million views. What's your main PR strategy? How do you go about getting the word out?

5) How has YouTube impacted or helped with your efforts?

6) What are some of the projects BNF has in store for the near future?

7) From watching your videos, it's clear you guys aren't fans of John McCain. Aside from him being the GOP nominee, what are your substantive issues with him?

8) What advice would you give to fledgling political videomakers? Any important lessons you've learned along the way?

9) How does what you're doing now compare to your days as a TV and feature film director?

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Request Research Interview with Robert Greenwald

2008-06-04T18:00:25Z

Hello, this is Dr. Lisa Mills. I did a telephone interview with Robert Greenwald in late December and am requesting another interview so I can ask Mr. Greenwald about the success of BNF leading up to the Obama (impending) nomination. I am writing an article about Mr. Greenwald and BNF that will be presented at the University Film and Video Conference in August. I am hoping Mr. Greenwald will contact me at my email address: lmills@mail.ucf.edu. Thank you!

This Brave Nation online premiere!

2008-06-02T02:36:01Z

"Just take what you love doing, and do it with enough other people to make it the future."

Those are the inspired words of the Sierra Club's Executive Director Carl Pope. And it's just a snippet of his fascinating conversation with Van Jones of The Ella Baker Center and Green for All, in tonight's thrilling premiere of This Brave Nation!

Watch the full episode here.

This Brave Nation reflects months of collaborating with our partners at The Nation to bring you a 6-part dynamic dialogue among progressive activists. Each Sunday for the next five weeks, you'll see Carl Pope and Van Jones, Bonnie Raitt and Dolores Huerta, Pete Seeger and Majora Carter, Anthony Romero and Ava Lowery, and Tom Hayden and Naomi Klein. These are some of the most celebrated progressive minds in our country today, and now we want to know who your local activists are.

Nominate your local unsung hero for our This Brave Nation Award. We will fly the winning activist out to Los Angeles to be part of our series finale, which will air LIVE on July 13th featuring special guests.

Our hope is that This Brave Nation will raise the discourse about progressive issues in our country. And you can help by donating $15, for which you'll receive 2 DVDs with all 5 episodes that you can pass along to your family, friends, local schools, and libraries.

Then send this e-mail to everyone you know. The best way for us to encourage the next generation of progressive activists is by promoting awareness about our current icons. Be sure not to miss a single episode of This Brave Nation by getting them all on DVD. Think what a great gift that could make to aspiring activist leaders!

What a week!

2008-06-01T14:06:41Z

It's been a remarkable week for us. Thanks to your activism in spreading our videos and getting the word out about our campaigns, we've had tremendous success on several fronts:

Because of you, John McCain was compelled to reject the endorsements from bigoted pastors Rev. John Hagee and Rev. Rod Parsley today! We've been working with David Corn of Mother Jones for a while to tell the truth about McCain's pastor problem, since the corporate media wouldn't. By passing that video along, you helped us catch the media's eye and pressure McCain to reject those hate-filled endorsements—something that should have happened a long time ago.

Also because of you, the GI Bill for the 21st Century passed 75-22. Congress saw beyond John McCain's hypocritical, unfounded objections and is going to provide our vets the educational benefits they deserve.
passed the Senate yesterday with an overwhelming majority,

From the outset, we recognized McCain's hypocrisy in refusing to co-sponsor this bill. And so we teamed up with WesPAC and Vote Vets to create a highly successful campaign that generated over 35,000 signatures! Clearly, this proved to be an effective way to pressure Congress.

Another way you've made a real difference is in promoting The Real McCain 2, which has received an astounding 1 million views since we launched it last Sunday! If you haven't already done so, check out this immensely popular video and pass it to your friends and colleagues. It's the only way to get the truth out about McCain.

Finally, our $3 trillion virtual shopping spree has caught fire! It has drawn 1.4 million shoppers, hit #1 on YouTube News and Politics, and received praise from all over the Internet. This fun online game where you try to spend $3 trillion (what the Bush administration has spent on the war) has also attracted celebrity shoppers like John Cusack, Laurie David, Gloria Steinem, and Phil Donahue.

But while 1.4 million is a tremendous number, our ultimate goal is to get 3 trillion shoppers! John Cusack, star of the film War, Inc. which opens tonight in LA and NY, is assisting us in that endeavor with this contest:

Whoever can get the most people to fill out a shopping cart by emailing their cart or sending a gift certificate, will receive a real gift certificate for free movie tickets to War, Inc. (Contest ends Memorial Day at midnight ET)

War, Inc. satirizes war profiteers, who in real life have made millions while the American public faces an Iraq War Recession. According to Cusack, "KBR, Halliburton and the other war profiteers have made out like bandits in Iraq, while taxpayers and their own workers get screwed." By going to see War, Inc. and playing the $3 trillion shopping spree you help connect the dots between the Iraq War, its profiteers, and our ailing economy.

But our work is far from over. The Bush administration continues to plunge us further into this Iraq War Recession; the corporate media continues its blind love for McCain; and Bush has already vowed to veto the GI Bill, despite the fact that it would make him the first president in history to deny benefits to vets.

Please become a $10 monthly subscriber, and help us continue creating the hard-hitting, accurate reporting that the corporate media won't attempt.

Have a pleasant Memorial Day!

FOXaganda: The 24-Hour Bash Opponents Network

2008-07-25T18:40:24Z

Ok, I am tired of this network. It spends over sixteen (16) hours a day bashing Democratic front-runner Barack Obama! No more off-the-record remarks, I will take this straight to the point: Fox equation is: Karl Rove + FOX News = Sabotage Election Thanks for viewing and post your comments at the bottom. Support the movement to hold the corporate-owned media responsible for shoddy journalism. Join Fox Attacks. I appreciate all the supporters for helping me and those at Brave New Films spread the message! To those who disagree with my videos or me in general! Criticize me for my beliefs! That's fine, I can take the criticism! But, to all my conservative viewers who espouse virtual ignorance and distortions! Please refer to the Republicans major losses in Louisiana, Mississippi and Illinois. I guess the Black voters went out and voted for Don Cazayoux, Travis Childers, and Bill Foster. newshounds.us foxattacks.com

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The Wait Is Over. Our New Documentary.

2008-07-25T20:42:16Z

What inspires you? Who are your heroes?

Van Jones on green jobs? Pete Seeger's 70 years of activism? 17-year old Ava Lowery who has been protesting the Iraq war since the age of 14? Brave New Foundation and The Nation magazine have teamed up to produce This Brave Nation, a documentary series in 5 parts that celebrates these remarkable champions of the progressive movement. And now we want you to nominate your heroes.

Who do you know who is making a change at the local level? Take a minute to think about it. Do you know someone who speaks for those who cannot? Is there someone working to make your community a cleaner space in which to live? Are you actively working to make this world a more just place? The Brave Nation Award will recognize one of these exceptional individuals.

This Brave Nation is what happens when the premiere magazine for progressives in America teams up with the country's most revolutionary media pioneer. You will see Tom Hayden, Dolores Huerta, Carl Pope, Bonnie Raitt, and Pete Seeger in one-on-one conversations with the next generation of progressive stars like Majora Carter, Van Jones, Naomi Klein, Ava Lowery, and Anthony Romero.

The Reasons Why I Signed Up For FOX Attacks!

2008-07-25T18:40:25Z

Thanks for viewing and post comments at the bottom. Simple: If you are watching FOX News on your television or on the Internet as I am doing, you will notice the primary result ticker! It determines who won the primary in North Carolina and Indiana. The ticker has the results of the Indiana and North Carolina Primary results. Senator Barack Obama has won over Hillary Clinton in the primary in North Carolina. I will find out later if the match in Indiana will determine who wins that state. If you are watching FOX News and notice the "errors" on the ticker than you are not the only one.... There was an apparent error on the ticker saying that Obama having 870 to Hillary 1323... Wouldn't be the other way around?

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Psst....Do Something -- Join FOX Attacks!

2008-07-25T18:40:25Z

I have joined Brave New Films' FOX Attacks blog! This is the creation of activist and director Robert Greenwald, the movie producer of "OutFoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism." I urge all the Barack Obama and Ron Paul supporters to join this website to denounce the corporate owned media and take the battle onto the Fox News Network.

FOX News Channel is considered by many in the journalist circles as a conservative leaning network. Since October 1996, this network stomped out the competition with their ratings! And through their ratings, the controversy mainly realigns on the commentators constant distortions and fallacies (meaning falsehoods).

Brave New Films and MoveOn.Org have successfully encouraged the Democratic candidates to boycott the Fox-Sponsored Debates after critics pointed out their smear campaigns against Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, two extremely popular Democratic presidential candidates. Now that the candidates have gone on FOX News Sunday and The O'Reilly Factor to reach out to the conservative-leaning and independent viewers, it may seem deniable that the network is "softening" their approach to the candidates.

The Three Trillion Dollar Shopping Spree

2008-07-25T18:48:42Z

The cost of the Iraq War is a grave issue. We are committed to spreading awareness about the devastating financial toll the war is taking on each and every one of us, let alone our economy.

$3 trillion. That is what Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates the war will cost our country. Make no mistake, this $3 trillion bill is crippling our economy and causing our Iraq recession. To put this colossal amount of cash into perspective, we've designed a game to help people really understand what $3 trillion dollars can buy.

Get ready to go on a 3 Trillion Dollar Shopping Spree!

When the war was already hurting our economy two years ago, President Bush announced that Americans should go shopping—a brilliant plan to remedy our ailing economy. So follow the President's advice in this virtual shopping bonanza and rack up a $3 trillion tab like he has in real life. All you have to do is stroll down through our online store, add items to your cart for yourself or friends, and check out. It's just that easy!

Whether you buy serious gifts like healthcare for all Americans or frivolous ones like building the world's tallest building, we hope you'll begin to see just how far $3 trillion could go and help others understand the cost of this war.

This "game" is designed to build further awareness, and we need your help to make that happen, just as you have done on previous successful campaigns from FOX Attacks to the War on Greed to Hurricane Katrina recovery.

Please buy gifts for your all your friends and loved ones, and send them e-mails to let them know you've found better ways to spend our nation's money than the President. We need to help Americans understand the war's economic toll.

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Jim Hightower at Brave New Films

2008-07-25T18:48:42Z

The Brave New Films office courtyard was filled with progressive Los Angelenos on a sunny afternoon last week to hear Jim Hightower speak about his new book, Swim Against the Current. Hightower was joined by his coauthor, Susan Demarco. After Robert Greenwald and journalist David Cay Johnston said a few words about Hightower, the author and popular radio commentator spoke about the people he had met while writing the book. He also gave his thoughts on progressive America and the presidential election, which guests were eager to hear.

We were overwhelmed by the response to this event. We nearly had more people than we could accommodate! Our guests really enjoyed Hightower’s talk and the added bonus of hearing from Johnston and Greenwald as well. All of us at BNF were glad to meet Hightower, in addition to our supporters and fellow progressives.

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Brave New Films: March 2008 update

2008-07-25T18:48:42Z

A quick look at Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films, our campaigns and successes up to March 2008. Together we can pave the way to victory in 2008 and beyond.

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Honoring Bobby Kennedy's GDP Challenge

2008-06-08T15:32:22Z

The fight for social justice is a marathon. Nothing is more important than finding ideas, events, and people that fan the flame, encourage more efforts and raise the bar. Just this morning, I received this video of Bobby Kennedy speaking and was inspired, moved, and excited. The possibilities, the ideas, the ability to make change. They are historical, they are today, and they are tomorrow. The words are particularly relevant to our War on Greed campaign.

Take a look. I think you will find it a source of encouragement.

Robert to speak on March 20 at the Internet Advocacy Roundtable

2008-07-13T21:25:39Z

Director Robert Greenwald will be speaking about using web video as a powerful tool in sparking citizens and policymakers into action and creating change at this months Internet Advocacy Roundtable.

The event will be from 1-3pm on Thursday, March 20th in Washington D.C.

Address:
Center for American Progress Action Fund
1333 H Street, NW
10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Please RSVP if you'd like to come, seats are limited.