News

August 25, 2010 - [ The New York Times ]

You have to look at America from the bottom up, not from the top (Washington) down. And what you’ll see from down there is that there is a movement stirring in this country around education. From the explosion of new charter schools to the new teachers’ union contract in D.C., which will richly reward public school teachers who get their students to improve faster and weed out those who don’t, Americans are finally taking their education crisis seriously. If you don’t want to stand on your head, then just go to a theater near you after Sept. 24 and watch the new documentary “Waiting for Superman.” You’ll see just what I’m talking about. 
 


Directed by Davis Guggenheim, who also directed Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Waiting for Superman” takes its name from an opening interview with the remarkable Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone. HCZ has used a comprehensive strategy, including a prenatal Baby College, social service programs and longer days at its charter schools to forge a new highway to the future for one of New York’s bleakest neighborhoods.

August 13, 2010 - [ Politico ]

Typically, the CIA is all about black ops, classified information and secrecy. 
 


But here's something POLITICO has uncovered: Late last month, the CIA and the National Counterterrorism Center hosted a joint screening of the documentary Countdown to Zero, a Participant Media flick about the escalating nuclear arms crisis. 
 


The audience was standing-room only and incuded more than 500 people, including high-level agency reps and analysts who follow nuclear terrorism and counterproliferation issues from the CIA and NCTC. 
 


After the screening, Jeff Skoll, the founder of Participant Media and the film's producer, held a Q-and-A session. 
 


The film has made the Beltway rounds. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) held a screening of the flick and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also screened the film while traveling back from Mexico.

August 9, 2010 - [ The Huffington Post ]

I recently had the opportunity to view the documentary "Waiting for Superman" with hundreds of inspired, interested, and driven adolescents from the Youth Speaks Organization. As I watched this comprehensive, unsettling, and yet poignant look at the United States's educational system, I heard the cheering and clapping of concurrence from the audience. It left me with a pit in my stomach because this cross section of America's youth could relate to almost every sad and desperate scene on film. As a product of two high school teachers, education was always valued and of utmost importance in my home, and therefore, I took for granted getting an education. Unlike me, the kids who I sat among understood that in most areas in this country, education is NOT a right, but a privilege. They know that a teen drops out of high school every 26 seconds. They have also experienced among their families and friends that these drop outs are 8% more likely to end up in jail and will earn 40% on the dollar of a college graduate. This documentary was part of their story too.



The director, Davis Guggenheim, also known for his piece "An Inconvenient Truth," shares a gripping and thought-provoking story in this new film about the plight of this country's educational system. The dismal state of education, the bleak statistics, and the cumbersome politics surrounding any sort of solution is punctuated by a human element. The cost of apathy and denial are given faces and families in this film. We follow the stories of five inspiring, hopeful, and innocent children and their doting, hard working, and tireless parents who are trying to ascertain the basic American right of education. These five youths are merely examples of the millions of children who lack the means to shatter the molds that tie them to the "academic sinkholes" and "drop out factories" that they call their schools. Guggenheim illustrates this blatant injustice, and without moralizing or offering any concrete solutions, he evokes an unremitting desire to rectify the situation.

August 2, 2010 - [ Newsweek ]

After spending years trying to thwart the nuclear black market, a former CIA spy says the only way to prevent terrorists from getting the bomb is to eliminate all of the world’s nukes.
 
 

The smoke was still drifting off the World Trade Center when the CIA discovered that Osama bin Laden had secretly met just a few days before the attack with a top Pakistani nuclear scientist, seeking help in building a nuclear bomb.

Immediately, nuclear terrorism jumped to the top of the list of urgent threats to the civilized world. My clandestine work as a CIA operations officer became laser-focused on counterproliferation as we mobilized to prevent a nuclear 9/11. We knew that the horror of a nuclear bomb detonated in a major city would dwarf any catastrophe previously suffered by our country—the death toll would be in the hundreds of thousands and the economic and social devastation sudden and catastrophic.
 


Nine years later, who is winning this contest of wills between the civilized world and terrorist groups trying to buy, build, or steal a nuclear bomb? I would like to believe the bad guys are losing, but, in fact, time favors them as long as nuclear-bomb-grade materials and weapons exist in the world. A valiant team effort by the CIA and our many partners around the globe has prevented an attack thus far. But my experience as part of that effort tells me that the only way to end this danger is to lock down all nuclear materials and eliminate nuclear weapons in all countries.

August 2, 2010 - [ Fast Company ]

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a joint venture between Participant Media and one of the country's biggest office supply retailers! 
 


Cause marketing has a history that is near and dear to my heart, from YouthAIDS’ partnership with footwear company Aldo and major celebrities like rapper Ludacris and pop singer Avril Lavigne to MTV’s partnership with the Kaiser Family Foundation to promote young adult health in marginalized communities. A consistent player in this scene is Participant Media, a production company started by Jeff Skoll that produces socially relevant films with an agenda to create sustained social change. 
 


Participant’s latest partnership reveals the far-reaching scope of cause marketing and CSR campaigns, as none other than OfficeMax has announced that it will donate school supplies to over 1,000 teachers when 40,000 people pledge to watch Participant's latest film, Waiting for "Superman," about the distraught public school system in the United States. 
 


I’m excited about Participant and OfficeMax’s partnership--and it makes sense (school supplies, yada, yada)--but office supplies aren’t exactly sexy. I think ice cream would be more sexy! But teachers also need a little something spicy to shake up their work lives, don’t they? Like regular classroom visits from celebrities to offer acting and dancing coaching? Come on guys, use those Hollywood connections for better arts education! 
 


So when we forge rather large partnerships like this, let’s go beyond what just makes sense to something, I don’t know, a little different? Thanks, guys. Looking forward to my ice cream coupon next time.


July 30, 2010 - [ MSN Music ]

One of the causes promoted at the Bonnaroo Festival this year was the end of nuclear bombs on Planet Earth. A lofty goal, but given all the screw-ups humans have made of late, hey, it's not a bad idea at all.

July 30, 2010 - [ MTV Newsroom ]

Maroon 5's Adam Levine never thought he'd be talking about a topic like nuclear proliferation, because, well, he's the lead singer of a world-famous rock band. Discussing the finer points of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty wasn't exactly on the job description. 
 


And yet, when he was approached by the folks behind "Countdown to Zero" — the harrowing new documentary from the producers of "An Inconvenient Truth" that investigates the perilous state of global politics and the spread of nuclear weapons — about helping promote the film, he said yes. 
 


"It's one of those issues where it's really easy to establish a stance on," Levine said. "It's more of a human issue, and it makes no sense whatsoever to me. I mean, I'm pretty certain it was a terrible idea to invent nuclear weapons in the first place."

July 28, 2010 - [ Huffington Post ]

We want to urge fans to see Countdown to Zero and join the movement to eliminate nuclear weapons and ratify the new START Treaty.
 


Directed by Lucy Walker and Produced by Academy Award Winner Lawrence Bender, the Film presents compelling stories to inspire a demand for a nuclear free world.
 


We wrote the song about extremism -- about the importance of finding a middle ground for the sake of humanity as a whole. We support Global Zero and want to encourage people to see Countdown to Zero because it is imperative that we come together to end nuclear proliferation.
 


We collaborated with Participant Media on a video of our new single, "Headed for the End of the World" off of our album "Mr. Sad Clown" that promotes both the film and the Global Zero movement.
 


Countdown to Zero opened in New York City and Washington DC July 23rd and will open in twenty other cities nationwide on the 30th.

July 23, 2010 - [ The Washington Post ]

Since "An Inconvenient Truth" came out in 2006, Participant Media has become a brand name for creating documentaries expertly machined to educate, terrify and galvanize. And the formula works again in "Countdown to Zero," Lucy Walker's alternately edifying and alarming film about nuclear proliferation.
 


As a template, Walker uses John F. Kennedy's 1961 speech to the United Nations -- in which he described a "nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness" -- then proceeds to give examples of how close we've come to having the sword lowered. Using archival images of mushroom clouds and imploding houses, street interviews with everyday citizens who have no idea who has nukes or how many, and a plethora of wise talking heads, Walker makes a clear, cogent and irrefutable case for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. (Walker made the 2006 documentary "Blindsight;" her 2009 film about artist Vik Muniz, "Waste Land," just played Silverdocs.)

July 23, 2010 - [ The Huffington Post ]

Watch the film. Watch it again. 
 


Academy Award winning producer Lawrence Bender and director Lucy Walker's documentary Countdown to Zero is an extraordinarily powerful and disturbing film that lays out the case for global nuclear disarmament.
 


I had the privilege of interviewing Lawrence Bender on this issue.
 


"This movie is like a wake up call and it's an edge of your seat, urgent kind of scary movie about this issue. So people watch it and go 'holy shit'."
 


But the question of how we get to zero is not one easily answered.
 


"It's not easy and it's going to take some time to do. And it's an idea that was started by the great liberal president Ronald Reagan. Obviously in the movie we have some of his speeches He had many speeches where he believed that the best thing for the world was abolition of nuclear weapons.. And this is an idea that's been around for a while. It's not a liberal idea or a conservative idea. But I do believe it's an idea whose time has come. So from Reagan and even with Nixon, when he talked about reduction, this is an idea that's been around for some time and again, it's weird, because in the 1980's the nuclear freeze movement was primarily a liberal movement but it was effective. There were 70,000 nuclear weapons and now we're down to 23,000 - so it did have an effect. But today most people just don't think about this and as President Kennedy says in the movie, you have this Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. The problem is no one is looking up."

July 22, 2010 - [ Bloomberg ]

Near the end of Lucy Walker’s doomsday documentary “Countdown to Zero,” New Year’s Eve revelers celebrate in Times Square as we hear about the gruesome impact of a nuclear blast in New York: people instantly vaporized, massive fires and shards of glass rocketing through the air like missiles. All to the cheerful sound of a ukulele playing “Over the Rainbow.” 
 


While it may seem heavy-handed, the film has a deadly message: The rise of terrorism, the threat of rogue states and the black market in nuclear materials have made the world even more dangerous than it was at the height of the Cold War. 
 


“Countdown to Zero” may do for nuclear weapons what Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” did for global warming: sound the alarm about a potential cataclysm that many people aren’t aware of. 


July 22, 2010 - [ Movieline ]

The tale of erstwhile CIA counterterrorism agent Valerie Plame Wilson has been told a million times elsewhere — not likely better or more comprehensively than her own memoir Fair Game. The quick and dirty version would summarize her exposure by the late columnist Robert Novak, which was subsequently traced back to the upper echelons of the Bush Administration as payback for her husband Joseph Wilson’s editorialized criticism  of the rush to war in Iraq. The rest is history.



It’s also serious culture: Fair Game’s film adaptation opens this fall with Naomi Watts playing Plame opposite Sean Penn’s former ambassador Wilson. (The story was more loosely adapted two years ago in Rod Lurie’s Nothing But the Truth.) And now comes Countdown to Zero, an extended look down the barrel of the world’s lingering nuclear threat. Forget the Cold War, Cuba, Dr. Stranglove and the quaint evocations of armageddon past. Zero surveys the nuclear ambitions — and potential — of the world’s terror elite. Director Lucy Walker consults with everyone from former Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev to president Jimmy Carter to Russian uranium smugglers to the folks who once stood missile-side in the mountains, ready to launch the end of the world at a moment’s notice. It’s potent, petrifying stuff, never more so than when the prospects for nuclear devastation are laid out via city grids and staggering casualty projections.

July 22, 2010 - [ Entertainment Weekly ]

Countdown to Zero makes old terrors radioactively new again. Lucy Walker, the director of this documentary about the still clear-and-present danger of nuclear weapons, has her finger on the ultimate hot-button topic, and she doesn't let go. The film features spine-tingling descriptions of the moments when we risked toppling into a nuclear conflagration — like in, say, 1995, when a wayward U.S. missile caused the Russian nuclear football to be opened in front of Boris Yeltsin. (Fortunately, he wasn't drunk.) 
 


The film also illustrates how easy it is to buy enriched uranium on the black market. At times Countdown to Zero comes close to being nuclear-anxiety porn, yet it's the rare film that could trigger and unite the reflexes of the left and the right. It makes getting rid of nukes seem less like a ''cause'' than an imperative. A-

July 21, 2010 - [ Tribeca Film ]

In Lucy Walker's nuclear answer to An Inconvenient Truth, ex-CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and others make the case that the end of the Cold War is no reason to feel safe.
 


“Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.”
 


President John F. Kennedy spoke those words in an address before the General Assembly of the United Nations on September 25, 1961. Almost 50 years later, the sentence in bold serves as the backbone for Lucy Walker’s new documentary, Countdown to Zero. Walker interviewed world leaders—Carter, Gorbachev, Blair, Musharraf—defense specialists, and historians to paint a broad picture of the evolution of nuclear arms in order to make the case for complete disarmament. Without the benefit of deterrence inherent in the U.S./Soviet Cold War—and with the increased availability of nuclear ingredients to rogue elements—why risk having nuclear arms at all?
 


Lawrence Bender, the producer of An Inconvenient Truth (and numerous Quentin Tarantino films, among others), spearheaded the project when he was looking to replicate the social awareness created by Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim’s film about global warming. Though Obama was not yet in office when work began on Countdown, the new president has supported the elimination of nuclear weapons, beginning with the Global Zero project, launched by 100 world leaders in December 2008. Obama continues to work with Russian President Medvedev to lead by example.
 

July 19, 2010 - [ ABC News ]

The Queen talks about a new film that is working to get rid of nuclear weapons.

July 17, 2010 - [ The New York Times ]

THE unlikely summer blockbuster of 2006, “An Inconvenient Truth” — the global-warming documentary based on Al Gore’s slide-show lecture — proved that socially conscious movies about calamitous subjects could raise awareness and also do big business. (It earned nearly $50 million at the global box office on its way to winning an Oscar.) 
 


In the wake of its success Lawrence Bender, a Hollywood veteran who was one of its producers, found himself fielding numerous pitches for advocacy documentaries, projects like “the ‘Inconvenient Truth’ of water or the ‘Inconvenient Truth’ of poverty,” he said. All significant topics, but the one that grabbed his attention came from the president of a research organization called the World Security Institute. His idea: the “Inconvenient Truth” of nuclear threat. 
 


Mr. Bender said he and Jeff Skoll, the founder of the socially minded company Participant Media and an executive producer of “An Inconvenient Truth,” realized that nuclear peril — like climate change — is an “umbrella issue,” something that “affects life on a planetary basis,” and so a worthy candidate for another sound-the-alarm documentary.

PRESSURE COOKER NOMINATED FOR EMMY AWARD FOR EXCEPTIONAL MERIT IN NONFICTION FILMAKING

July 8, 2010 - [ Academy of Television Arts & Sciences ]

Pressure Cooker is one of five nominees for an Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking. The other nominees are: Brick City/Sundance Channel, My Lai/ PBS American Experience, Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)/PBS POV, Patti Smith: Dream of Life/PBS POV and Sergio/HBO.  The winner will be announced at the Emmy Awards ceremony on August 29th, airing live beginning at 5PM Pacific time on NBC.

July 2, 2010 - [ Los Angeles Times ]

"Ordinary people are the only people that will save the world," says a London public relations executive in the gentle and artful documentary "Climate of Change." It's a quote that offers a logical and immediate key to our planet's preservation but also nicely encapsulates director Brian Hill's approach here to depicting grassroots ecology.
 
Hill traveled the globe capturing a variety of average citizens leading regional efforts to defend their environments and, in turn, help to mitigate the potential effects of climate change. Whether it's an activist in Togo urging solar cooking methods, New Guinea natives practicing sustainable logging, West Virginians protesting the ravages of strip mining, or schoolchildren in India articulating the perils of plastics, the movie highlights the many inconvenient truths about the Earth's fragility and how we fit into its destruction — as well as its protection.
 
There's as much beauty in the deeply felt commitment of the film's environmentalists as there is in its visual splendor and in Tilda Swinton's lyrical narration (written by British poet Simon Armitage). And although little revealed here breaks particularly new ground, the movie proves another essential plea for environmental vigilance. As one Indian youngster so profoundly reminds us, "We are the renters of this world, not its masters."

July 2, 2010 - [ LA Weekly ]

The best film in this week's Tribeca Film showcase is Brian Hill's fantastic Climate of Change, a sobering look at the havoc wreaked upon the planet as we race to harvest natural resources while simultaneously creating both nonbiodegradable refuse and staggering amounts of pollution. (The film focuses on the coal and timber industries but gains urgency against the backdrop of the BP oil disaster.) Tilda Swinton narrates a poetic script (penned by Armitage), as the film darts from India and Africa to Papua New Guinea, England and West Virginia. If Climate occasionally drifts into PSA mode, Armitage's images are frequently haunting (such as the massive storage building in the Arctic, which houses seeds for almost every known plant), and the facts he trots out are grim. But hope is provided in the forms of everyday people — a fiery, self-described hillbilly activist; an "ethical" PR woman in London; precocious school kids in India — who doggedly fight the power.

July 1, 2010 - [ TakePart.com ]

What if there were a way to help our Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans re-enter society and find a career they loved that also healed the trauma of combat?
 


Michael O'Gorman, one of the pioneers of the organic food movement and founder of the Farmer-Veteran Coalition, may have done just that—through the rejuvenating power of growing delicious and healthy food.
 


A father of a young veteran, O'Gorman started the Farmer-Veteran Coalition after he learned that many men and women from rural and farming communities were entering the army. When they came back, they were left with trauma and a lack of employment opportunities.