www.brain-terminal.com/video/brainwashing-101.html
Background Today, many American college campuses are dominated by the ideology of po litical correctness. According to the tenets of political correctness, t he United States is the source of all the world's troubles, capitalism i s evil, and people's biological heritage makes them either "oppressors" or "victims". Political correctness does not tolerate dissent, so studen ts who disagree with the ideology are often punished.
a Kafkaesque disciplinary or deal that lasted more than a year and ended up in federal court--just fo r posting a flyer announcing an upcoming event! Welcome to the world of higher education today, where universities seem more intent on teaching students what to think than how to think. During the past year, I've been researching political correctness and tra veling around the country talking with students, faculty and administrat ors. What I knew first-hand to be a problem when I was in college a deca de ago has only gotten worse. Political correctness is now a grotesque parody of itself, but as you can imagine, the students affect ed aren't laughing. Neither are the parents and alumni whose money is us ed to prop up this system. All publ ic universities are funded by tax money, and almost every private univer sity in the country is subsidized by taxpayers in the form of government grants and tax breaks. Chances are, if you're an American, your money is being used to finance h igher education. You have a right to know what's happening on our campus es. On The Fence Films A year ago today, I was sitting in a car staking out Michael Moore, hopin g to interview him about the documentary film business. Not only did I m anage to get the interview, but I found Moore to be surprisingly encoura ging to people like me who want to make films from a different perspecti ve.
Michael Moo re's Call to Arms--Stuart Browning contacted me. Stuart is an entreprene ur who started the software company Embarcadero Technologies. In 2000, w hen Embarcadero went public, it was the most successful IPO of the year, eclipsing even the much-hyped Krispy Kreme. After seeing the Moore interview--which contained a not-so-veiled plea fo r financing--Stuart wanted to know if I had any ideas for a feature-leng th documentary.
very first video on t his site, I wanted to show the world the current state of higher educati on. He called on Blain e Greenberg, an attorney and 23-year veteran of the entertainment indust ry. During his career, Blaine has represented major motion picture studi os, record labels, and celebrities like Angelina Jolie, James Farentino, Joe Theismann and Vanna White. With that much industry experience, Blai ne has undoubtedly seen his share of bad ideas. So, in the fall of 2003, the three of us formed On The Fence Films LLC, t he production company that would handle making the film. The Long-Term Goal Since then, we've logged thousands of miles, visited around a dozen campu ses, and interviewed scores of people. We still have many more hours of footage to shoot, so we'll be traveling all throughout this new school y ear. Our ultimate goal is to release a feature-length film in 2005. In order t o be successful, we'll need to find distribution for our film. Unfortuna tely, people in the film business generally don't see the world the way we do, and we know that'll work against us.
Brainwashing 101 now because we hope it'll help us sh ow distributors that there's an audience for this type of documentary. Since we don't have a big marketing budget, our only option is a grassroo ts campaign. Having watched the rise of the populist new media--in the form of blogs--I truly believe that w e can achieve our objectives online. Of course, a word-of-mouth campaign only works when there's something interesting for those mouths to talk about.
Brainwashing 101 is worth talking about, but then again, it's our film, so you might expect us to say that! And if you decide that our film is an import ant project, if you decide that other people should see what's happening on our campuses, then you can make a difference. You can make a difference by writing abou t the film on your blog. You can make a difference by talking about the film in online message boards. This is a remarkable opportunity for online media to flex its muscles onc e again and show the traditional media--the media that's virtually ignor ed this story for decades--that there's a new sheriff in town.
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