Category Archives: film

A video guide to “Rahm’s Accomplishments”

I excerpted a couple short clips from “The School Closure Playbook” to help illustrate some of Rahm’s Accomplishments:

  • Shutting down 49 schools in predominantly minority & low income communities in 2013. “Hey Rahm, let’s face it. Your policies are racist!”

  • Forcing parents & students to plead with the school board to not shut down their schools. (Fun fact: the Walton Family Foundation funded these “community meetings” as a PR move to make it seem like the communities actually had some say in the matter. They didn’t.).

  • Manufacturing a budget crisis to justify school closures — and funneling hundreds of millions of dollars a year ($422 MILLION in 2013 alone) away from public schools & other municipal programs, and into a secretive slush fund he controls via “Tax Increment Financing.”

  • And don’t forget his buddies like Juan Rangel, campaign manager of his first mayoral run. Despite millions of dollars in state funds, Rangel managed to run the UNO Charter Network into huge amounts of debt (though his cronies in construction and maintenance did alright). He was forced to resign amidst the scandal, and later the SEC charged him with defrauding investors. (In this country, investors occasionally see justice. School children, not so much).

At ~2-3 minutes each, I hope the clips may be of use to those participating in tonight’s #OneTermRahm twitter storm. But of course you can watch the full film here.

The School Closure Playbook

Yesterday Jacobin Magazine published “The School Closure Playbook,” a film essay I directed about Chicago’s decision to shut down forty-nine public schools in 2013:

This piece is adapted from two essays from Jacobin’sClass Action” handbook, Kenzo Shibata’s “Disaster Capitalism, Chicago Style” and Joanne Barkan’s “How Mega-Foundations Threaten Public Education.” It features original cinematography by Katrina Ohstrom; music by Rob Warmowski of the San Andreas Fault; and video journalism by Kai-Duc Luong, Heather Stone, and John Sheehan. This project also owes a tremendous debt to BBC filmmaker Adam Curtis, in ways which will be obvious to anyone familiar with his work (and that saying about imitation and flattery).

As I write this, Chicago is about an hour away from deciding whether to re-elect mayor Rahm Emanuel. If he receives less than 50% of the vote in today’s election, there will be a run-off in April. Responsible for appointing both the CEO and school board, Emanuel exercises enormous control over the city’s public schools. His policies of school closures and privatization have had devastating effects on Chicago’s children, yet are being replicated in districts around the country.

This is perhaps the most depressing film I have ever worked on, but also the most hopeful. The soul-crushing hours spent listening to people like Eli Broad and Milton Friedman were more than matched by the inspiration of watching speeches by people like Karen Lewis, Asean Johnson (seriously, watch this!), and Jitu Brown. They represent just a few of the many parents, teachers, students and community members who are working tirelessly around the country, at the genuine grassroots, to bring democracy and justice to public education.

This project showed me that there are real heroes in America today. You may not often hear about them in the media, but you could find them outside in the cold today, knocking on doors in Chicago to get out the vote for an #ElectedBoardNow. And last week you could find them occupying absentee, Christie-appointed superintendent Cami Anderson’s offices in Newark, NJ to demand local control of their schools.

If you are interested in learning more, joining forces, or perhaps sharing some of that green stuff that gets posters printed, GOTV vans filled with gas, and films made, here are some resources:

Watch ‘Ashley/Amber’ FREE on IndieFlix this Week

indieflix-picofweek

Ashley/Amber is IndieFlix’s “FreeFlix” of the week. This a very sweet deal: you get to watch the newly remastered version for free if you register for a free IndieFlix account – no credit card required – and IndieFlix pays me for every minute watched, regardless of whether it’s a paying subscriber doing the watching.

WATCH ASHLEY/AMBER FREE ON INDIEFLIX

If you’d prefer to not register for IndieFlix, or if you are finding this post after the week ends, please click here for all the other ways to watch.

‘Ashley/Amber’ Re-mastered

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You may recognize Diane Guerrero as Maritza on Orange Is The New Black, the second season of which premieres this Friday. But I’m can smugly say I discovered her, when I cast her as the lead in my short film Ashley/Amber.

In a shameless attempt to ride on the coattails of OITNB’s success, today I’m releasing a remastered, color-corrected version of Ashley/Amber on demand through VHX and Vimeo for one dollar (actually, VHX allows you to pay more than that, should you be feeling generous). Your support goes directly to the development of my next film.

Ashley/Amber is also streaming on IndieFlix. Using these referral links, you can purchase a discounted subscription for $5/month, first month free or $35/year and access a curated collection of tons of sweet indie films, short and long.

Curious but don’t feel like shelling out a buck? You can still watch the less sexy, un-remastered version on Youtube.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, Ashley/Amber is a 22min dark comedy about an antiwar activist who becomes an internet celebrity after being outed as the one-time star of porn video. It premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011 and has since screened around the world. Travis Keune of We Are Movie Geeks calls it “an introspective short film about American politics and a skewed sense of morality.” sonnycarson86 of Youtube.com says “I liked the movie but show more tits next time.”

Will there be a next time? In addition to throwing me a dollar, you can help me make it easier for me to make the next film by sharing this one on your preferred social networks:

http://ashley-amber.com/watch

trailer: http://vimeo.com/ondemand/ashleyamber/95555956
twitter: @ashleyamberfilm
fb: https://www.facebook.com/ashleyamberthemovie

official press release: http://ashley-amber.com/2014/06/from-porn-to-politics

You can also sign-up for my email list for infrequent updates about future projects.
Thanks!
Rebecca

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ASHLEY/AMBER screening in Williamsburg this Sunday, 7/14

This may be the last time Ashley/Amber screens at an actual movie theater! And in Williamsburg no less — maximum convenience for all you yuppie scum who can still afford to live there (jk I love you pls give me $$ for next movie thnx). Still easy, and $5 beer special, for all you broke proles who live on lesser stops off G & L trains (jk u r yuppie scum too).

Cinema Club Vol. XVIII

CINEMA CLUB PRESENTS

Volume XVIII:
Short Films

Sunday
July 14th

Indie Screen
289 Kent Ave @ S. 2nd st
Doors – 4 PM
Show – 5 PM

$5 tickets
(cash only)
+
$2 Raffle Tickets
–Winner gets 2 FREE tickets to any film at Indie Screen —

Featuring films by:

David Bly
Addison Mehr
Rebecca Rojer
Geroni J
Max Sherwood

HAPPY HOUR 4-5PM
$5 Draft Beers

CINEMA CLUB
cinemaclub.us
facebook / event
twitter

Lightworks Console

Wow, this is some serious niche-nerdery but the Lightworks Console is based on a Steenbeck!

Lightworks_Conso_4fc22708b3c29

For the uninitiated, a Steenbeck is flatbed film editor, a massive, glorious mechanical/optical machine used to edit physical film. I used one to cut Ashley/Amber and it was an experience I hope to never repeat but also am bizarrely nostalgic for. Keeping track of 20+ rolls of film and corresponding mag (sound) was a hellish task, but the analog dial for playback/rewind is delightful. Perhaps not a delight I’m ready to pay nearly $3k to replicate, but still very exciting to learn that this exists. Also looks like there are some serious editors who use Lightworks, including Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese’s long-time editor.

Lovely interview with Schoonmaker, with a good discussion of film v. digital editing at 22min in.