Welcome to OpEdNews, Robert.
In recent years, you've channeled your success in television and film
into filmmaking with a more pointed political agenda. What was the impetus
for this change?
I fell in love with documentaries as an art form and as an avenue for creating change. It became a natural path for me to focus on creating documentaries with a more political agenda, so I could have an active hand in effecting this change and helping to inform people.
How did you come up with the revolutionary idea of combining short films and the internet?
The internet is a great tool for democracy, with people spreading information and ideas to their peers quickly and easily. Putting short films on the internet is relatively inexpensive and viewers can watch it for free. Also, people have short attention spans when it comes to the internet, so making short films that were concise, engaging, and accessible seemed like a likely next step for us.
How much has Brave New Films grown since its inception?
It's grown by leaps and bounds. We started with a small company of three people, and we've since developed into a fully staffed, mid-sized non-profit.
Where do you get your funding? What organizations do you work with to promote your progressive agenda? (Would you agree that it's a progressive agenda?)
A good question! We get a lot of our funding through our "Producers Program." We have a very large list of folks who sign up on an email list to receive updates, and they help fund a lot of our projects through small direct online contributions. We also work with different organizations, depending on the specific issue we're tackling. Additionally, we do a lot of work with foundations. Funding is always a challenge and we spend lots of time working to fund raise for our work.
You've done hundreds of short films on a range of topics. Many of them fall within a few categories: corporate greed in all its guises, inappropriate political candidates, incumbents, or appointees, victims of public policy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now health care legislation. How do you decide on a subject?
We draw from many sources. First,
our great staff, which is very much committed to issues of social justice,
and contribute an endless amount of great ideas for important subjects
to cover. Second, we draw from the issues currently being debated by
the public and in Congress, issues that affect millions of people (like
our current discussion on health care reform).
Finally, we are always focused on what is not being discussed, what is not being exposed. In regards to healthcare, we wanted to show the CEO profits specifically because it was not being talked about. This was the same goal we had with Fox News when we started, as well as McCain's mansions.
In Sick for Profit, your latest initiative, you have teamed up withThe American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and Herndon Alliance. Who are they and what do they want?
The AAFP is the national association of family doctors, and one of the largest national medical organizations, with more than 94,000 members. The Herndon Alliance is a nationwide non-partisan coalition of over 200 minority, faith, labor, advocacy, business, and health care provider organizations. Both organizations are dedicated to informing the public about and providing high quality, cost-effective health care. We've all come together with Heal Health Care Now to show the support these doctors and medical professionals have for prompt, meaningful health care reform.
Your email missive for this campaign was entitled "450,000 doctors can't be wrong." What exactly do all these doctors agree on?
These doctors are all calling for comprehensive quality health care reform. These are the doctors whose job it is to treat and care for the people in this nation, and they all agree that the current system of health care is broken. They all agree that reform is necessary in order to continue offering quality health care to their patients.
Doctors, nurses, and other health professionals have been getting arrested on Capitol Hill and elsewhere for raising the question of single-payer. [See my June interview with Dr. Margaret Flowers.*] And yet, single-payer is still not even on the table in Congress. Candidate Obama campaigned repeatedly for it but once he was in the White House jettisoned single payer as unfeasible. What happened to his initial enthusiasm? Did he sell out?
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