ABOUT Mass Casualties: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Deception and Dishonor In Iraq…

“Look around,” the drill sergeant said. “In a few years, or even a few months, several of you will be dead. Some of you will be severely wounded or so badly mutilated that your own mother can’t stand the sight of you. And for the real unlucky ones, you will come home so emotionally disfigured that you wish you had died over there.”

It was Week 7 of basic training . . . eighteen years old and I was preparing myself to die.

They say the Army makes a man out of you, but for eighteen-year-old SPC Michael Anthony, this fabled rite of passage is instead a dark and dangerous journey. After obtaining his parents’ approval to enlist at seventeen, Anthony begins this journey with an unshakeable faith in the military based on his family’s long tradition of service. But when he finds himself in a medical unit of misfits as lost as he is, Anthony not only witnesses firsthand the unspeakable horror of war, he experiences the undeniable misconduct of the military. Everything he’s ever believed in dissolves, forcing Anthony to rethink his ideals and ultimately risk his career—and his freedom—to challenge the military that once commanded his loyalty.

This searing memoir chronicles the experiences that change one young soldier forever. A seasoned veteran before the age of twenty-one, he faces the truth about the war—and himself—in this shocking and unprecedented eyewitness account.

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Filmed in the slums of Africa and the barrios of Latin America, THE END OF POVERTY? features expert insights from: Nobel prize winners in Economics, Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz; acclaimed authors Susan George, Eric Toussaint, John Perkins, Chalmers Johnson; university professors William Easterly and Michael Watts; government ministers such as Bolivia’s Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera and the leaders of social movements in Brazil, Venezuela, Kenya and Tanzania. It is produced by Cinema Libre Studio in collaboration with the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation.

Can we really end poverty within our current economic system? Think again.

The film has been selected to over 25 international film festivals and will be released in US theatres starting November 13, 2009. Directed by Philippe Diaz, produced by Cinema Libre Studio with the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, 104mins, 2008, USA, documentary in English, Spanish, and French with English Subtitles.

Please visit:

www.theendofpoverty.com

ABOUT Director Philippe Diaz

Born in Paris France, Philippe Diaz studied Philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris, and began his film career as a director in 1980. After directing and producing several shorts, commercials and corporate videos, Diaz moved fully into the producer’s role with his first feature, “Havre” by Juliet Berto (cult actor/director of the French New Wave). His second feature, “Rue Du Depart” by Tony Gatlif (“Gadjo Dilo”) starred Gérard Depardieu, winning several Grand Prize awards at major international festivals.

His third feature, “Mauvais Sang” by Leos Carax (the first film about AIDS) became an international hit, winning one of most important awards in France, the 1986 Louis Delluc award, and was also nominated for 3 Césars (the French scar) as well as winning major awards around the world. This was a movie known for defining a generation and launching the careers of Juliette Binoche and Julie Delpy.

Diaz added a distribution division to his company, Films Plain Chant, to specialize in films by “author/directors” such as “Bless Their Little Hearts” by Billy Woodberry and “Candy Mountain” by acclaimed American photographer Robert Frank (produced by Diaz featuring Kevin J. O’Connor and Tom Waits). His fourth production in 1989, “Pierre Et Djemila” by Gérard Blain (a political Romeo and Juliet), represented France in the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Continuing to search for new talent and making films that appealed to global audiences, Diaz produced “The Bengali Night” (shot in English in India) which launched the career of director Nicholas Klotz and featured Hugh Grant in his first leading role along with John Hurt and Indian mega-star Shabana Azmi. This marked the beginning of Diaz’s collaboration with American studios, in particular Columbia Pictures, and the opening of his first US based production company in Los Angeles.

Soon after, New Line Cinema tapped Diaz to co-finance and produce “The Man Inside”, a political thriller directed by Bobby Roth with Jurgen Prochnow and Peter Coyote.

His collaboration with Canal+ extended into the takeover of the ailing AAA, which saw the young filmmaker installed as chairman and head of acquisition. This takeover fulfilled the need for another major independent distributor in France, which Diaz built by successfully acquiring and distributing dozens of films including “Paris Trout” and “My Own Private Idaho”.

After moving to Los Angeles in 1991, he has continued to produce films with budgets ranging from $200,000 and $15 million under his production shingle, Sceneries Entertainment. With “Heavy Metal 2000”, he was able to broaden his production knowledge with the animated production and his collaboration with Columbia/TriStar. His directorial debut was the documentary, “Nouvel Ordre Mondial (Quelque Part en Afrique)” shot in Sierra Leone which won the Grand Prix at the Festival of African film in Montreal and well as a Special Prize at the World Film Festival , Prague. He also continued his distribution activities by bringing foreign films into the U.S. with the support of the European majors he had collaborated with throughout the years.

In 2003, he created Cinema Libre Studio, with a consortium of partners to provide an alternative structure for intelligent, independent films to get developed, financed, produced and distributed.

“The Empire in Africa,” re-edited in 2006 for the U.S. market, won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at Slamdance 2006 and the Hollywood Discovery Award from the Hollywood Film Festival.

ABOUT Producer Beth Portello

Beth Portello is a co-founder of Cinema Libre Studio and has overseen marketing and business development of the independent studio known for distributing social issue films. This is her first producing credit for a feature length documentary. She also shepherded Diaz’ feature film “Now & Later” as producer.

In a previous life she was a marketer of branded footwear manufactured in third world countries and was known for consuming luxury goods. She is making amends.

After taking the “poverty tour” while making this film, she was inspired to start The Filmanthropy Project (www.filmanthropyproject.com) as a means to “give back directly to the people whose stories we take when making films.”

Currently the group has funded a micro-loan program for HIV+ members of a community

organization STAWI located in the Kibera slum in Kenya as well as an orphan’s feeding program.

Please visit:

http://www.TheEndOfPoverty.com

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It started out much differently for Paul back in the 50s. Born in 1945 in Glendale, California, he had an enthusiastic stage mother who pushed him into the business. He began performing as an eight-year-old as one of the original “Mousketeers” on the “Mickey Mouse Club” in 1955. He also appeared in such movies as The Monolith Monsters (1957) and Houseboat (1958) opposite the likes of Cary Grant and Sophia Loren before scoring big at age 12 as Donna Reed’s son on her popular sitcom. With Carl Betz as his highly practical doctor dad and Shelley Fabares as his older pretty sister, the foursome became the ideal nuclear family for late 50s/early 60s viewers. Paul and his alter-ego Jeff Stone literally grew up on the show. By his teens, the good-looking, dark-haired lad had become a formidable heartthrob. Fan clubs sprouted up everywhere. So popular were both Paul and Shelley that they spun off into recording careers, groomed to become singing idols despite their modest voices. She scored with the #1 hit “Johnny Angel” and he had a few minor hits with “She Can’t Find Her Keys,” “Keep Your Love Locked,” “Lollipops and Roses” and “My Dad.”

The fun ended, however, after the show’s demise in 1966. His All-American teen typecast didn’t fit the bill as the dissonant Vietnam counterculture took hold. His acting attempts as a serious young adult also went nowhere. Audiences still saw Paul as Jeff Stone. Roles in A Time for Killing (1967), Something for a Lonely Man (1968) (TV) and Journey to Shiloh (1968) came and went. Guest parts on “The Virginian” and “The FBI” did nothing to advance him. What he could scrape up were such outdated roles as “Moondoggie” in a revamped Gidget TV movie.

Lost and abandoned, Paul eventually was forced to give it all up and went through a period of great personal anguish and turmoil. Wisely, he enrolled at college and started writing adventure novels (penning 16 books in all). For 10 years he ran his own limousine service. His biggest accomplishment to date, however, has been to give back selflessly to an industry that unceremoniously dumped him. In essence, A Minor Consideration is an outreach organization that oversees the emotional, financial and legal protection of kids and former kids in show business. Among the issues Paul deals with are better education, and stricter laws regarding a 40-hour work week. For those who have “been there, done that” and are experiencing severe emotional and/or substance abuse problems, he offers a solid hand in helping them find a renewed sense of purpose. Today, Paul is rightfully considered “the patron saint of former child actors.”

ABOUT A Minor Consideration:

“A Minor Consideration” was formed by the efforts of Paul Petersen (Jeff on the “Donna Reed Show”) in January, 1991, as a non-profit support and assistance foundation to aid former child stars. Early support came in the form of his wife, Rana Platz-Petersen, RN and then president of Studio First Aid. The impetus for their formation was a series of suicides (Tim Hovey, Trent Lehman and Rusty Hamer) combined with the headline making condition of several other former child stars. Paul was writing a book at the time but set it aside, borrowing the title to name the foundation.

Their aim was much narrower in the early days…to aggressively reach out to those former child stars they knew to be in trouble. In years past, the Industry and the Screen Actors Guild had not been very helpful, but in January of 1991 there was a great sea-change. The news was simply too compelling to ignore, and entities like The Actors Fund, the Motion Picture Health Fund, Permanent Charities…and most importantly…Screen Actors Guild became welcome partners in an effort to help youngsters touched by early Fame and now grown old to put their lives in order.

“A Minor Consideration” works much like A.A., but with a significant difference; they do not pretend to be “anonymous.” There is a long history of difficulty in the curious world of Young Performers, much of it distasteful, and by sharing their experiences with each other and providing financial and emotional support, they encourage their “classmates” to put their past behind them and create a solid future. Former kid stars are automatic members, whether they like it or not … and some do not.

Over the years their mission has grown significantly. They support an aggressive educational program, both public and private to share their personal knowledge of the way things really work in the world of juvenile Hollywood. They are a clear-eyed bunch, and they do not put up with propaganda and distortions that have so colored the actual experience. They also support a legislative program to bring order out of chaos (see “Kids and the Law”), seeking to make Industry child labor laws uniform througout the nations and to make the Coogan Law a part of every kid actor’s work life. They want money saved for the kids from Day One and Dollar One.

Their greatest triumph was in taking over the Young Performers Committee at Screen Actors Guild which had been moribund for almost twenty years, packed as it was with Managers, Agents, and Stage Parents. Simply put, they eased them out by showing up en mass, former kid stars all, and forcing their way into the game. Former kid star and former President of SAG, Barry Gordon, made that possible by appointing them to the Committee. Since that time their progress has been incredible by any measure, as the recent National Conference on Yung Performers proved. The $110,000 grant from the Industry Advancement Cooperative Fund to hold their Conference is dramatic proof of their progress.

“A Minor Consideration” is now numbering its membership in the hundreds, about half former kid stars whose names remain household words, and another half composed of professionals in every field who donate their time to help people who gave so much of their lives ‘way back when.’

Their biggest victory so far is that they’ve won the argument. There are significant risks to children who find their way into the Entertainment Business. On that point there is no longer any dispute. These former child stars … who laughingly refer to themselves as “old has beens” … despite personal embarrassment and risk to their reputations and careers, have taught the nation a stern lesson. The risks to famous kids have remained the same for almost eighty years. It’s time for it to stop. That’s what “A Minor Consideration” is all about: SOLUTIONS!

Please visit:

http://www.minorcon.org

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