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RESISTANCE CINEMA Presents “KOCH BROTHERS EXPOSED” A Robert Greenwald film,  Brave New Foundation Productions, Produced and Directed by ROBERT GREENWALD, Co-Produced by NATALIE KOTTKE & JIM MILLER,  (2012, 55 minutes)

WHEN: Sunday July 8, 2012  1:15 PM 

WHERE:  Community Church NY, Gallery Room 28 East 35th st. btwn Park & Madison Aves.

ADMISSION: Free, donations appreciated

 

Koch Brothers Exposed is a hard-hitting investigation of the 1% at its very worst. This full-length documentary film on Charles and David Koch—two of the world’s richest and most powerful men—is the latest from acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, Rethink Afghanistan). The billionaire brothers bankroll a vast network of organizations that work to undermine the interests of the 99% on issues ranging from Social Security to the environment to civil rights. This film uncovers the Kochs’ corruption—and points the way to how Americans can reclaim their democracy.  

If the Koch brothers didn't exist, the left would have to invent them. They're the plutocrats from central casting – oil-and-gas billionaires ready to buy any congressman, fund any lie, fight any law, bust any union, despoil any landscape, or shirk any (tax) burden to push their free-market religion and pump up their profits. 

Documents and interviews unearthed by Brave New Foundation researchers illustrate a  28.4 million Koch effort that has manufactured 297 opinions and commentaries, 200 reports, 56 studies and six books distorting Social Security's effectiveness and purpose. This is just one example of the vast industry comprised of Koch brothers' spokespeople, front groups, think tanks, academics and elected officials, which has built a self-sustaining echo chamber to transform fringe ideas into popular mainstream public policy arguments that cover a whole range of issues from public education, school resegregation, voter ID laws, “stand your ground” laws, the XL pipeline,  collective bargaining rights, etc.  They’ve even tried to influence University positions in economics and other key areas of concern.

Over the past 30-some years, they've poured more than 100 million dollars into a sprawling network of foundations, think tanks, front groups, advocacy organizations, lobbyists and GOP lawmakers, all to the glory of their hard-core libertarian agenda. They don't oppose big government so much as government – taxes, environmental protections, safety-net programs, public education: the whole bit. (By all accounts, the Kochs are true believers; they really buy that road-to-serfdom stuff about the the holiness of free markets. Still, you can't help but notice how neatly their philosophy lines up with their business interests.) They like to think of elected politicians as merely "actors playing out a script," and themselves as supplying "the themes and words for the scripts."  The Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court has unleashed their energies as never before.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, filmmaker Robert Greenwald said that the Kochs' money and power have had an "unparalleled" impact”. “The Kochs are using their money, their power and the inequalities of our system for personal gain," he said, "and the size and scale that they're doing it at is fairly impressive."

Koch Industries has disputed the claims on their website KochFacts.com, calling the film "intellectually dishonest" and a "propaganda video." The filmmakers' requests to interview the Koch brothers themselves were denied. "They hide," said Greenwald, "and [they're] not just hiding from us."