Film Premieres Tonight in DC Despite Censorship Attempts by Greenpeace; 'Mine Your Own Business' Directors Challenge Detractors to Debate
Film Premieres Tonight in DC Despite Censorship Attempts by Greenpeace; 'Mine Your Own Business' Directors Challenge Detractors to Debate
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mine Your Own Business (MYOB), a film about the impact of the environmental movement, will premiere tonight at the National Geographic Auditorium despite protests, condemnations, and a call for censorship from environmental activists. The film's directors, Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, fellows of the Moving Picture Institute (MPI), called the controversy "totalitarian" and "intolerant."
Greenpeace Executive Director John Passacantando was invited to be a special guest at the screening. Instead, he sent a letter to National Geographic Society expressing outrage for their showing the film. "I'm appalled by their demand to shut down the film," said MPI President Frayda Levy. "We invited them, but instead of joining us for a discussion, they display breathtaking narrow-mindedness. Regardless of whether you love or hate Mine Your Own Business, it deserves to be seen. What makes them so afraid of this film?" Environmental activists have compared the film to Nazi propaganda and to pornography.
The film reveals how the campaigns of global environmental activists are often exaggerated, misleading and motivated by a desire to preserve poverty stricken villages they view as "quaint." The focus of the film is Rosia Montana, a mining village in Romania. Mine Your Own Business takes a hard look at a controversial issue, and poses hard questions to experts and activists on both sides of the debate.
Yesterday, Greenpeace's Passacantando and dozens of other officials from environmental NGOs publicized a letter condemning the film, the screening at National Geographic, and supporting the people of the village of Rosia Montana, against the mine. At the same time the people of Rosia Montana published a signed petition condemning Greenpeace and many other environmental groups and inviting foreign media to visit the village (http://www.thempi.org/myob/letterfromRM.pdf).
Filmmakers McAleer and McElhinney responded with their own statement and pointed out demonstrably misleading statements in the Greenpeace letter:
"Seventeen years after the Romanian people overthrew communism in a revolution that cost over 1,000 lives Romanians are once again being ordered how to live and work by Greenpeace and other environmental organizations.
"And just like the communists of old, Greenpeace now wants to control what the Romanian people see in the cinema and are even trying to stop our documentary being shown in Washington."
The filmmakers challenged the environmental activists to a public debate in the village of Rosia Montana.
(Full statement available here: http://mineyourownbusiness.blogspot.com/)
The Moving Picture Institute, with offices in Tribeca, New York, and Los Angeles, California, identifies and nurtures promising filmmakers who are committed to protecting and sustaining a free society, and supports their work through grants, travel scholarships, awards, internships, training workshops, and networking opportunities.
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Source: Moving Picture Institute
CONTACT: Audrey Mullen, +1-703-548-1160, for Moving Picture Institute
Web site: http://mineyourownbusiness.blogspot.com/
http://www.thempi.org/myob/letterfromRM.pdf
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