Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Speaking of Wal-Mart, as the movie release date draws nearer, Bentonville begins circling the wagons.

We're merrily counting the days until the Wal-Mart movie spectacular in downtown New Albany.

CFP and Destinations Booksellers to screen "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" documentary film on Nov. 16.



New Albany's Constituency for Progress (CFP) is pairing with the city's only full service bookstore to screen "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price," a documentary from director and producer Robert Greenwald, maker of Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism," and "Uncovered: The War on Iraq."

There will be two showings of the film, at 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., both taking place beneath the roof of the Farmers Market at the corner of Market and Bank. Dress warmly, but remember that nothing is so cold as a predatory retailer. Bring a lawn chair. The event organizers are negotiating with downtown eateries to provide concessions for the screenings, so there should be some snacks and warm drinks.

xxxxxx

Here's an e-mail received today from Robert Greenwald, the film's producer and director:

It has been a wild couple of weeks as the release of our Wal-Mart film gets closer, and Wal-Mart gets angrier.

We really touched a nerve in Bentonville when we released an extended video of former Wal-Mart manager Weldon Nicholson, just one of the stories we tell in the film. A manager for 17 years, he confesses deeply personal stories about his crisis of conscience, how it was to see workers who couldn't afford to eat, marking family businesses for destruction, and bribing local officals. Watch extended scenes from our interview with Weldon here:

http://www.walmartmovie.com/confessions/

The response -- as you might expect from a multi-billion dollar company -- has been swift, ruthless, mean and vitriolic. Six weeks after we announced the film in June, Wal-Mart hired Ronald Reagan's image guru, and one of Bill Clinton's media consultants to set up the best campaign-style war room money can buy, who last week, released to the press both a video and 12 pages of attacks on me and the trailer (not the film, the trailer). The most incredible part was the three pages of bad reviews from my older films -- dating back to 1980!

Big mistake. Now that Wal-Mart has made this a war, it's brought the campaign to the Today Show, and landed us on the front page of the New York Times, hours before the sold-out premiere tonight in Union Square benefiting Wal-Mart Free NYC.

incendiary secret memo leaked to Wal-Mart Watch, we can really go on the offensive, and we need your help.

Call your local newspaper or tv/radio station to cover this story. Get a copy of the film and show it at every possible place. Give copies away. Make sure churches, schools, libraries and workplaces all have copies and play them loud and regularly. Call the office of your elected official and ask what they are doing to fight Wal-Mart.

Tomorrow is the San Francisco premiere benefiting Alternet and Equal Rights Advocates, and then back to Los Angeles on Thursday for the premiere with LAANE benefiting their incredible work. On Friday we open for our theatrical run in New York and LA (more coming!), and then on to the massive premiere week mobilization starting Sunday Nov. 13th with screenings, discussions and events all week engaging people in the critical fight around the issues of corporate greed, economic justice, and the kind of country we want to have. Find and RSVP for screenings here:

http://www.walmartmovie.com/find.php

They can out spend us, they can make fancier flyers and brochures and hire more consultants and press agents, but it will all be a vain attempt to smokescreen what Wal-Mart can no longer hide.

See you at a screening!

Robert Greenwaldproducer/director, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price

P.S. Screening kits are shipping now, and DVDs start shipping next week, so if you haven't already, get your copy for $12.95, or get a box of 30 for $240 ($8/each) to hand out to all your neighbors. Why not give early holiday presents that just might change the way people buy their holiday presents?

http://www.walmartmovie.com/buy.php

P.P.S. We decided to have some fun with the attack video (actually, it's more like a power point presentation) and well, adjust it to tell our story. Have a look, and a laugh:

http://www.walmartmovie.com/fear_and_smear.php

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