EDIT: Due to requests, any press, media outlets, or distributors wishing to contact me should do so through this e-mail address: john [at] vhsfilms [dot] com
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Two big bits of news today:
1. The documentary WILL be released in 2008 (I don't know when precisely, so just hold on). 2. To whet your appetite, here's the first 13 minutes of the film:
For those of you visiting the site from YouTube, MySpace, or anywhere else, you're probably wondering where the documentary is, and how you can see it.
This is...complicated. For years now, I've been trying to find a distributor for it, with little to no success. The documentary has been re-edited several times to try and make it more "commercial." It's now been sliced down to around 90 minutes, the documentary standard.
We shall see if we can find a distributor within the next few months. If we can't, then we will have to get it out there ourselves. Stay tuned, and thanks for your continued support.
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(Music: "There's Something Wrong (Demo)" & "Sick As A Dog" by Brad Sucks, and "Choose Responsibility" by Colin Mutchler. Used with kind permission of the artists)
I'll post a round-up of my AFM week soon, but for now I want to talk about something: the ONDCP and YouTube.
There's a member on YouTube called "ONDCPstaff," which is clearly a lackey for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. They've posted several videos, including many of the amusingly dishonest ads they have on television.
This is all fine, wanting to get their message out and all that. Here's the thing that's interesting though: none of the videos, not a single, solitary one, has comments, video responses, or even ratings enabled. Some of them apparently had them enabled, then got bombarded by shitty star ratings and comments, leading them to be disabled.
The ONDCP, a government agency dedicated to try to sell prohibition to the public, refuses honest and open discussion, even to the point of not allowing their videos to be rated with the simple five-star system. It's the same thing on their blog (which I am not linking to, nor even naming), which doesn't have comments on the page, but only lets you send comments into them (and I'm betting dollars to donuts they are ignored).
This government office declined to allow me an interview, an interview that I said could happen anytime, anywhere, anyday, over a nine month period. This government office refuses to have a public debate on the issues. This government office, which rarely gives interviews.
Well, no more. Since all ONDCP ads and recordings are de facto public domain (and, even if they weren't, I'd claim fair use on critical commentary grounds), I'm going to be taking those ads and reposting them on YouTube, with my own personal commentary thrown in.
Comments, ratings, and video responses open for all.
TROY, Mich. - Nov. 15 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Invisible Hand Productions today began pre-production of the feature film "Guilty of Innocence," a documentary on the failings of the U.S. legal system. The independent film, to be completed in 1Q 2008, will be shot on location in Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia, with a budget not to exceed $200k. Principal photography will commence in December of 2006.
The film will explore the role of rumor and innuendo in the decisions lawyers make, by the example of three actual court cases, in which guilty people denied justice to innocent people by skillfully lying in court, using the experience they gained by lying in court previously.
Producer and CEO Bob Schubring previously produced the John Holowach film, HIGH: The True Tale of American Marijuana, which explores a wide range of misinformation and quackery relating to America's most popular illegal drug. No strangers to controversy, in HIGH, Schubring and Holowach helped expose a bogus Florida charity, which raked in $95 million from unsuspecting parents by locking their children away in an unlicensed mental health facility in St. Petersburg and two others in Virginia and New Jersey, torturing them to the point of psychotic breakdown, demanding that the children make false confessions to drug use and various twisted and bizarre behavior, using the confessions and psychotic behavior to mislead the unsuspecting parents into giving additional funds to the ersatz charity to provide further care to their children, and finally filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Tampa, after being sued for kidnapping, torture, and false imprisonment. Most of the $95 million was never recovered, the ringleaders of the scam paid $ 3 million to a front man to shield them from being sued, at least 25 children committed suicide after the abuse, and many more are mentally and physically disabled from the quack treatment.
If anyone is going to be at the American Film Market (taking place in Santa Monica from November 1st through the 8th), we'll be there, represented by a great company. Not sure if I will personally be there, but if I am it'll be from the 5th to the 8th.
You'll know them by the shirts they'll be wearing.
Hello all! It's been awhile, I know. But don't worry! We're currently exploring all our options for as to how to release this film. 2007 will be the year to "Get HIGH," I promise you.
If you haven't seen it yet, check out the trailer on YouTube. The ratings and the comments for it have been really encouraging, so thank you all!
