"Begging for Billionaires" - Eminent doman abuse film
Eric S. Harris
http://beggingforbillionaires.com/
Text (PDF) (one of several documents):
http://beggingforbillionaires.com/presskit/backgrounder.pdf
LIMELIGHT CINEMA GROUP PRESENTS
For Immediate Release Contact: Todd Messelt
Jan. 30, 2009 Media Line Communications
(612) 605-7266
Trailer at http://www.beggingforbillionaires.com tmes...@medialinecom.com
Documentary Begging for Billionaires shows how politicians use eminent
domain
to take private property and give it to billionaire developers for the
sake of profit.
Film sends warning of full-scale attack on basic property rights
�guaranteed� by the 5th Amendment
KANSAS CITY, MO. � A new feature-length film titled Begging For
Billionaires takes a hard look at the
issue of eminent domain abuse, which has displaced hundreds of thousands
of property owners in cities across
the nation. (See trailer and clips at http://www.beggingforbillionaires.com)
Using Kansas City, St. Louis, and other cities in Kansas and Missouri as
a backdrop, the film chronicles the
plight families and small business owners struggling to protect their
private property against the threat of
eminent domain (i.e., government seizure of private property) to make
way for luxury housing developments,
shopping malls, corporate office towers, professional sports facilities
and other profitable, private projects. This
despite that fact that eminent domain is supposed to be used for
important public projects like schools, highways
and bridges.
�Eminent domain abuse has become a big issue across the country,� says
Director/Producer Philip Klein. �I
made the documentary to make people aware of how important this issue is
and to expose them to how eminent
domain is being used to benefit private developers and big corporations
rather than the public.�
�The film exposes the truth about the so-called �economic development,�
Klein says. �Few people realize that
their city officials can take homes and business away for any purpose -
as long they say they�re doing it to
benefit the local economy.� Vague, elusive definitions of �blight,� tax
breaks for fat-cat developers and multibillion
dollar corporations and outright corruption are all part of the equation.
Begging For Billionaires was an 8-year project that had its challenges,
Klein says. At one point, he was even
arrested and removed from a public meeting for having a video camera.
The film is today making its way
through the national film festival circuit. Klein says he is working to
secure a distributor to make the film available
for wider release in 2009.
Begging For Billionaires is edited by Daniel Polsfuss, whose past
documentary projects include The Barbed
Wire Club, about a group of international men imprisoned in Japanese POW
camps, Gen-X, which investigates
Gen-x-ers� outlook on media advertising, and Imagination Reality, a
profile of Chinese T�ai Chi Master T.T.
Liang.
The film�s sound track heralds the return of Grammy-nominated artists
Tom Goodkind and Phil Solem. Solem is
is one half of the of the top 40 alt-pop duo the Rembrandts. Solem is
perhaps best known for his theme song to
the hit NBC-TV sitcom Friends. Goodkind was made famous in the 1980s
while recording and touring with the
internationally famous Washington Squares.
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