On Thursday, May 10th, director Robert Greenwald will testify on outsourcing before the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. He's going to show clips from "Iraq for Sale"! If you have any suggestions, head on over to robertgreenwald.org and drop a comment.

Everyone is encouraged to send us photos from your screenings, photos of Iraq for Sale stickers and posters you've put up all over town, or any other photos related to the movie. It's very easy. Just send an email to photos@iraqforsale.org with the photo attached. The subject line will be the title of the photo, and the body of the email is the description of the photo. Make sure to give yourself credit in the description. A few seconds after sending the email, the photo you sent will show up on the Iraq for Sale Flickr page.

Director Robert Greenwald will be joining Jane, Christy and the Fire Dog Lake crew today (10/4) at 2pm PST / 5pm EST in a special live interactive Movie Salon. Check it out at Fire Dog Lake.

I spent Thursday through Saturday night at the UNITE HERE Midwest convention in Detroit, joining Noel Beasley, the co-manager of the 45,000-strong organization, for workshops on how to use Iraq for Sale. Every so often in life, we get back much more than we give. This was certainly the case in Detroit. The 300 or so people at the convention are from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Missouri. They are the elected leaders of locals from those states. Each of them has a story about life in today’s corporatocracy that would have curled my hair, if I’d had any. While we showed them the long and twenty minute versions of the film and listened to them tell us they’ll use the film to make change this fall, they taught me about life in America today.

These folks have heart and soul and smarts. (For a view of the soul, see the photo of the choir decked out for Motown.) About fifteen percent have relatives who either have or do serve in the armed forces in Iraq. Many had been the targets of recruitment by Halliburton and others to work in Iraq so they were very familiar with the lies and the reality. They commented on the recruiting ads and pushes that promise high wages for no risk, because you’ll work far behind the lines. But as one Vietnam veteran commented, in this war there are no lines, so how can you work behind them?

Youtube link, Quicktime download, Windows Media download (high quality/low quality)

Check out this great new video put together by Rainbow Sound and filmed during the St. Louis Iraq for Sale premiere. Thanks to Rainbow Sound producers Kriss Avery and Jim Rothwell, and musicians Connie Dover and Dwight Frizzell for combining their talents to put together this video. Notes from Kriss Avery & Jim Rothwell below:

Like many Americans, we are dismayed by the downward spiral of our country’s …well, what do you call it? We listen, we read, we try to do our part by joining others in actions to lead from the roots.

When we woke up to a flurry of emails started by Robert at 3 in the morning, we knew something big was brewing. We knew that the next movie had found us, and we were soon to be off on a wild ride of hyper-speed, micro-budget, documentary filmmaking.

I thought when I started working on Wal-Mart with its breakneck schedule and ultra thin budget was an impossible feat to achieve. We made it… barely.

On Iraq for Sale, we had less time, less money and some would say higher stakes-- the ’06 midterm elections. We needed a plan and we needed a team.

Each day this week Iraq for Sale premiered in different cities across the U.S. Like several of the premieres, those in Washington DC and Philadelphia were attended by several people featured in the film. Below are a few photos from the DC and Philadelphia premieres.

Robert Greenwald, SEIU members and people involved in the film participated in a Q and A after the Philly screening	Geoff Millard and Shane Ratliff
Marwan Mawiri and Robert Greenwald	Edward Sanchez
Shane Ratliff

Here are a few pictures from the Iraq for Sale St. Louis premiere which occurred yesterday. Thanks to Jim Rothwell and Kriss Avery for sending these in!

Iraq for Sale will premiere in Denver tonight, and Portland tomorrow.

I've been lucky enough to be on the road with Iraq for Sale the last couple days and have had the chance to see the film come to life in all kinds of inspiring ways.

I arrived in Washington DC on Sunday and met two of the film's heroes in person for the first time- Shane Ratliff and Edward Sanchez- both former KBR/ Halliburton truck drivers speaking out against corporate profiteering. After watching footage of Shane and Ed for months, and talking to them on the phone- I felt like I already knew them and, in a way like I had stepped into the film.

Monday, 9/18 in Washington DC

• 11am: press conference in Dirksen Room SD-124
• 2pm: Senate DPC hearing in 538 Dirksen with Senators Dorgan, Harry Reid, Patrick Leahy, and Jeff Bingaman will investigate some of the allegations in the film, hearing testimony from former Halliburton truck drivers Edward Sanchez and Sean Larvenz, along with attorneys for the families. -- OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
• 7pm: movie premiere

Wednesday, 9/20: St. Louis premiere

Thursday, 9/21: Denver premiere

Friday, 9/22: Portland premiere

And if you can't make any of those, don't forget there will be tons of screenings the week of October 8th. Details here.

We're in the process of printing Iraq for Sale stickers to send to all screening hosts. They will also be available for purchase online (along with posters) shortly. Take a look at the massive sticker printing in action.

So I sent this privately to Robert Greenwald, intending merely to compliment him, which is something I rarely do for anybody (I have self esteem issues, and take people down to build myself up, despite the fact that I am attractive and well liked, own a video Ipod, and have fantastic credit):

Several generous donors have started a program so that as many community organizations, schools, churches and other groups (or people) as possible can see 'Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers'. The program is called Patriots Against War Profiteering and the money given will enable DVD's along with our Action Guide (more on that later) and Voter Registration forms to be distributed for free to deserving groups. Now who are deserving groups? That's where you all come in.

Summer is here and post production on Iraq For Sale is in full swing. This week we finished up the last of our interviews for the film. We were able to get some more brave people telling us the truth about what is happening, but we also came up against some road blocks.

We were planning to interview two Iraqi citizens who are part of a lawsuit against one of the corporations which we focus on in the film. Arrangements had been made to fly them out of Iraq to nearby Dubai so that we could interview them openly. The two men were on the plane in Iraq ready to take off when they were unexpectedly pulled from their seats and told they could not travel. We tried to get them out of Iraq the next day, but they were prohibited from traveling. We were never given a full explanation but I feel that because of the lawsuit these gentlemen are being watched very closely. We do have access to their videotaped depositions for the film.

thanks everyone for your responses to the trailer. I am in las vegas at the daily kos conference. Very inspiring. About to do a workshop on using film as a tool and I am going to talk about alll your responses to the trailer.

some thoughts

Here is the trailer for our documentary 'Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers'. Please keep in mind that we are still doing some filming and that editing has just begun. We welcome your comments and suggestions for the trailer. This trailer will be revised prior to going into theaters so anything you have to say might end up in the finished product. The people that you see in this trailer have all been effected by the war profiteering that is happening in Iraq. They are civilian contractors, military personnel, and relatives of people who have died in Iraq. The stories they have told us are powerful and we are grateful for their cooperation.

Best,
Jim

Our story producers have been hard at work. Much time is spent on the phone dealing with government bureaucracy. For instance, getting any document using the Freedom of Information Act can take an entire day. Often someone will be passed from the State Department to Defense to Commerce and back again because no one seems to know what is going on (or maybe they just don't want to give out the info).

Thanks for all of the kind offers. Kerry, Nick, Lisa or I will contact whoever has offered a meal or drink if the team happens to be traveling through your town and has some down time. We really appreciate the offers. It is always good to see a kind face while on the road and away from home (or when your car overheats). Please understand that the schedule is very tight with a lot of flying and driving as well as interviews with such interesting people that the time allotted is invariably not long enough. That said, if time allows Kerry and Nick would like nothing more than to take a break and have a good meal.

We have now completed two full weeks of production and shot 52 hours of footage. Some harsh realities and powerful stories are being told. In my opinion, the most touching and most inflammatory information this week came from interviews done in Michigan. One woman spoke about the loss of her husband, who was a civilian contractor, and what his death has meant to her and their daughters. She said, "I love my country, I support my country, I'm proud to be an American....but I'm not blind". She went on to say that she was concerned and worried about what is happening in America. Even though her family has suffered a great loss, she is still extremely patriotic and was able to articulate her feelings succinctly. She said that one of the best values of the United States is "right to Free Speech, say what you want without being thrown in jail. Trust in your government officials is part of being an American and if you don't trust 'em and don't want 'em you have the ability to vote them out. That's part of being an American."

Production officially started on Monday May 8th with Kerry and Nick criss-crossing the country and talking with people who were kind enough to open their homes, offices and hearts to us. These are ordinary American citizens who are doing some extraordinary things. I hate to say this, but just by speaking with us about what they have seen orexperienced puts them and their livelihood in danger of being attacked and dragged through the mud. It is not easy to go up against major war profiteers, but the civilian contractors, soldiers, and relatives of deceased workers and military who have spoken to us thus far have put their fear aside and found the strength to speak the truth in the hope that by shining a light on the wrongdoing they can help end the abusive practice of war profiteering - no matter what your opinion of the war, the billions made by corporations is inexcusable.