AMS Pictures - Stop the Presses

Trailer from a project I’m working on at AMS Pictures, a video production company based in Dallas, Texas. These images & videos are being held here for future use. Info related to this film added below.

ams pictures’ stop the presses: the american newspaper in peril makes television debut on kera-tv national distribution secured

AMS Pictures’ Stop the Presses: The American Newspaper in Peril
Makes Television Debut on KERA-TV
National Distribution Secured

DALLAS/FORT WORTH: With newspapers across the nation hemorrhaging journalists as they battle declining advertising sales, increased stockholder pressure and the influence of the Internet, a new television documentary examines the plight of print journalism and the impact on American democracy. Revised and updated since its film festival debut in 2008, Stop the Presses: The American Newspaper in Peril makes its American television debut Monday, October 26 at 9:00 p.m. on KERA-TV. The documentary will be distributed nationally by American Public Television early next year.

“This is the only documentary that has been produced on this critical subject,” says newspaperman and filmmaker, Manny Mendoza. “New data by the Project for Excellence in Journalism shows that 10,000 journalists have been laid-off or bought-out since we concluded production of this project in 2008. That means some 14,000 journalists have lost their jobs nationally since 2001.”

Stop the Presses uses interviews with reporters, editors, media critics, journalism professors, students and newspaper readers to document the historic role of newspaper journalists as public watchdogs. Pulitzer Prize winners Ben Bradlee and Anne Hull of The Washington Post, David Carr of The New York Times, Ken Auletta of The New Yorker, humor columnist Dave Barry with The Miami Herald and Ed Asner, TV’s Lou Grant, are among those interviewed for the project. The documentary also incorporates film clips depicting the image of journalists in popular culture from His Girl Friday, Deadline U.S.A., Ace in the Hole, Inherit the Wind, All the President’s Men and The Paper.

The Chicago Sun Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News all filed for bankruptcy protection this year. The Tribune Co. media group filed for bankruptcy in December 2008. “We originally subtitled the film Death of the American Newspaper,” says Producer/Director Mark Birnbaum. “That seemed like hyperbole at the time and we changed it. We could have stayed with the original title because, sadly, that’s what appears to be taking place.”

Stop the Presses made its world premiere amidst critical acclaim at the 2008 AFI-Dallas International Film Festival. The documentary also screened at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, the Starz Denver International Film Festival and the Berkeley Video and Film Festival where it was awarded a Gold Medal.

The film has also been screened on numerous college and university campuses. An educational version of the documentary, which includes an accompanying guide for high school and university journalism teachers, is available online at www.amspictures.com.

Stop the Presses: The American Newspaper in Peril is a production of AMS Pictures and End of Story Films. The documentary was co-produced by Director/Producers Mark Birnbaum and Manny Mendoza with Executive Producer, Andy Streitfeld. Additional information about the documentary is available at www.stopthepressesdoc.com.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

From Nicaragua in the 1980s to Tom DeLay in 2006, award-winning filmmaker Mark Birnbaum’s documentaries have probed, celebrated and exposed people to places and personalities from all over the globe. In Larry v. Lockney he tells “a riveting story of good people — on both sides — trying to do the right thing for their children and their town” (Houston Chronicle). The Big Buy, which chronicles the rise and fall of former U.S. House Speaker Tom DeLay, “presents its evidence clearly and with a welcome sense of humor” (New York Times). Current films include Once in a Lifet...

1. By: ggallucci
2. Categories Entertainment
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4. Added :02-Jun-10
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