Our Brand Is Crisis Opens This Weekend in LA!

Sandra Sarmiento from Aztec Gold TV has a LIMITED amount of FREE tickets for this hilarious documentary THIS WEEKEND. Please read her message below and come out and support this film.

"It's like "Thank You for Smoking" set in Latin America. Absolutely delightful and thought-provoking. To "qualify" you must be a MEDIA Representative (tv, radio, print), a Film Festival Staff (Director, Programmer, Coordinator) , University Faculty or a Politician (yes, you politicos NEED to see this). I also have Beta + DVD versions of trailer for on-air promotions (tv & radio). Send your REAL NAME in an email to me by Friday 4/14 @ noon and I will put you on the Laemmle Box office guest list located on the Santa Monica prominade in LA. Send names to pocharte@aol.com. "

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2006
Media Contact: Sandra Sarmiento
pocharte@aol.com, 714.417.0073

AWARD WINNING DOCUMENTARY OUR BRAND IS CRISIS OPENS THIS WEEKEND IN LOS ANGELES

OUR BRAND IS CRISIS is a thrilling and bittersweet documentary hailedas a "sequel" to THE WAR ROOM. It details the rise of current Bolivian President, the indigenous and controversial Evo Morales, and the fall of Goni, his Harvard educated predecessor, through the aid of one of the world's most powerful political advisors, James Carvill (who also handled US President Clinton's campaign). This delightful and thought-provoking film is a cross between THANK YOU FOR SMOKING and FARANHEIT 9/11.

OUR BRAND IS CRISIS opens this weekend at the Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex this Friday - 4/14 with DAILY SHOWTIMES of 1:00pm, 3:10pm, 5:30pm, 7:50pm & 10:00pm. Please support this well-crafted independent doc by joining us for opening weekend 4/14 through 4/16! For more info, visit: http://www.ourbrandiscrisis.net/

* * * Winner of the 2005 IDA Best Feature Documentary Award
* * * Nominated for the 2005 "Truer Than Fiction" Independent Spirit Award
* * * Official Selection at the 2005 South By Southwest Festival
* * * Featured Screening at the 2005 AFI/Silverdocs Film Festival
* * * Official Selection at the 2005 Edinburgh International Film Festival
http://www.ourbrandiscrisis.net/

WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT OUR BRAND IS CRISIS

"Riveting, unravels like a political thriller!"--- Slant Magazine

"Absurdly funny, sometimes horrifying! ...Let everyone watch OUR BRAND IS CRISIS!" Stuart Klawans, The Nation

"A riveting and intellectually provocative tale of clashing ethics and ideologies." Matthew Ross, Filmmaker Magazine

"Hilarious! Would be even funnier if the well-paid American strategists weren't helping to decide the political fate of an impoverished Third World nation. Boynton's film ultimately reveals as many disturbing facts about our own backroom political process as it does about Bolivia's."
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

"Exotic location notwithstanding, Rachel Boynton's riveting political documentary Our Brand Is Crisis is a sequel to the Clinton-era campaign, The War Room. Call it spin-meisters abroad: Boynton chronicles the further adventures of ace political strategist James Carville and his associates at GCS as guns for hire in the 2002 Bolivian election."- J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

OUR BRAND IS CRISIS SYNOPSIS
For decades, U.S. strategists- for- hire have been quietly molding the opinions of voters and the messages of candidates in elections around the world. They have worked for presidential candidates on every continent (in Britain, Israel, India, Korea, South Africa, Venezuela, Brazil,to name a few). Without the noise of tanks or troops, these Americans have been spreading our brand of democracy from the Middle East to the middle of the South American jungle. OUR BRAND IS CRISIS is an astounding look at one of their campaigns and its earthshattering aftermath. With flabbergasting access to think sessions, media training and the making of smear campaigns, we watch how the consultants' marketing strategies shape the relationship between a leader and his people. And we see a shocking example of how the all-American art of branding can affect the "spreading of democracy" overseas. Shot in classic verite style, OUR BRAND IS CRISIS is the first documentary to take viewers into the rooms where the strategies and decisions are made, giving audiences access to some astonishing realities. We watch Americans employing the same imagery and techniques used to marketMcDonald's to change the political future of another country.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
I got the idea for this film when I first heard about a group of Americans (not the ones in the movie) who had run an ad campaign to oust Chilean dictator Pinochet. For two years I'd been looking for the right idea for my first film. I wanted to find a topic that would let me explore America's relationship to the rest of the world, and here it was “ political idealism meets the profit motive. What could be more emblematic of us?"