Moving Picture Institute

Moving Picture Institute
Founded 2005
Founder Thor Halvorssen
Focus "Bringing the idea of Freedom to life."[1]
Headquarters New York, New York
Area served
Worldwide, focusing on the United States
Method film production, human rights advocacy
Key people

Board of Directors:[2]
David Thayer, Chairman
Kevin Harper
Marc Leader
Michael J. Friedman
Rob Pfaltzgraff, Executive Director
Rebekah Mercer

Creative Council:[3]
Georgia Hilton
Harry Kloor
Cecilia DeMille Presley
Rob Long
Evan Coyne Maloney
Michael Mandaville
John Papola
Duncan Scott
Charles Maynes
Revenue
$1,849,143 (2013)[4]
Website www.thempi.org

The Moving Picture Institute (MPI) is an American non-profit organization and film production company founded in 2005 by human rights advocate Thor Halvorssen. Its current executive director is Rob Pfaltzgraff.

MPI produces and collaborates on both fictional films, and non-fictional, often documentary-style films. The subjects of MPI's films typically center on concepts like human rights and individual freedoms, and governmental waste and corruption. It uses its films as a medium through which these kinds of social and economic troubles are brought to public attention to shape public perceptions, and ultimately, to change society's values.[5] As Halvorssen explains, "Put it this way: What Sideways did for Pinot noir, I want to do for freedom."[6] Public exposure to freedom-oriented ideas, they contend, will contribute to the improvement of these important issues which they feel tend to be ignored by other traditional media outlets.[1]

Mission and purpose

Central to the MPI's mission is the promotion of what it refers to as, "freedom-oriented" ideals, through the production of films, as well as the collaboration with and lending of assistance to filmmakers whose films effectively promote similarly freedom-oriented messages that the organization regards as basic human rights: freedom of speech, and of association, and the general conservation of individual rights and freedoms in a free-enterprise system.[1]

Associate filmmaker assistance programs

The type of assistance that the Moving Picture Institute provides to other filmmakers varies based on the need of the filmmaker. It facilitates developing filmmakers through a major internship program, provides support to filmmakers with demonstrable capacity to succeed in the entertainment industry, and promotes narrative features, documentary features, and shorts that communicate its principles. MPI funds films from development through post-production; it also funds developing filmmakers and serves as an intern placement service.

Various partnerships

The Moving Pictures Institute has collaborated with individuals from different political and ideological standpoints on projects for which their common goal is the promotion of "truth and freedom" universally in today's society. Examples include: the film Battle for Brooklyn with filmmakers Michael Galinsky, Suki Hawley, and David Beilinson; Hammer & Tickle with Ben Lewis; and Freedom's Fury which was executive produced by Quentin Tarantino and Lucy Liu.[5] MPI is an associate member of the State Policy Network.[7]

Major productions

MPI is involved in the production and promotion of the following narrative and documentary films:

Title Release Date Notes
Freedom's Fury 2006-8-25 By Colin Keith Gray and Megan Raney Aarons; centers on the 1956 Olympic semifinal water polo match between Hungary and Russia. This so-called "Blood in the Water Match" took place in Melbourne, Australia weeks after Soviet forces brutally suppressed the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The film is narrated by Olympic gold medalist Mark Spitz.
Hammer & Tickle 2006-4-30 By Ben Lewis; analyzes humor's role in undermining Soviet totalitarianism. In 2006, Lewis's documentary won the Zurich Film Festival's award for "Best New Documentary Film." It has been broadcast by the BBC in Britain and by ARTE in France, and has inspired an accompanying book.
Mine Your Own Business 2007-2-18 By Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney's; initiates a discussion about how the environmentalist movement has impeded economic growth in impoverished parts of the world. The film focuses particularly on Romania, Chile, and Madagascar.
Indoctrinate U 2007-4-23 By Evan Coyne Maloney; exposes ideological conformism and political correctness in American higher education. The film addresses speech codes and other phenomena that undermine free expression, intellectual diversity, and academic freedom on American campuses.
The Free Market Cure 2007-6-21 By Stuart Browning; short film series.
The Singing Revolution 2007-6-26 By James and Maureen Tusty; tells the story of the peaceful protests that liberated Estonia from Soviet control
The Libel Tourist 2007-11-15
Marina of the Zabbaleen 2008-4-23 By Engi Wassef; examines the life of Marina, a 7-year-old Egyptian girl living in a Zabbaleen garbage-collecting village in Cairo.
Do As I Say 2008-10-2 By Nick Tucker; American political hypocrisy
2081 2009-5-29 By Chandler Tuttle; a narrative film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron story
The Cartel 2009-5-30 By Bob Bowdon; investigates public education in the United States, specifically New Jersey, and how a "widespread national crisis manifests itself in the educational failures and frustrations of individual communities."
The Rubber Room 2010-3-16
An Inconvenient Tax 2010-4-15 By Nathaniel Thomas McGill and Vincent Vittorio; history of the income tax in the United States and the causes of its many complexities
Battle for Brooklyn 2010-7-9 By Michael Galinsky, Suki Hawley, and David Beilinson; feature-length film about the abuses of eminent domain by government and developers
U.N. Me 2012-6-1 By Ami Horowitz; the unfulfilled promises of the United Nations

References

  1. 1 2 3 "About the Moving Picture Association". MPI. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  2. "MPI's Board of Directors". MPI. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
  3. "MPI's Creative Council". MPI. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
  4. "Form 990 2013" (PDF). GuideStar. Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  5. 1 2 ""Moving Picture Institute Advances Liberty" A monologue by Adam Guillette". ariarmstrong. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  6. "A Maverick Mogul, Proudly Politically Incorrect". New York Times. 2007-08-19. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  7. State Policy Network: Associate Networks

Coordinates: 40°43′10″N 74°00′36″W / 40.7195°N 74.0101°W / 40.7195; -74.0101

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