FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT
Brad Lichtenstein, 371 Productions
[email protected]
917.721.3131
For downloadable images, visit http://asgoesjanesville.com/category/media-gallery/
— Brad Lichtenstein’s As Goes Janesville reports from ground zero of the recessionridden heartland — the town of Janesville, Wisconsin. When bankrupt General Motors
(GM) shut down the community’s century-old plant in 2008 — the oldest GM plant in
North America — thousands of jobs were lost. While many workers were forced to leave
their families in search of decent jobs, local business leaders worked to bring new
companies to town with the promise of lower wages, reduced regulation, and tax breaks.
They formed a powerful alliance with newly-elected Republican governor Scott Walker,
whose pro-business, anti-union stance ripped apart the state, triggering an historic recall
election. The recall thrust Wisconsin’s boisterous civil war between workers and the
business/political power elite onto front pages nationwide. A co-production of 371
Productions (Almost Home), Kartemquin Films (Hoop Dreams), and the Independent
Television Service (ITVS), As Goes Janesville premiered on the PBS series Independent
Lens on Monday, October 8, 2012.
Shot over the course of three years, the film follows the lives of four Janesville residents
struggling with the town’s economic changes. When GM supplier Alcoa closed their
plant in 2009, Cindy Deegan was laid off after thirteen years with no option to transfer to
another plant. Recruited for a federally funded program that pays to send workers back to
school, Cindy forges ahead through an arduous return to the classroom and ultimately a
new career.
--More-Former GM worker Gayle Listenbee is not so lucky. Unable to find a decent-paying job
close to home, she accepts a transfer to the GM plant in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, committing
to six years of seeing her husband and two daughters only on weekends.
Local Janesville bank president Mary Wilmer knows all too well of the foreclosures and
shuttered businesses littering her balance sheets, and she’s determined to save Janesville
so her three children will have a future there. She’s united the region’s economic
development and business leaders in an effort called Rock County 5.0. The organization
raised a million dollars from private sources to deploy a cadre of “ambassadors of
optimism” to pitch Janesville to potential companies. Their best prospect is Shine
Medical Technologies, a risky start-up that could bring 125 jobs to the Janesville area,
but only if the City Council votes to give them a $9 million incentive package.
Hoping to bridge the gap between labor and business in his fractured state, state senator
Tim Cullen, the lone Democrat standing in Janesville on Election Day, tries to stake out
middle ground. But his attempt to negotiate a deal to end the historic standoff between
Governor Walker and senate Democrats over collective bargaining fails, and his warnings
about the potential deal with Shine go unheeded. Cullen finds that his once tranquil state
has changed and there doesn’t seem to be room for a pragmatist. Disappointed but
undeterred, he resolves to keep fighting for the middle class so that all Janesville
residents have access to the American Dream. As Goes Janesville, so goes America.
To learn more about the film, visit the companion website for As Goes Janesville at
www.AsGoesJanesville.com. Get detailed information on the film, watch preview clips,
read an interview with the filmmaker, and explore the subject in depth with links and
resources. The site also features a Talkback section where viewers can share their ideas
and opinions.
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Filmmaker Statement
Long before the rest of America discovered Janesville, I learned about this small city in
southern Wisconsin, my wife’s hometown. Shortly after their GM plant shut down in
December, 2008, I started making As Goes Janesville. For three years, I followed a
disparate group of people who span the gamut, from business and political leaders to laidoff workers, in order to tell an intimate story about how a community tries to reinvent
itself during economic crisis. Janesville is a true microcosm of America; good people
trying in different ways to solve their economic problems during polarizing times. I hope
As Goes Janesville can provoke dialogue that unites people across ideological and
political boundaries, so they might rediscover all they have in common and work together
to improve the economic health of their communities.
--More-About the Filmmaker
Brad Lichtenstein (Producer/Director)
Brad Lichtenstein is an award-winning filmmaker and president of Wisconsin-based 371
Productions, a media and technology company that produces social issue documentaries,
public engagement campaigns, technology projects, and more. Before making his own
films, Brad associate produced FRONTLINE’s Peabody award-winning presidential
election year special, Choice ’96, and Lumiere Production’s PBS series, With God on
Our Side: The History of the Religious Right. With Lumiere, he produced and directed
André’s Lives, a portrait of the “Jewish Schindler;” Safe, about domestic violence;
Caught in the Crossfire, about Arab-Americans after 9/11; and the BBC/Court TV coproduction of Ghosts of Attica, about the infamous 1971 prison uprising and aftermath,
for which he was awarded a Dupont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Journalism. His
film Almost Home, about people who live and work in a Milwaukee eldercare
community, aired on Independent Lens, and continues to be featured in workshops on
aging and caregiving.
Lichtenstein is currently developing a film about race and reconciliation in the American
South and about to start shooting a film about small Jewish communities in far-flung
places across the US that are on the verge of extinction.
371 also does work for select clients like Public Allies, City Year, Planned Parenthood
and Marquette University.
Before making his own films, Brad associate produced FRONTLINE’s Peabody awardwinning presidential election year special, Choice ’96, and Lumiere Production’s PBS
series, With God on Our Side: The History of the Religious Right. With Lumiere, he
produced and directed André’s Lives, a portrait of the “Jewish Schindler;” “Safe”, about
domestic violence, “Caught in the Crossfire”, about Arab-Americans after 9/11, and the
BBC/Court TV co-production of Ghosts of Attica, about the infamous 1971 prison
uprising and aftermath, for which he was awarded a Dupont- Columbia Award for
Excellence in Journalism. His film, Almost Home, a PBS Independent Lens documentary
about people who live and work in an elder-care community, continues to be featured in
workshops on aging and caregiving 5 years since its premiere broadcast.
Brad’s work is supported by the Blue Mountain Center, The Brico Fund, Creative
Capital, Helen Bader Foundation, the HKH Foundation, the Independent Television
Service (ITVS), the International Documentary Association, the Ford Foundation, the
MacArthur Foundation, the Mary L. Nohl Fellowship, the Nathan Cummings Foundation,
the Retirement Research Foundation, the Sheldon and Marianne Lubar Foundation, and
the Tides Foundation.
Brad taught documentary production for 5 years at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee, where he foundeddoc|UWM, a documentary film center that provides
students with professional documentary experiences. Brad’s films can be seen in theaters,
at festivals, in museums, and on television all over the world.
--More-About BizViz
371 Productions has launched BizVizz, a transmedia component of the As Goes
Janesville project. A mobile app and website, BizVizz gives users instant access to
corporations’ effective tax rate, campaign contributions and government subsidies. With
nearly 30,0000 users and a dozen partners, from United for a Fair Economy to US-PIRG
and the AFL-CIO, BizVizz is a proven corporate accountability tool.
BizVizz was launched in sync with the re-broadcast of Brad Lichtenstein’s awardwinning documentary As Goes Janesville, which inspired the app. It’s the first mobile
iPhone app to make corporate behavior transparent. Just snap a picture of a brand’s logo
and a simple graphic screen instantly displays essential facts about America’s largest
corporations. Do they pay their taxes? How much money do they get from government
subsidies? Which candidates get their political donations? BizVizz currently has
information on 300 companies and over 900 brands with plans to expand.
371’s president, As Goes Janesville filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein, says he was motivated
to create the app because a company featured in the film obtained taxpayer dollars
without even so much as a public hearing.
“I watched the democratic process being subverted and felt that we should do something
on a grander scale to make corporate behavior more transparent, especially when we’re
all called on to do our part during these tough economic times.” Independent Lens
presented the Independent Television Service (ITVS) backed BizVizz app to extend the
impact of As Goes Janesville, which follows the tough economic times experienced by
the citizens of Janesville, Wisconsin, after the closing of GM’s oldest plant.
Lichtenstein believes that BizVizz will appeal to consumers who prefer to “shop their
values,” citizens and activists concerned with corporate accountability, and reporters on
the economics beat. Walking down the shopping aisle scanning brands reveals how most
brands are owned by only a few companies. Users can discover that Boeing received over
$450,000,000 from South Carolina in subsidies to help build their now grounded
Dreamliner; that Wells Fargo, recipient of at least $25 billion in bailout funds, paid
negative tax; or that the fiscal cliff deal actually extended a tax break that will allow GE
to once again file for a refund instead of paying tax in 2013. “This is public information,”
says Lichtenstein. “We’re just making it visible.”
371 teamed up with Faculty Creative, a Philadelphia-based digital creative agency to
develop BizVizz. Their goal was to make the app both useful — it’s a “Wikipedia” of
corporate accountability stats — and fun to use. They also created a website
(http://bizvizz.com) and an open API.
Seeking a wider audience for BizVizz, 371 teamed up with fellow filmmakers, Vicky
Bruce and Karin Hayes, whose 2012 Sundance film We’re Not Broke shows how many
U.S. companies offshore profits to avoid paying tax. Together they are working with Tax
Justice Network-USA, a DC-based coalition of organizations that promote transparency
and tax compliance. 371 worked with DC-based non-profit Citizens for Tax Justice to
obtain data on corporate tax payments; DC-based non-profit, non-partisan Sunlight
Foundation whose Influencer website supplies BizVizz with campaign finance data; and
DC-based non-profit Good Jobs First whose Subsidy Tracker website and staff provided
the research on government subsidy of corporations. Each of these partners has advised
371 throughout the creation of the app.
371 and Faculty have already moved to the next phase of development which included
hundreds more companies, an Android version of BizVizz, and a location-based feature
that will let users know when brands nearby are in the app. You can download the app
and watch a video demo at the BizVizz website http://bizvizz.com. 371 is also working to
provide content for alerts that the app will send to BizVizz users about ways in which
they can get involved in corporate accountability campaigns, learn about relevant
legislation or read a new report or timely news story. Working Films is also helping to
reach new audiences by promoting the film and the app along with several other
documentaries about our economy.
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