Artists influencing the 2008 vote

Hollywood filmmakers, philanthropists & investors, came together at Sundance to launch "The U.S. Campaign" .


* What is it?: A collaboration of filmmakers, artists and musicians who want to make 10 short films about political issues and stream them on the Internet.

* The players: Amy Berg is a filmmaker who has produced documentaries for CNN and whose freshman directorial effort, "Deliver Us From Evil," earned an Oscar nomination; David Poe, singer-songwriter who has worked with Bob Dylan, Tori Amos, Joan Baez and Duncan Sheik; Cathy Schulman, president of Mandalay Pictures and producer of the Oscar-winning "Crash."

* Participating filmmakers: Amy Berg; Morgan Spurlock ("Supersize Me,"); Alex Gibney ("Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"); Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady ("The Boys of Baraka"); Ross Kauffman ("Born into Brothels"); Tiffany Schlain ("Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness"); Ted Hope ("21 Grams"); R.J. Cutler ("The War Room").

*The Focus:
"to make meaning out of media and cut through the white noise of campaign rhetoric." according to Cathy Shulman, Prexy of Mandalay Pictures.

*The End Game:
National politics meets grass-roots technology with the goal of affecting the outcome of the 2008 presidential election.

Fundraising efforts at Sundance garnered $200k of the $500K they need to produce all 10 shorts, after potential investors viewed Amy Berg's short" Polarized," which chronicles the effect of global warming on a native Alaskan village. Her short can be viewed on You Tube.

I 'm told this is a bi-partisan effort. You be the judge - but my spidey senses are tingling and not in a good way!

Read more:
Sundance: Filmmakers want the issues online

Related:
Sundance: SKi & Schmooze 2008