Make an aerial pilgrimage to Israel, the world’s only Jewish state and Holy Land to three major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Stunning high-definition footage showcases Israel in all its diverse glory, flying over sites where Jewish rebels gave their lives; where Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans built outposts of their empires; and where Jesus Christ lived and died.

Witness the magnificence of the country’s many holy sites, including the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, alongside exotic seaside resorts and the austere beauty of the Judean desert.

Presented with thanks to Producer, Raphael Shore, and Director, Wayne Kopping.

Description from film’s website

Crossing the Line: The Intifada Comes to Campus, produced by acclaimed filmmaker Raphael Shore and directed by Wayne Kopping, explores the proliferation of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incidents on North American college campuses. In particular, the film explores the rapid growth of such incidents following the launch of Operation Cast Lead by Israel’s military into Gaza in late December 2008 and January 2009. The documentary demonstrates the blurring of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic lines, showing how the War evoked deep anti-Jewish sentiments amongst college students and professors.

The film explores the context of these hostilities, by demonstrating the financial ties between Middle Eastern Studies departments and Arab states; the often biased and Pro-Palestinian education received by students in college classes; and the historical connection between the Muslim Student Association and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Interspersed with accounts from Jewish Students and campus professionals, the film offers a glimpse into the experiences of Jewish college students who are actively involved in the daily struggle of supporting the State of Israel and fighting against biased misinformation both in and out of the classroom.

The film is distributed by Imagination Productions.

Running Time: 30-minutes

ABOUT THE FILM CREW

Producer Raphael Shore

Raphael Shore is a producer of ground-breaking feature-length documentary films, including Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East, the critically acclaimed Obsession: Radical Islam’s War against the West and The Third Jihad: Radical Islam’s Vision for America. Shore previously worked as an international analyst of Middle East issues and has been interviewed by leading media outlets including CNN, and The New York Times. A native of Canada, Shore graduated from the University of Toronto.

Director Wayne Kopping

Wayne Kopping is the director and editor of the award-winning film, Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West as well as The Third Jihad: Radical Islam’s Vision for America, a documentary detailing the rise of radical Islam within the United States. He has been featured on CNN, Fox News and countless syndicated radio shows.

Presented with thanks to Free to Choose Media

Producer: Katherine Anderson
Written by: Katherine Anderson and Thomas Skinner
Director, Camera and Editor: Jim Taylor
Executive Producers: Thomas Skinner and Bob Chitester

The Story

Free Market incentives are spectacularly changing lives and entire economies over much of the world. In the last 25 years, hundreds of millions of people– 400 million in China alone– have climbed out of the dire poverty of living on less than $1 per day. It is the largest movement out of poverty in human history.

Yet, two thirds of the world’s population– four billion people– still does not have the tools to thrive in free markets. Forced to operate outside the rule of law, they have little education, no legal identity, no fungible property, no credit, no capital, and thus few ways to prosper.

However, when given the incentives and the tools, these people are proving they can apply their free choice, intelligence, imagination and spirit to dramatically advance their well-being and that of their families and communities.

The Production

This new and exclusive documentary looks at the “before and after” lives of individuals and families, exploring some of the surprising, innovative initiatives and trends at work in unlikely places around the world.

The production also features some of today’s most inventive thinkers.

Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, founded the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which uses microfinance to bring opportunity to the world’s poorest people by helping them to start their own businesses.

Hernando de Soto, founder of The Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Peru, helps developing countries open their systems — creating strategies for legal reform that offer the majority of the world’s people a stake in the free market economy.

James Tooley, British professor of education policy, explores the widespread, dramatic impact of low budget private education– financed not by charities or wealthy supporters– but by the poor families themselves in India, China, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana.

Johan Norberg, Swedish author and scholar, takes aim at both left-wing critics, who would condemn developing countries to poverty until they develop “First World” workplace standards, and Western governments, whose free market rhetoric is undercut by tariffs on textiles and agriculture, areas in which developing countries can actually compete.

Tease

From small villages in sub-Saharan Africa to the bustling cities of the Asian sub-continent, from Latin America to China and Eastern Europe, people everywhere are striving to improve their lives.

People seeking the same things– opportunity to learn; an identity and ownership that allows them to prosper; a chance to earn a living for themselves and their families; to use their imaginations; and to take risks and possibly fail.

They want to develop their options and reap the rewards, if they succeed. This is the story of what can happen when ordinary people have the tools to help themselves.

Introduction

Somewhere on Earth, at this very minute, a child is beginning its journey through life.
Two hundred and fifty babies are born every minute, 15-thousand an hour, 132 million a year – each and every year. Among them may be the potential to cure disease, or to change the course of world history, because people are the world’s ultimate resource.

Ghana

In a small fishing village in Ghana, a child is being celebrated. A welcoming ceremony– “Kpodziemo” or “Outdooring”– is held only after the mother believes her child will survive. This age-old ceremony is about the dreams of all parents for all children.

Joshua Korley has been fishing his entire life. His most prized possession– his outboard motor. He nets about 50-dollars a week, when the fishing is good. But schools of fish are not the only schools on Joshua’s mind. His daughter, 12-year-old Victoria, has a dream– to become a doctor. Public schools in Ghana are free, but overcrowded. There are 73 students in a class. Joshua wants something better for Victoria.

Peru

High in the Andes Mountains of Peru lay the ruins of Machu Picchu, the historic royal retreat of the Inca Empire. The indigenous people still farm this valley.

Eusebio Mendez Atau and his family own four bulls, two pigs and a few chickens. They farm the land as did Eusebio’s father and grandfather for the last 100 years.

Most days Eusebio hauls his primitive plow up the mountain for another days work.
Still, he is unable to hold legal title to the land on which his livelihood depends.

Eusebio’s only asset is the land. But without legal title, he cannot get a loan to buy more seed or more land. Without legal title, he cannot borrow to educate his children or improve his home. Nor could his father or grandfather.

Bangladesh

Carved from the Asian sub-Continent after a bloody civil war with Pakistan, the small nation of Bangladesh is the most densely populated on earth. When Bangladesh won independence in 1971, more than 70 percent of its people lived on less than one dollar a day. Hunger and famine haunted almost every village and every family.

It was into this world that Minara Begum and Dinislam Hussain were born. When they were only 13, Minara and Dinislam were married in an arranged ceremony. Dinislam had grown up in a village of weavers and had learned the trade. He worked hard for others, but he could never get ahead. Dinislam and Minara could barely feed their first child.

Estonia

The small country of Estonia has been dominated by its neighbors and denied freedom for most of its long history. However, since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, sweeping, yet difficult, economic reforms have transformed Estonia.

In an older neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital is the story of Indrek Laul and the Estonia Piano Company– a story of amazing, complex change.

In the bleak times under Communist rule, the company built pianos exclusively for the state. There was no competition, no incentive. The instruments were sturdy, but hardly world-class.

Shortly after independence, Indrek Laul and his workers realized that companies around the world were making much better pianos then they were. Production in Estonia dropped from 500 pianos a year to a low of only 49.

China

Shanghai, is a dramatic symbol of the fastest growing major economy in world history. Hundreds of thousands of people work in skyscrapers, some among the tallest in the world. Privately owned designer boutiques line the city’s streets.

34-year-old Shi Hai is the private owner of Snail Game, one of China’s first Internet gaming companies. He believes his stock will be listed on the NASDAQ Exchange within a few years.

It would seem that Communist China is using free trade to reinvent itself, but not entirely. Shi Hai and his employees are navigating the delicate path between China’s cultural traditions and their bold, new ideas.

Close

Around the world there are enormous and complicated challenges ahead. But extraordinary change can happen when ordinary people have the tools and the freedom to make their own decisions.

Special thanks to Director, Brittany Huckabee, and
Special thanks to Andrew Walworth, Grace Creek Productions

Excerpts from PBS Blurb (with emphases added by me) …

A 3 hour documentary series produced by (Grace Creek Productions) & BJW, Inc.

“Most of the people in the world today call the name of their dream Socialism.”

- Michael Harrington, 1968

Much of the history of the past 200 years revolved around a single idea.

It was the vision that life could be lived in peace and brotherhood if only property were shared by all and distributed equally, eliminating the source of greed, envy, poverty and strife. This idea was called “socialism” and it was man’s most ambitious attempt to supplant religion with a doctrine grounded on science rather than revelation.

It became the most popular political idea in history.

Statue of Marx and Engels. A part of the Marx-Engels-Forum in Berlin-Mitte.

Its provenance was European, but it spread to China and Africa, India and Latin America and even to that most tradition-bound of regions, the Middle East.

While it never fully took root in America, its influence shaped the nation’s political debate. At its crest in the 1970s, roughly 60 percent of the earth’s population lived under governments that espoused socialism in one form or another.

Then, suddenly, it all collapsed.

Because its goal proved so elusive, the socialist movement split and split again into diverse, sometimes murderously contradictory forms.

There was Social Democracy, which insisted that only peaceful and democratic means could produce a harmonious commonwealth. There was Communism, which extolled the resolute use of force and dictatorship to propel mankind to a new way of life. There was Arab Socialism, African Socialism, and other Third World variants that sought to amalgamate western Social Democracy and eastern Communism. There was even fascism, which turned the socialist idea on its head by substituting the brotherhood of nation and race for the brotherhood of class. And there were those – from early American settlers, to the “flower children” of the 1960s, to Israeli Zionist kibbutzniks – who built their own socialist communities, hoping to transform the world by the force of example.

As an idea that changed the way people thought, socialism’s success was spectacular. As a critique of capitalism that helped spawn modern social safety nets and welfare states, its success was appreciable. As a model for the development of post-colonial states, the socialist model proved disappointing, fostering economic stagnation among millions of the world’s poorest people. And in its most violent forms, socialism was calamitous, claiming scores of millions of lives and helping to make the twentieth century the bloodiest ever.

Through profiles of the individuals that brought socialism to life, HEAVEN ON EARTH tells the story of how an idea arose, evolved, changed the world, and eventually fell.

Episode 1: THE RISE

Robert Owen (1771 - 1858)

ROBERT OWEN & UTOPIAN SOCIALISM

In 1825 a progressive British industrialist travels to America to create a utopian community. Owen believes that abolishing private property will liberate mankind.

MARX AND ENGELS: BIRTH OF A MANIFESTO

Two young Germans forge a friendship that gives birth to the Communist Manifesto. Their analysis of history as a struggle between classes and their prophecy of the inevitable overthrow of capitalism define the movement.

EDUARD BERNSTEIN & A CRISIS OF FAITH

At the end of the 19th century, the intellectual heir of Marxism tries to reconcile the prediction of labor’s revolt with the reality of improved working conditions. The movement splits, Communism and Social Democracy part ways.

Vladimir Lenin (1870 - 1924)

LENIN & THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION

Vladimir Lenin responds to Bernstein’s critique by igniting a violent revolution and creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

SAMUEL GOMPERS & AMERICAN LABOR

While Europe faces revolution, American workers are organized by a former cigar-maker. Gompers rejects socialism and helps give birth to the American Federation of Labor.

CANADIAN SOCIALISM

American farmers’ organizations head north, leading to the creation of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the C.C.F.

Episode 2: REVOLUTIONS

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler

MUSSOLINI & FASCISM

Inspired by Lenin’s Russian revolution, Italy’s Benito Mussolini embraces socialism and joins forces with Adolf Hitler to create National Socialism, or fascism.

CHINA & THE SPREAD OF COMMUNISM

Following World War II, Mao Zedong reforms China through nationalized industry, collectivized agriculture and complete state control over every aspect of daily life.

CLEMENT ATTLEE & SOCIAL DEMOCRACY

In Britain, a different kind of socialism takes hold after the Second World War, democratic socialism. Attlee’s Labour Party creates a comprehensive social welfare system and nationalizes major British industries.

THE KIBBUTZ

The Zionist movement in Israel creates collective socialist villages called kibbutzim. Residents of Kibbutz Ginosar describe the early years of this communal experiment.

JULIUS NYERERE & THIRD WORLD SOCIALISM

With the end of British colonial rule, Julius “Mwalimu” Nyerere turns to socialism to reshape Tanzania. He blends the teachings of Marx with African traditions to create what is heralded as the developing world’s alternative to Soviet-style communism.

GREAT BRITAIN IN THE 1970s

Economic stagnation challenges the Labour Party’s hold on British politics and opens the door for Margaret Thatcher’s conservative government.

THE KIBBUTZ PART II

As the second generation comes of age on the kibbutz, these socialist communities gradually move away from collectivism.

TANZANIA’S UJAMAA VILLAGES

Impatient with the lack of socialist progress, Nyerere begins to force Tanzanian’s to adopt his vision of the ideal collective society.

Episode 3: THE COLLAPSE

Gorbachev and Reagan

GORBACHEV & REFORM

Mikhail Gorbachev confronts the violent past of Stalinism, but his efforts to bring a new openness to Soviet life have unintended consequences.

DENG XIAOPING & MODERNIZATION

In the 1980s, Deng de-collectivizes the communes that formed the soul of the Chinese Communist revolution. His reforms look suspiciously like capitalism.

GORBACHEV & REVOLUTION

Gorbachev’s efforts to reform socialism in the Soviet Union unleash forces that unravel the State’s control and lead to a complete transformation of the Communist world.

TONY BLAIR & NEW LABOUR

Blair transforms Attlee’s socialist Labour Party into “the party of business.”

THE FUTURE OF SOCIALISM

Socialists and capitalists debate the impact of the collapse of communism and the political reversals of Social Democratic parties across Europe. Some ask whether the very definition of socialism is changing.

THE KIBBUTZ PART III

Residents of Kibbutz Ginosar observe how market forces are transforming their community.

Presented with special thanks to Fawaz Al-Matrouk

Written, Produced, Directed by Chris Mortensen – a television producer and documentary filmmaker whose many programs have appeared worldwide. In the U.S. his documentary subjects have ranged from Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, Hermann Goering and John Paul Jones to American Gangsters, the HIV crisis and the Iraq War. From Professional Wrestling to Halle Berry to the Suez Canal, his programs have appeared on Discovery, A&E, History Channel, ESPN, Fox Sports, BET, TV One, et al.

Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged is a feature length documentary film that examines the resurging interest in Ayn Rand’s epic and controversial 1957 novel and the validity of its dire prediction for America.

Set in what novelist and philosopher Rand called ‘the day after tomorrow,’ Atlas depicts an America in crisis, brought to her knees by a corrupt establishment of government regulators and businessmen with political pull – the ‘looters’ and the ‘moochers’ – who prey on individual achievement.

Less a conventional work of fiction than a philosophical manifesto in the form of a romantic novel, over the course of a thousand-plus pages, Atlas tackles no less an essential argument than the one debated by philosophers and theologians since time immemorial: altruism vs. self-interest. Am I my brother’s keeper – or not? For Ayn Rand, the answer is an emphatic no. To Rand and the disciples of her Objectivist philosophy, self-sacrifice is as heinous an act as murder … murder of the soul.

Upon publication, Atlas Shrugged was widely scorned by critics for its ‘preposterous’ plot and one-dimensional characters. Intellectuals and academics from across the ideological spectrum roundly dismissed the new and original philosophy called ‘Objectivism’ that Rand so compellingly illustrated in the novel.

Despite this pummeling, Atlas became a best seller and has remained in print ever selling a healthy 75,000 or so copies each year. Then with the new century, sales began to increase dramatically. In 2007, its fiftieth anniversary year, Atlas sold a record 180,000 copies. Since then Atlas Shrugged – published over a half century ago – has sold over a million copies.

Why? Because – as evidenced by pointed and frequent references to Rand and Atlas Shrugged in the media – an increasing number of Americans – right or wrong – see their society devolving into a nightmare scenario like the one Rand projected over a half century ago.

Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged looks into Rand’s background for the ideas and philosophy that inspired and shaped her novel and seeks to determine whether America is indeed headed for the disastrous outcome she predicted.

Presented with the kind permission of Dave Compton, Broken Pencil Productions & Two Million Minutes

What makes some men succeed where others fail? Is it smarts? Skills? Street sense? On the streets of Memphis, Tennessee, just one thing separates the “coulda, woulda, shoulda beens” from the Kings: Hustle.

Just ask Checliss “Big C” Rice.

Sole of a Hustla follows Big C from small time street hustler to big time businessman and CEO of Gametime Athletics — the would-be shoe empire of every starry-eyed entrepreneur’s dreams.

With the help of venture capitalist and filmmaker Bob Compton, an airtight business plan and mountain of cash to back him, Big C and his cobbled together crew set out to turn their aspirations into reality. But here in the corporate jungle, it’s a whole different kind of hustle.

Driven by a electrifying soundtrack produced by Jack Oblivian, Sole examines the essence of “hustle,”showing us just how far it can take you, and just how far it can’t. It’s also a story about friends doing whatever it takes to rise above the status quo, and realize the life of pride and dignity that all men, willing to hustle, deserve.

Presented with the kind permission of Dave Compton, Broken Pencil Productions & Two Million Minutes

The world’s largest and most lucrative business-plan competition is held… not in the United States or in any western country, but in communist China.

Beyond the 1.3 billion Chinese, the competition goes largely unnoticed in the rest of the world. But in communist China the competition, aptly named Win in China, is broadcast on national TV.

Over 120,000 entrepreneurs compete for prize money in excess of $5 million with the winner receiving nearly $1.5 million dollars to invest in their new business plan.

Commentators in the film include Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group and Chairman of Yahoo China, James Fallows, correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and China expert Orville Schell.

Win in China is more than a lucrative business plan competition – it is an opportunity for the government to educate, motivate and inspire the latent entrepreneurial talent in the most populous nation on earth. Beneath the game show’s surface lies a nuanced, subtle view of Chinese business practices, ambitions, ethical norms and competitive behavior.

Presented with the kind permission of Dave Compton, Broken Pencil Productions & Two Million Minutes

Most Americans have long known that our public schools aren’t getting the job done, but as our country increasingly falls behind our economic competitors and a wide academic gap within our country persists between low-income, minority students and their more affluent peers, these twin achievement gaps have reached crisis proportions. Simply put, the failure of our public schools is the most pressing domestic issue our nation faces.

There’s good news, however: we now know what must be done to fix our schools and a wave of reform is beginning to sweep the country. But it won’t be easy – the system, while failing children, has been working very well for the adults, who fight ferociously to maintain the unacceptable status quo. The outcome of this battle will determine the long-term future of our country.

Whitney Tilson has been engaged in this fight for more than 20 years, when he was one of the first people to join Wendy Kopp in starting Teach for America. Wendy later introduced him to David Levin, the co-founder of the KIPP network of charter schools, and he’s served on KIPP’s board for nearly a decade. He’s also one of the founders of Democrats for Education Reform, the Rewarding Achievement (REACH) program, and the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, and serves on the board of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the Council of Urban Professionals, and the Pershing Square Foundation.

After spending more than two decades on the front lines, witnessing first-hand public education’s dramatic failures and remarkable successes, Mr. Tilson was inspired to assemble a powerful and at times unsettling presentation about the twin achievement gaps and what must be done to address them. He utilizes the latest data and research to paint the most detailed portrait of American public education ever committed to film. More importantly, he presents us with a way forward so our nation can deliver on its promise to all of its children and ensure its long-term future.

.

Presented with the kind permission of Dave Compton, Broken Pencil Productions & Two Million Minutes

For 25 years, report after report has shown that American students are falling further and further behind the rest of the world intellectually. As the American public school system fails to adapt to this century, schools in China and India produce four times the number of high school graduates as the U.S. and educate these students to a much higher level.

Having revealed this frightening decline in his first documentary Two Million Minutes, executive producer Robert A. Compton next searched the world for the best high schools in the hopes of discovering a solution to America’s education crisis.

Then, in one of the poorest areas of America, Compton discovered a school that teaches ordinary U.S. children at an extraordinarily high academic level. This school demonstrates that American students are capable of competing academically with the best in the world given the right curriculum, the right teachers, the right inspiration, and expectation for success.

Despite the decline of public education, the decades ahead can be ones of prosperity and economic growth for the United States, provided the American people have the will and the leadership to embrace The 21st Century Solution.

.

Presented with the kind permission of Dave Compton, Broken Pencil Productions & Two Million Minutes

In 2007 the provocative documentary film Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination premiered. Comparing and contrasting the two million minutes of high school in India, China and the U.S., the film raised awareness and rattled cages from Harvard to the halls of power.

Now one year later, the students have completed their freshman year of college. In Two Million Minutes Chapter 3, we bring together the two American students and the two Chinese students for a candid, compelling roundtable discussion.

How well did high school prepare them? Do they wish they had done things differently? How do they see their peers in other countries now? What has their first year of college been like? How different is the college experience between these two countries?

With a mission to “cultivate within each of its students a balance of Chinese wisdom and a global perspective”, Xiwai International School is pioneering a new path in Chinese education – a public-private joint venture in education between Xiwai Investment Co. and Shanghai International Studies University . The former is a company specializing in education investment; it consists of shareholders and senior managers, including individuals from the international banking sector, such as Goldman Sachs, and from Chinese and overseas educational institutions. Shanghai International Studies University is one of China ‘s key universities, directly under the jurisdiction of the Chinese Ministry of Education.

How is traditional Chinese K-12 education changing? What are the strengths of the historical approach? What are you trying to achieve with new approaches? How much freedom do high school principals and teachers have? How do you balance teaching Communist philosophy with capitalist economics? China seems to have a very active “Gifted and Talented” program – can you elaborate? What can Chinese educators learn from America? What can American educators learn from China?

.