For Immediate Release
March 7, 2006
Contact: Ken Sunshine, Ken Sunshine Consultants – (212) 691-2800
THE BIG BUY
New Documentary to Focus on Story of Embattled
Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom Delay
Film by Texas Directors Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck
Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films Set to Distribute Documentary
HOUSTON – On the same day that former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX) likely accepts the Republican nomination for the 22nd U.S. Congressional District of Texas, two filmmakers from the state formally announced plans to release their long-awaited documentary, The Big Buy: How Tom DeLay Stole Congress – both theatrically and through a massive grassroots outreach campaign. The filmmakers announced their plans today at a press conference in the Sugar Land, Texas, district of Rep. Delay, while the congressman remained in Washington, DC to raise money at a lobbyist-hosted fundraiser.
The somewhat unconventional documentary follows the criminal investigation by Austin District Attorney Ronnie Earl into allegations of wrongdoing leading up to the 2002 Texas elections, resulting in 41 indictments, including two against the former Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Tom Delay. DeLay used the elections as a first step to redraw the state’s congressional lines that produced five new Republican congressmen from Texas in 2004. Besides chronicling the investigation itself, the film connects these five new DeLay-secured votes to big differences in national policy over the last 14 months.
Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films is set to distribute the film across the country through a combination of theater openings, retail outlets, house parties and grassroots venues.
“Tom DeLay would like the public to believe this is just a minor Texas matter, when in fact it was part and parcel of a very large master plan to use a flood of corporate money to create a permanent hard right Republican majority in Congress,” said Lubbock-based Co-Producer Jim Schermbeck. “This is a national scandal, with ongoing national consequences for years to come” added partner Mark Birnbaum, headquartered in Dallas. “The Big Buy is an indictment of the sale of our political system to the highest bidder. It shines a light on the win-at-any-cost tactics the most powerful member of Congress was willing to use in order to crush his adversaries.”
Framing the story as political Film Noir, The Big Buy chronicles the rise of Tom DeLay from backbencher in the Texas Legislature to the architect of the largest money machine ever constructed on Capitol Hill, and also chronicles Texas DA Ronnie Earl as he investigates that machine. It’s this local DA who wins 41 indictments against the operatives, groups, corporations and congressman who Grand Juries say broke the law in order to funnel illegal corporate money to Texas Republicans. The film lays open the confluence of events that led multinational corporations to pour donations into an obscure DeLay PAC dedicated to changing the political landscape of the nation by changing the congressional lines of a state.
Delay, an 11-term incumbent, helped lead the 1994 Gingrich “Republican Revolution,” promising at the time to destroy the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. His self-stated goal was to dismantle the Federal Government.
Fresh off the success of Brave New Films release Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Greenwald and his team are set to deploy an even larger grassroots network to spread the message of The Big Buy. This will be the first project not directed or produced by Greenwald to be distributed by Brave New Films.
“Tom Delay set out to change the federal government for the worse when he took office, only he thought he was above the law,” said Greenwald. “One of the most powerful men in the country, Delay never thought twice about ignoring inconvenient laws. He was above it all. Tom Delay represents everything that is wrong with our political system. He represents the influence that corporations buy and sell in an open commodity market of politicians – a market that needs to be shut down.”
Available for interview today:
Mark Birnbaum, a native Texan, is a veteran producer, director, writer and cameraman. Birnbaum is the director/producer of the critically acclaimed documentary Larry v. Lockney, which chronicles Texas farmer Larry Tannahill’s fight against mandatory drug testing in his son’s school. The film made its broadcast premiere on the PBS program P.O.V. In addition to The Big Buy, Birnbaum is currently working on Wood Pushers, a documentary that follows the championship run of a collegiate chess team. He has also made films about salsa dancing, competitive sailing, Vatican II, female Ecuadorian garbage sorters, race, Nicaraguan politics, and many other issues.
Jim Schermbeck is relatively new to filmmaking. A native Texan and veteran environmental organizer, Schermbeck worked with two community groups to find and classify Superfund toxic waste sites. After moving to Lubbock, his longtime interest and passion for filmmaking led him to Mark Birnbaum, and together they made the critically acclaimed documentary Larry v. Lockney. Schermbeck, who has a wife and a six year old daughter, has spent the last three years working on the self-financed project The Big Buy along with Birnbaum.
Robert Greenwald is a producer, director and political activist. Greenwald is the director/producer of Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005), a documentary that uncovers the retail giant's assault on families and American values and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004). He also executive produced a trilogy of political documentaries: Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election (2002); Uncovered: The Iraq War (2003), which Greenwald also directed; and Unconstitutional (2004).
Brave New Films, Greenwald's new media company, is working on telling stories using film that will influence the debates about the most important issues of the day and is currently in production on two series— the ACLU Freedom Files, which airs on Court TV, and The Sierra Club Chronicles, which can be seen on Link TV and via the internet.
Mario Champion is the executive director of Latinos for Texas, a grassroots organization dedicated to increasing Latino participation in the political process and government. Champion was dismayed by the 2003 congressional redistricting because it disenfranchised thousands of Latino voters across Texas. He is committed to turning back that tide.
###
