Four-Part Doc-Series Event Premieres May 24-27 @ 8 pm, ET/PT
NEW YORK, NY – April 16, 2010 – IFC’s critically-acclaimed original series The IFC Media Project returns to the network in May for a third season with a new title and format. "The IFC Media Project Presents: FEAR, WAR, GREED and DISASTER" features four, 30-minute documentaries, presented by award-winning journalists, who set out to uncover what the mainstream media can’t or won’t report. The doc-series debuts Monday, May 24 through Thursday, May 27 at 8 pm, ET/PT.
"Each episode of this original series takes a probing look at the media to reveal the real, untold stories behind today’s biggest headlines," said Debbie DeMontreux, senior vice president of original programming for IFC. "The series provides the type of exclusive, authentic content IFC viewers crave, and is in keeping with the network’s ’Always On. Slightly Off.’ indie perspective we share with our audience."
The series’ reporters include: Max Blumenthal (FEAR)(www.maxblumenthal.com), senior writer for The Daily Beast and contributor to Salon.com and the Huffington Post, among other outlets; Nir Rosen (WAR) (www.nirrosen.com), author of "In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq" who has also written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and Time; Charlie LeDuff (GREED) (www.charlieleduff.com), a former New York Times reporter and author of "Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City and Thereabouts" and "US Guys: The True and Twisted Mind of the American Man"; and Andrew Berends (DISASTER) (www.storytellerinc.com), an independent photojournalist and filmmaker who produced the documentaries "Blood of My Brother" and "When Adnan Comes Home," and the film "Delta Boys."
"The IFC Media Project Presents is an irreverent, on point, and in-depth show which provides new perspectives on news coverage and celebrates journalists who dig deeper and get the real stories affecting people’s lives," said Meghan O’Hara, creator and executive producer of The IFC Media Project Presents. "We’re thrilled to have created a forum for independent journalists to both enlighten and entertain."
FEAR
Monday, May 24 @ 8 pm
IFC follows Max Blumenthal deep into the heart of the Tea Party movement, trying to uncover what it is they’re so afraid of. Along the way the episode reveals this "grassroots uprising" might not be as organic as it seems. Beginning with President Obama’s election, this episode recaps the disintegration of political discourse as hope yielded to fear and Tea Partiers took to the streets. Max travels to Montgomery, Ala. to see the protesters up close and personal and then back in New York he discovers that the entire movement is being orchestrated by a consortium of highly connected GOP pressure groups.
WAR
Tuesday, May 25 @ 8 pm
Journalist Nir Rosen returns to Afghanistan (where he was once kidnapped by the Taliban) to unravel an unspoken angle of America’s strategy for winning the war: Reconstruction. Doing what the media so rarely does, Nir follows the money, traveling first to a massive new power plant just outside Kabul. Built with $300M in U.S. taxpayer money, the plant was ill-conceived and unsustainable and, as it turns out, the company that built it – New Jersey-based Louis Berger Group – is one of America’s top recipients of reconstruction money despite routinely churning out dams, roads, schools and clinics with an assortment of problems. After talking with Afghan Parliament members and Afghani people, Nir returns to Washington, D.C. to get answers. Why has America poured $51 billion since 2002 into rebuilding a country with such miserable results? He confronts Louis Berger and the U.S. Government officials who keep signing their checks.
GREED
Wednesday, May 26 @ 8 pm
IFC meets up with former New York Times reporter Charlie LeDuff in his hometown of Detroit, Mich. where Charlie moved back two years ago to work for the Detroit News. Two years later, the paper’s bankrupt, the metro desk is empty and Detroit is being swarmed daily by a flock of national media all coming to gawk at the end result of America’s economic collapse. Rather than turning inward to ponder the recession porn, Charlie takes the Detroit experience and turns it inside out: Detroit isn’t a bellwether, it’s America’s future. Charlie heads to New York for a tour of a Wall Street trading floor to try to understand how the nation’s financial services community has utterly wrecked our country. Talking with Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi, we learn how the media, by and large, doesn’t understand Wall Street and thus, can’t substantively report on it. In our nation’s capitol, Charlie storms into offices looking for answers but the only guy who’ll talk to him is the one unbought and unbossed U.S. Senator not running for reelection.
DISASTER
Thursday, May 27 @ 8 pm
When Haiti’s capital was flattened in a massive earthquake, the world’s media marshaled their forces and descended on the disaster zone. In this episode, IFC travels throughout Haiti, from devastated Port-au-Prince to the beautiful, untouched countryside, with Andrew Berends, a photojournalist and documentarian who’s worked in Iraq and was kidnapped in Nigeria while working on his film, "Delta Boys," which explored the untold stories of the Niger Delta and the growing militancy in the country. Interwoven into Andrew’s story, other journalists share their different takes and approaches on how to cover a disaster. We hear from CNN’s local fixer who spent three weeks filming himself as he guided Anderson Cooper and Ivan Watson around his shattered hometown. We meet up with Dan Rather, who just returned from the country with hours of footage, and Daniel Morel, a Haitian photojournalist who takes a dim view of the international media’s reportage and thinks a reporter’s job is simply to observe.
"The IFC Media Project Presents: FEAR, WAR, GREED and DISASTER" is created and produced by HonestEngineTV’s Meghan O’Hara ("Bowling for Columbine", "Fahrenheit 9/11," "SiCKO") and Nick McKinney ("The Daily Show," "Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days" and "Insomniac with Dave Attell"). Executive producers for IFC are Debbie DeMontreux; Christine Lubrano, vice president of original programming; Jennifer Caserta, executive vice president and general manager; and Evan Shapiro, president of IFC and Sundance Channel.
ABOUT IFC
IFC creates and champions authentic, original content presented with an indie perspective that is "Always On. Slightly Off." From acquired series like Arrested Development, to quintessential films like Office Space, and original productions such as Food Party and Dinner With The Band, IFC recommends and delivers traditional content in a non-traditional way. IFC’s original programming airs alongside a comprehensive independent film library of award-winning titles and cult classics, as well as content inspired by music, web, gaming, animation, news, culture and more. IFC broadens its passionate and influential audience with exclusive live coverage of festivals and music events like the Film Independent Spirit Awards and South by Southwest. IFC.com features exclusive video, interviews, news, reviews and more. The network’s On Demand offering, IFC Free, gives audiences the opportunity to watch IFC’s original series at their convenience. IFC is a subsidiary of Rainbow Media Holdings LLC.
About Rainbow Media Holdings LLC
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