We *Heart* Government
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Seattle Filmmakers to Shine a Positive Light on Government Services
March 14, 2012 (Seattle, WA). The Flying Ninja Story Collective (www.flyingninjastorycollective.com) has announced the inception of a documentary project entitled, “We *heart* Government.” In a time when fiscal constraints necessitate leaner budgets and across-the-board reductions in state and federal programs, the project seeks to highlight often overlooked services provided by the government. Currently in pre-production, “We *heart* Government” consists of three short documentaries, each one focusing on a different federal agency. Two stereotypically reviled agencies, the United States Postal Service and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, have already been selected as subjects. To determine the third subject, the filmmakers have chosen to investigate where the interests of the general public lie. They’re asking those who pledge at least $1 in support of the project through its Kickstarter campaign (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/777038469/we-heart-government) to vote for their favorite agencies; whichever agency gets the most votes will become the subject of the third film. The finished documentaries will seek to showcase the vital role of each of the selected agencies in the lives of Americans.
“We want to highlight that this is not a political project,” says Dina Guttmann, one of the filmmakers. (The other three are Amanda Vail, Cassandra Soden, and Jenna Abts.) Guttmann goes on to say, “While planning this project, we realized that each of us have a personal story about how some service of the government affected us: I was able to become an exchange student to Germany; Cassy takes her father to the VA; Amanda’s childhood home was bought with a government loan; Jenna, who grew up in a tornado prone area, learned about weather from a young age thanks to NOAA. These connections we feel to our government are universal.” So far, the project has generated buzz and conversation on its Kickstarter project page, eliciting insightful commentary on why various federal agencies are held in high regard.
The idea for the project was hatched when Soden began to bring her father to the VA hospital on a regular basis. She realized that while she was thrilled at the excellent service her father received, she was simultaneously dismayed by the negative press about the agency. Each artist felt similarly about one or another government agency, and so the project began to move forward.
The Flying Ninja Story Collective is a group of four independent artists (a graphic designer, a film editor, a writer, and a film producer/director) who work together to create multimedia projects.
For more information on the project, please contact Amanda Vail (amandamvail at gmail.com) or Dina Guttmann (dina at dovetailfilms.com).
When you support government you are supporting war, you are supporting imprisoning anyone who disagrees with you. You are supporting robbing your neighbors to support you lifestyle. You are supporting the war on drugs, the racist death penalty, the bombing of innocents overseas, the slavery that is the draft, the insanity that is IP law.
Even when the government provides a valued service they do it at the barrel of a gun…
Thanks for writing in, Xaq! We appreciate your opinions; obviously ours differ somewhat. We do not believe the government is perfect by any means, and you point out a number of its flaws. What we do believe is that it provides worthwhile services that should be appreciated while at the same time we work as a society to improve it. There are many agencies, such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, that provide for the health, safety, and security of the people who live in this country.