Page 1 A Letter from the President or expense of duplicating and mail- ing copies. With Brave New Educa- tors, we now have the ability to reach hundreds and soon thousand of teachers and professors. Since the launch we have already had 700+ Robert Greenwald screenings! We are on target to pass l,000 screenings shortly. One of the ear Friends and Supporters, best factors is that these teachers D and professors are planning to use 2014 marked the 10th year of Brave BNF fi lms year aft er year in their New Films. It seems like only classes and schools. And they are yesterday that we were a few people asking for more! struggling to convince folks that yes, fi lm could make a diff erence, Concurrently, we are beginning to that video could be used to activate, use this opportunity to organize and and that new thing called YouTube activate the students who are seeing was probably here to stay. our fi lms. We would have preferred if the year In 2014 we fought for workers’ brought brighter news on the elec- rights, helped pass a living wage in toral front. However, as Margaret Oakland, exposed private proba- Th atcher once said, “fi rst you win tions debtors’ prisons, shined a the argument, then you win the light on the most expensive weapon vote.” Our work to win the argu- system in history and held the Koch ment has never been more crucial Brothers accountable. and frankly more needed. We are Our online distribution saw an exploding with new ideas, new 2015 is upon us, we are ready to outstanding year as our fi lms energy and new campaigns. go, fi lled with energy and passion. reached millions of viewers— this With your support we will fi ght the year alone we’ve totaled over 11 Th e year itself was highlighted by good fi ght. our launch of Brave New Educators. years and 354 days watched. For years I have wanted to build Let us know what you think of our the infrastructure that would allow work— good, bad, and otherwise. teachers and professors all over We look forward to hearing from the country, in high schools, small IN SHORT ORDER WE HAVE you directly or on social media. colleges and large universities to REACHED OVER 37.7 MILLION show our fi lms. And this year we PEOPLE WITH OUR GRAPHICS. Th a n k y u, o did it! It is now possible for us to Robert Greenwald distribute our fi lms without the time President & Founder Page 2 Executive Director’s Corner ear Friends, sea Manning’s revelations. D We had the opportunity to Ten years ago I saw a film titled OutFoxed: Rupert Mur- interview Ed Snowden and doch’s War on Journalism and it changed my life. The we are releasing a revised content of the film, which revealed how Fox system- version of Whistleblowers atically slanted information, opened my eyes. Then a this month. It will also be few short months after first watching the film, I was made available free on- working for the man who produced and directed it. For line and we are currently over nine years, I have worked with our fearless leader, raising money in order to Robert Greenwald, on a variety of social justice topics. create a new discussion Without fail, you have all been there to share our work, guide and make the attend actions, and donate your hard earned money to film available for free this non-profit. Thank you! to colleges and high Jim Miller schools. As we enter our second decade, we promise to continue pushing the boundaries and exposing the greedy peo- ple and corporations who refuse to level the playing THE THREE MAJOR ELEMENTS THAT ALLOW US TO field. 2014 was a year of change for us, as we further BE SUCCESSFUL WITH OUR WORK ARE YOUR DONA- defined our work with our projects Justice, Inequality TIONS, THE OTHER SOCIAL JUSTICE NON-PROFITS and Security. We also realized that these topics do not live on their own but affect each other so we have bro- THAT WE PARTNER WITH, AND OUR CREATIVE AND ken down our own silos in order to achieve progress PASSIONATE STAFF. with these issues. As you can see by the numbers and the press mentioned in this report, we had a landmark year with unprecedented views and kudos from press If we didn’t have such terrific and loyal supporters, in- sources that have previously never covered our work. telligent and productive organizations on the ground, and a team of high-energy individuals who use their We had the opportunity to look back at some of our knowledge to create innovative video and social media past work and re-issue updated versions of that work. campaigns, we wouldn’t have anything. Koch Brothers Exposed is one of our most watched films. This year we updated several of the stories in Thank you for everything you do to help us. I look for- the film, and added new information about the Koch’s ward to the next decade of bringing these issues to light involvement with “Citizen’s United” and their attempts and activating change. to discredit the benefits of Unions. The film was made available for free online and was also added to Best, our Brave New Educators program so that it could be shown for free in colleges and high schools across the Jim Miller country. War on Whistleblowers was originally released Executive Director just weeks prior to Edward Snowden’s and PFC Chel- Page 3 Brave New Educators New campaign launches, meets goals in just 6 months! continual learning. Brave New tion guide to foster discussion and Educators off ers fi lms and discus- inspire action. Also added were sion guides that include questions, 2 new short series: To Prison for activities for the classroom, back- Poverty and OverCriminalized, grounds, timelines and much more. along with a collection of older but still relevant shorts that include With the fi nancial support of fi lms about veterans’ aff airs, mass generous donors, we launched with incarceration, student debt, and three feature length documenta- inequality. n April Brave New Films ries: Wal-mart: High Cost of Low Ilaunched Brave New Educators Price, War on Whistleblowers, and Next year we look forward to with the vision of providing free Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars. achieving our new goal of 1,000 fi lms and educational resources to Our goal was 500 screenings with- screenings. We also expect to add teachers. Brave New Educators uses in the fi rst year. We reached our new resources, new fi lms, addition- documentaries to start a dialogue year’s goal within six months and al funders and more educators. with students and professors across achieved a total of 635 screenings college and high school campuses. in 2014. Th anks in part to feedback With the fi nancial backing of our By utilizing screenings, blogs, arti- from educators and the continuous funders and the positive feedback cles, and social media, Brave New support of donors, we were able of educators, our program will Educators aims to create conversa- to expand our fi lm selection and continue to fl ourish and we will tions that will expand knowledge resources. We have added one full soon achieve the 1,000 screening of important issues and support feature, Koch Brothers Exposed, goal! along with a wonderful facilita- “Th ank you for all your support! Th e discussion materials were instru- mental! I am so glad that you sent those to me. Th e two day symposium was absolutely a success. Th e entire campus was buzzing and folks stayed until midnight talking with Professor Wilkerson. Fift y people came to the fi lm screening and participated in the discussion. I can’t wait to tell you the whole story. It was incredible.” Aaron Albrecht Truman State University, Kirksville, MO “I just wanted to commend you for this wonderful new initiative. My husband and I are teachers at the University of St. Th omas and we have been using your fi lms in the classroom for years. I cannot tell you what an impact they have had on our students and on us.” BILL HUGHES Professor Bernadette Wegenstein speak- Dr. Livia Bornigia ing at a Brave New Educators event at University of St. Th omas, Houston, TX JHU. Page 4 IMPACT 635 21,090 TOTAL Screening SCREENINGS Participants BREAKDOWN OF SCREENINGS Wal-Mart: High Cost of Low Price | 132 To Prison for Poverty | 40 War on Whistleblowers | 86 Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars | 122 Koch Brothers Exposed | 12 Shorts for Classroom | 44 OverCriminalized | 28 David Zhou ’15, China; Sarosha Hansraj ’16, USA-TX; Akhil Jasani SHARE MY LESSON | 171 ’15, Kenya; Tianmu Yu ’16, China; and Emma Richter ’16, USA-MI are (Share my lesson is a website and network of teachers members of UWC-USA’s Student Organization for Alumni Relations that gives access to “high-quality teaching resources.” (SOAR). They are excited to watch and discuss the Brave New Films Our fi lms and resources are available thorough them.) documentaries sent to them by alumna Tara Kelton UWC-USA ’06, a lead editor at Brave New Films. Brave New Films’ documentaries have been show in over 500 universities across the world. Here is a small sample of the universities who hosted screenings in 2014: Barry University Santa Monica College Clemson University Truman State University Harvard University University of York Loyola University University of Alaska Princeton University University of North Georgia Royal Holloway, University of London University of Saint Thomas San Diego Community College Vanderbilt Divinity Page 5 Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition Hundreds of generous donors contribute to expose dark money.