Business Connection; 0227

Business connection is made by MDC to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you. The business connection starts with Hello I'm Jeff Salk and welcome to business connection on tonight's program some of the top documentary filmmakers in the world are showcasing their movies this week at SILVERDOCS an international film festival taking place at the AFIC Silver Theater in Silver Spring we will talk with the festival director coming up. But first tonight one of the filmmakers is also the vice chairman of AOL and owner of the Washington Capitals and mystics Joining us now from the film festival is Ted Leonsis Sir thank you for being with us. Jeff how are you. Great. Good to see you again your film is called Nan King. Tell us about the project.

It was a real labor of love. I found a story where a bunch of Americans and Europeans stayed behind in Nanking China in 1937 during the Japanese invasion and while everyone left to save their own lives these people stayed behind and through real engineer witty and acts of terrorism save the lives of 250000 Chinese and they were revered in China as gods and goddesses and their story had never been told. And I thought this was a good venue to tell that story. So so what would you saying I mean this is a film this is a message film more than a look at the brutality of that period. Yes this is this is a film that falls within the Imp realm of. The term that I use now called film anthropic. Because of new technology and the price of production you can now make films that

are a very very high quality my film was directed by a two time Academy Award winner Bill guten dog. It stars what do you have oral say in a New York in Prague now. People who wanted to also share in the telling of this story and the film really is a message movie. The message is that war is bad and during a time of occupation bad things happen to citizenship. But most importantly that the acts of kindness of individuals can reverberate throughout history so I found the film I produced it I financed it. We premiered at Sundance it's been picked up for distribution all around the world and today I'm very fortunate to be a keynote speaker here at the Silverdocs Film Festival and tomorrow night the film will have its Washington D.C. premiere. This is a good point then to take a look at a brief clip from Nan King. Number

representing the United States government was prominently marked. I personally feel that I cannot leave. Men are not asked to leave their ships when they are in danger and women are not asked to leave their children. That was Mariel Hemingway one of the actors and actresses in this project it looks like you also had access to archival footage of some kind. We spent about two years going all over the world including lots of work here right in Washington D.C. at the National Archives and. Library of Congress and were able to put together footage from that period in time. We didn't have any footage there was no footage of these 12 heroes. And so we were able to convince actors and actresses to read the actual journal notes and diary entries that these people left behind. And then we went to

China in Japan and interviewed survivors of the massacre and actual soldiers and weaved all of that together to make a fairly compelling and emotional movie. Now when you talk about your you're the term that you coined film and therapy. Are there other examples of that other film and three pests out there. Well this is a great movie that will be showing here that also did very well at Sundance and a cold war dance and it was done by two young people from Maryland. The fines and they got it financed almost like it was a charitable kind of effort it's a movie about young adults in a refugee camp in Africa and how they overcome great odds to win a talent contest and really build up their self-esteem and their quality of life. Probably the best example is frankly Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. There's a film that no studio would have done it was produced and financed independently and it's probably done more to change

the the attitude of the consumer about global warming than anything that happened previous. And so what film in therapy really is about are it's its media that matters it's films that people will talk about it will activate charitable giving it will help right a wrong. And your metric of success isn't necessarily how well it does at the box office. It really is how much good would it do. So the the cost of production as you mentioned is coming down but how much of a check if I can ask it did you have to write for this and and how how will you measure the success of that investment. Well my goal is to have a billion people see a film that I was involved with and because this film has to do with China and we did a deal with CCTV. They'll show it in about 750 million homes in mainland China and also be distributed theatrically there. So my metric of success aside

frankly like Japan to acknowledge and formally apologize to the Chinese about this time in history they've never formally done that and also like China to accept the apology and and for these two great economies in nations to re bond. And I would like a billion people to see it so those would be my metrics of success. My film was in the millions of dollars many documentaries can be made for hundreds of thousands of dollars. We had more production cost because. I wanted to capture in film all of the survivors words no one had ever gone to China and located the survivors of this time in history. And we skid went literally all through the country relocated 88 people they're all in their 80s and 90s and were able to film all of them. And I'll be donating that not unlike what Steven Spielberg did with Schindler's List in the Shoah Foundation to my alma mater Georgetown University because all these people are in

their 80s and 90s in their eyewitness accounts needed to be captured and preserved. I'm curious about the choice of distribution mechanisms you're standing in front of an old time lookin movie theater but you're an Internet guy. Can you just can you have the same effect by producing a film and putting it on on YouTube or you know in your case AOL video. Trust me I how do you think I feel as buses go and buy trucks I get a helicopter. Of you're holding a yellow. Cab is one theater it's in the city. Well you raise a really really good point. There is something magical about a movie theater in seeing your film on a 40 foot screen. But with a majority of people will see the film in actuality is on cable television in DVD and then the Internet. I intend to broadcast this film and all of the interviews with the survivors and the soldiers for free on the Internet. And that's another part of film answer to you.

You want the widest group of audience to be able to see it. And the film going public even a great film like An Inconvenient Truth that did 20 million dollars at the box office. That means two million people saw it. You go on YouTube and just about everything on YouTube has a million people seeing it and so the scale and size of the Internet is so important right now and it is something that I know a little bit about so I'm going to be very active in getting this content out over the broadband web. Well I'll ask a couple Internet questions if I if I can I know you're spending less time at AOL now but are are still involved and it has been a big transition there too to being a free content provider. How would you say that's going. Well the company I've been there for a long long time and we were always a subscription business with an advertising business the side it and now were more of an advertising business with the subscription business aside it and

we have such a huge audience at AOL over one hundred and ten million monthly visitors in North America and over 200 million around the world. And because the medium is so accountable and so targeted advertisers want to reach it and those ad dollars are flowing into the business so fast and so the business has been growing at a very healthy rate. I feel comfortable that growth can continue and that the companies in very good hands. I saw that you were personally an investor in a new kind of search engine that is trying to optimize the results people get for for some of the more common searches it is that in a nutshell what they're doing differently. I became an angel investor in a company called Mahalo Mahalo is people engineered search. It's Think of where the PDA meets Google. It's. It's fine. Twenty five thousand most searched on terms and get experts to craft the best age. I did it because I do think that search is so important

and I love the young entrepreneur behind it and I have the means to do some of these angel investments and it just seemed like a good company to invest in. All right we're about done but I should ask where people can see the film obviously the film festival tomorrow night you said. Well the film opens here tomorrow night. It's at 5:30. You can go to Nanking at the film dot com to get more information. The film is opening it will be distributed theatrically in December and also you'll see all the news clips and what the film is about on the website or go to the SilverDocs SILVERDOCS dot com website or just go to Google or AOL search and type in Silverdocs and they'll give you the schedule here. All right and we have links to all that stuff at NPT dot org. Ted Leonsis Thanks for being with us we appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much take care. Take care. Coming up the business of filmmaking and how SILVERDOCS has grown into a major event for

Silver Spring in just five years. Plus a new technology that could make checkout lines at the grocery store a thing of the past. You're watching business connections. And I'd like to suggest to you that inspiration is not something that comes and goes. This is a whole new look at inspiration. Dr Wayne Dyer America's foremost spiritual guide and mentor 6 steps to inspiration. Your ultimate calling. Saturday morning at 7 on. Great performances when. I mistype in South Pacific Heights which McIntyre and Brian Stokes Mitchell the. South Pacific. Concert from. Carnegie. Hall. On a. Great performance. Sunday at 3:30 on MP.

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The reporters of public square investigating Maryland issues that matter. Not afraid to dig deeper to find the truth. Anchor Jeff saw Mindy mits Charles Robinson. Lou Davis. Trusted experience. Get the real story. And continuing our focus on the Silverdocs Film Festival in Silver Spring we're joined now by Patricia Fedor and festival director thanks so much for being with us. It's great to be here. How Patricia would you say that this event has grown over the past five years how do you track that. Well I mean we track it by the number of sold out shows we have the amount of press we get this sort of excitement that's happening I have to say this year I feel like we've really hit it. We have a hundred films this year. We've had incredible audiences stand by lines you know waiting to see these films and we're looking forward to a really stellar weekend of documentaries and a couple of free screenings. I know tomorrow. Afternoon there's a free lunchtime screening.

But i'm some of the films we're excited about this weekend are Chicago 10 Arctic tales some special guests coming for the living goddess and for double time. All sorts of great stuff happening. Who is this event for. Is it DID YOU FIND THIS mostly people who go to you know art films that sort of thing. No you know what I think it's amazing the SilverDocs films because there's such a diversity of authentic storytelling of these creative filmmakers. I think it attracts a really really wide audience. Often times a specific need shoddy and will come to a particular film. Like a film like a hot house that deals with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or Chicago Tan about politics will attract an audience and then people sort of come back for more because they realize these are amazing films you can't see them anywhere else. And it's a great opportunity to not just see the film meet the filmmaker We have a hundred filmmakers here and 40 of the film subjects so it actually attracts a very very wide audience I'm always amazed at how diverse it is. You know socio economically and age wise too there's lots of films for young people.

We talk to Ted Leonsis a few minutes ago who talked about his film being shown it at Sundance which is obviously a very well known film festival How is this different from that and that certainly attracts a lot of celebrities. Yes. The Silverdocs Film Festival is dedicated to real world storytelling so we only show documentaries. So I guess the real people are the stars. And I think the difference too is this is a festival that anybody can attend it's really easy to get to you don't have to get on an airplane to go to Park City in the middle of the winter. And anybody can come and it's a it's an event that's really for this community it celebrates filmmakers from all over the world. But it's for the Washington area for Maryland to come and see these films. So you get so many submissions way more than could ever be shown. Tell us about that. That process and how you decide what gets on the agenda. Right. We have one thousand seven hundred thirty five submissions this year and we selected 100

films. I mean first of all it's about quality. It's about great storytelling. It's about sort of passionate stories that people connect to. You know there's a film called Please vote for me about. Election for class monitor and why I'm Province China. It's a window into a world you can't see anywhere else. And it's a really unique story so we look for unique stories. We look for great storytelling and we look for real diversity in terms of places around the world that the films take you whether it's to Liberia or South Africa or Uganda or China all over the world to experience stories. What what are the key Awards which the most sought after prize here. Well we do have an annual award where we honor a great filmmaker and tonight which is Thursday night we honor Jonathan Demi with our annual Guggenheim symposium. He's with us. He's got to tell you we show the world premiere of his film new home movies from the Lower Ninth Ward. Earlier today and so we'll have a conversation with him tonight. Then on Saturday is our

sterling awards ceremony and all our awards so the sterling awards 10 films is kind of the best documentary of the festival but we also have a music documentary prize an award for cinematic vision that has to do with the power of storytelling. A witness a war that has to do with human rights films and also most importantly perhaps the Audience Award where the audience chooses their favorite feature length and short documentary his that is the whole event taking place in Silver Spring. It is indeed. It takes place mostly at the FII Silver Theater. We also work with the round house theater next door and our partners at Discovery Communications open discovery we show movies there we have programs there and we have a cinema lounge that we build for our filmmakers and pass holders and guests to interact between the movies and really connect with each other. Stay with me just a minute we want to take a look at a clip that shows a bit of an overview of what everybody can see at SILVERDOCS. Again all God and DS in life.

Because almost stole my identity. This is the orgasm reveal. My. Brain. And why. It doesn't move much like the rock star of the new IT. Is really going to make a difference. This is what we got to do. Well Patricia we've just seen a wide variety of films and styles of films and how can can people who might want to come to Silver Spring get a look at where tickets are available or what events there

are they don't need to go to our our website which is easy it's w w w SILVERDOCS dot com you can see descriptions of all the films. You can also see trailers for a lot of the films. See what's playing over the weekend in particular and some of those shows will be listed as sold out in advance but if you come to the theater there's always tickets that are released at the last minute that were films are open up so it's really worth coming down to the theater check out what you want to see but there's four movies playing at any given time all weekend. So there's always something great to say. Tricia center and joining us from SILVERDOCS in Silver Spring. Good luck with the program. Thanks very much. Thanks so much. Imagine being able to scan all of your groceries at once using a simple handheld electronic device. This new type of technology is being offered at a local supermarket in Elder's Berg has stopped in to see how these personal scanners are helping consumers save time while they shop

where they've implemented this innovative technology called the easy shop. It involves these personal handheld scanner is where you basically scan your groceries and bag them as you go I'm sure this is something we're going to be seeing more of in the near future at other supermarkets and stores and joining me now to tell us a little bit more about this is Mary Bowles who is the checkout coach here Mary how are you doing today in the primary and on the good. So tell me the two things you need to get started with this started as a bonus card and signing up for easy shop and then once you do you're registered you're in the system you're in the system and you do is go to one of the power panels at the registers entrances and then you just check out. OK let's show me how the process works I mean here. But you're going to take your products for the cost of one set you have 30 seconds to take it out after 30 side of the back and. So that was ready to go. We're going to put it in the cradle. And then. Happen. All right let's go over there for bags put the bags in there as well so we have everything you need

to go shopping right. OK. So the first item. Every item in the store has. How much it is how much you're saving and what the price is up to the savings keeps running total how much you spend. Now if you decide you don't want to button on the negative button right there. OK. So come on over here as you continue to scan so we can see how the process works. Tell me a little bit about the folks who utilize this easy shop what do they say about it. Everybody very much does enjoy it. However because I want to get out there are in the car. It's somewhat intimidating at first but it was a wonderful thing in the world.

OK take me over here to the checkout area so we can see what goes on. Once they have the scanner they come here to kind of download everything and everything for them. How do you make sure that everything is accounted for that what they put in the bag is actually what they say they sign if they participate in that audit. And they can speak to this lady. Question What do you think about the scams. Oh I love meeting you often do you use them every time I come. Pretty much unless I have a ton of stuff and then I'm afraid I'll forget disadvantage. So then I do it the old fashioned way. What do you like the most about it. Justin It saves a step you could just bag it when you're ready to go. But you're convinced this is your way to this is the way the shop all the way. Yeah it makes it and you get in and out faster. Yeah that's always. All right thank you so much for speaking with us I appreciate that real quick. You know it sort of begs the

question Gary Myers that if I'm doing all the work that you would probably hire less cashiers from a business perspective is this why I know you're long on the contrary we have not heard any less cashiers this is a service that we provide for our customers. Just a matter of convenience and they love it. Now from what I understand you're one of the only supermarkets in this area that has this easy easy shop that you use. Why has your company decided to adopt it. Our companies are very innovative and forward thinking company we're always looking for ways that we can provide other services to our customers. And it's worked out well. It sure sounds like a good time will Gary thank you so much for speaking with us. We appreciate that. And remember this is a 24 hour MARTIN So you can only use the scanners from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. if you like to find out more information just log onto our website at NPT dot org and click on business connection. Jeff I want to toss it back to you in the studio. Thanks a lot and thank you for watching business connection. Have a good day. Connection is a production of public television in association with the University of Maryland. Robert Smith School of Business.

Business connections is made by NPT to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you.