Wisconsin Rising Documentary -Trailer and Kickstarter!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/385001342/wisconsin-rising
Donate to the film at the above link


Support this documentary film and share it with you social networks.
We will need $200,000 ultimately to make the movie.
Please consider donating $10.00, $25.00, $50.00 yourself if you are able - or more if that is possible.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/385001342/wisconsin-rising

We really need to raise money on Kickstarter as the film is being funded entirely by people power!! In other words, there are no corporate sponsors, no commercial sponsors, just people like us!
Donate now!!

TRAILER SCREENING AND FUNDRAISER

Gentle Uprising
The 2011 people’s revolt in Wisconsin and
the reanimation of the American working class

Thursday, December 8
7:30-9:30
MSP Studio in the Hood Plant
187 So. Winooski Ave, Burlington VT

Enter on King Street for door and parking lot

Meet and greet with filmmaker Sam Mayfield
Silent auction of art and political propaganda from Wisconsin
Special guests!
Stories from Madison
Complementary drinks and snacks
Suggested donation at the door: $10-500
No one will be turned away for lack of funds

Please join us for a gathering to benefit the making of the feature-length documentary film Gentle Uprising. This fundraiser is the first broad appeal to our local community to support this project. Media maker Sam Mayfield has recently returned to Burlington from filming in Wisconsin, and is launching into post-production. This event specifically benefits this step in the film making process. You are receiving this invitation because you are a champion of economic justice, of independent media, of Madison, Wisconsin, or the work of Sam Mayfield.

“It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of the mass protests that have broken out in Madison, Wis. . . . This is the largest sustained rally for the rights of public sector workers that this country has seen in decades — perhaps ever.”

Progressive Magazine, February 28, 2011

ABOUT THE FILM:

Following Governor Scott Walker’s announcement of his controversial budget repair bill, the people of Wisconsin rose up, occupied their state capital and took to the streets as never before seen in American History. Many say Walker’s bill is an assault on working people, unions and the poorest most vulnerable people in society. This film introduces you to those most affected by Walker's bill, and the subsequent reanimation of the American working class.

Gentle Uprising tells the story of how Wisconsin became a testing ground for the nation in a political environment where corporations have greater and greater clout and ordinary citizens are losing their ability to obtain redress. At a time when millions of families are feeling the crush of debt and joblessness while large corporations are seeing record profits, Badger state residents are demonstrating the strength that comes from a shared sense of identity and pride and that these bonds can shake even the most powerful political machines.

Tom Morello Justice Tour Labor Day Madison Wisconsin, 2011


On Labor day in Madison, WI we floated in a pontoon boat past Scott Walker's mansion. Filmed many interviews at LaborFest held at the Madison Labor Temple and finished the night off by interviewing Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. He was in town on the Justice Tour performing at the Barrymore Theater with Wayne Kramer of Detroit's legendary MC5 and Tim McIlrath of Rise Against.
No complaints. A pretty Stellar day.

Wisconsin Making History in their recall election 2011

Six Republican senators were targeted for recall after backing Walker's union-busting bill this spring. Only two of the six republicans lost their seat. Randy Hopper lost and will be replaced by Jessica King and Dan Kapanke lost his seat to Jennifer Shilling.
The results mean Republicans will hold the State Senate majority by a slim margin of 17 to 16.
In Wisconsin history, only two lawmakers have ever been recalled.

Walker Shouted Down At Wisconsin State Fair

Governor Scott Walker officially declared the Wisconsin State Fair opened for business on August 4th. His brief announcement was met by hundreds of protestors shouting "Shame," so loudly that his voice was barely heard.

Summer Recall Elections in Wisconsin, The First Primary


Nine Wisconsin State Senators, including six Republicans and three Democrats, are running in recall elections this summer in response to voter outrage over the questionable process used when Republicans cast votes on the bill to strip public workers of their unions. Tuesday's Democratic Primary will determine which challenger will go on to face the incumbent Senators in the general election next month. In each of those 6 senate districts, there are two names on the ballot: one is a candidate with a history of running and voting Democratic and one is a Republican running as a so-called “protest candidate”. Both are listed as Democrats.

For this video, we checked in on the primary race in Senator Luther Olsen’s district. Senator Olsen represents the Central Wisconsin communities of Baraboo, Wisconsin Dells, Portage, Waupaca and New London, among others. Senator Olsen faced two challengers today: Democratic Representative Fred Clark and GOP Protest candidate Rol Church.

We stopped in on all three polling places in Baraboo. Turnout was light, with each polling place reporting fewer than 200 voters as of 10am. Ida DeKeyser and Karen Lawson, two poll workers at Baraboo’s East School, said they usually see a thousand people vote in a typical spring election.

As voter Bill Schlewey said "Wisconsinites are known fighters and this is another fight we're not going to go down easy on."

Locked in at the Wisconsin State Capital.
June 16, 2011 Video

Journalists Targeted and Arrested at Wisconsin State Capital
On June 6th two journalists were arrested at the state capital in Madison, WI.
I was one of them.



I was grabbed by an aggressive and very escalated police officer after walking in to the state capital on Jne 6th. Officer Corcoran told me to leave, to "get out". It was bewildering because I was already in the building and was simply walking by him filming my way in to the rotunda.
He grabbed me aggressively. I told him, in the friendliest voice I could find, that I was with the press. He let me walk by.

I recognized him from the many times I have been in the building over the past four months covering the gentle uprising as it develops and unfolds around Governor Scott Walker's controversial budget repair bill.

Alex Noguera-Garces was assisting me this day, she was also stopped. I told Corcoran that she was with me and was a member of the press. Initially he let her through. When she stayed behind to film his treatment of citizens as they entered the building he grabbed and arrested her. She was hauled away in handcuffs. It came to my attention that she was being taken away. I went to her aid and when I explained that "I was a member of the press" Corcoran let me know that "I could go to". Referring to jail and being arrested like Alex.
Alex was in taken to an elevator. While inside, before the doors closed, she handed me her camera that was dangling in her hand, likely to fall given the situation. I accepted the camera. At that time Corcoran dropped Alex to the ground, lunged at me from the elevator and tackled me. The excessive force he used left bruises on my arms and hips.
Corcoran never gave me a straight answer as to why he grabbed me or why I was being arrested. He changed his story three times between the time I was in the elevator with him and while he processed my and Alex's charges in the basement.

While in the basement I was pushed around by another office. Literally. I was standing talking on my cell phone, calling for support and an officer came in to the hallway, pushed me from behind, shoving me against a table and told me to "calm down".
Is this the new way that reporters and citizens can expect to be treated in the Wisconsin State Capital? The environment was hostile. The exertion of arbitrary authority was overwhelming. Cops pushing citizens and journalists around because they think they can get away with it.
We must let them know that journalists and citizens alike will not be pushed around, we will not tolerate the use of excessive force simply because someone is wearing a badge.
We do not have to leave a public building simply because a man or a woman with a gun and badge tells us to do so. We are critical thinking individuals; we have the right, the ability and the obligation to challenge authority.

Eventually we were both charged with disorderly conduct, given a $263.50 fine and a court date slated for June 17th.
The officer that escorted us out marked us with a blue sharpy. Giving us a blue X on our right hand. He told us we could not re enter the capital that day.

More people were arrested on Monday than in the days when thousands of people occupied the state capital in February and March.

The following day I filed a complaint with Corcoran's superior. Requesting that he be removed from the first line of defense in "protecting" the people and the capital. I suggested that maybe he be given a few days off as he was clearly over extended in his ability to maintain a clear head and make smart choices whilst under pressure. I learned that he was not working that day and that he would also have the following day off. Perhaps his superior was already savvy to his need for a break.

Monday, June 6th was a significant day as it was the first day the Wisconsin Supreme Court began hearing arguments in the legal challenge to the controversial state law that strips collective bargaining rights for public workers.
More than a thousand people paraded around the capital calling attention to Walker's budget stating that it is "a death sentence to the people of Wisconsin".

My work in Wisconsin will continue. In addition to weekly video news stories, I am making a documentary film about the gentle revolution that exists here. I hope it continues to be gentle and that the brave people of Wisconsin will continue to stand up strong and set an example for the rest of the country.

Recount in Waukesha, WI - People say there is a problem

Today was supposed to be the last day for the Supreme Court re-count in Wisconsin. Waukesha, the county where extra votes were found two days after election day in April, is taking longer than predicted. The recount is slated now to be over May, 26.

Everybody In, Nobody Out: Rallying For Universal Healthcare in Vermont


On May 1, 2011 thousands rallied for health care as a human right in Montpelier, Vermont.

For three years a grassroots movement for universal healthcare has been building in Vermont thanks to the Vermont Workers Center. On March 24, the house passed H202, a bill that puts Vermont on the road to having universal healthcare.

Yet before the activists could celebrate the consideration of universal healthcare in Vermont, they had to contend with a last minute amendment that would have made the bill less than universal; the Brock-Sears amendment would explicitly exclude undocumented workers.

The day after this May 1 rally the Brock-Sears Amendment was struck down in conference committee. The committee was responding specifically to grassroots pressure from healthcare activists who called, wrote, marched, rallied and spent days at the statehouse talking to lawmakers. This is democracy in action, and proves that grassroots organizing works.