-----Original Message----- From: one-off productions <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Friday, 29 January 1999 06:44 Subject: 'McLibel' Global Screening through the roof dear everyone who held or attended screenings, well that was a rip-roaring success. i feel quite ashamed at the tiny amount of effort that was needed from our end to catalyse such a monstrous world-wide event. this email business is starting to live up to its own hype. in the last couple of weeks there have been 102 screenings in 17 countries - France, England, USA, Australia, Hungary, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, Peru, Scotland, Slovenia, Wales, Netherlands, N.Ireland, Brazil, Turkey and Ireland - with a few stragglers still to go in China, France and the UK. as a _very_ rough estimate, up to eight million people watched it. (most of which are thanks to FreeSpeech TV distributing it US-wide on cable). about 1200 people watched it on the internet. i've pasted a few of the responses below, as well as just one of the many press articles. there's also a page on the website where anyone can add their own review of the film: http://www.spanner.org/mclibel/reviews/ as a result of all the publicity, it looks as though we have finalised our first real (?) TV broadcast on a national network. I won't tempt fate by saying which country it is. on a less positive note, i gather that a few people in the US & Canada had problems with receiving their tapes on time. our US distributor, Source Alternative, was a little overwhelmed with the sheer volume of orders and we can only apologise to anyone who was unsatisfied. apologies, too, for anyone having difficulties with the website during its extremely badly timed breakdown. sadly, this was due to the incompetence of the server hosts, rather than an overload of people accessing the site. i would be very interested to hear anyone's ideas for how to build on this great success. how soon is too soon to do another screening? shall we do it again at the end of the appeal? are there other distribution avenues that we haven't yet used? so thank you very much indeed for your efforts. i know that helen and dave greatly appreciate the support and publicity we have all generated as they head back into the high court for Round Two. with best wishes, franny armstrong ps. sorry if you receive this message more than once. can anyone recommend a good email lists organising package?? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Subject: Australia cinema screening Hi Franny, well last week went very well. 250 people came and we had only 130 seats. We decided with so many people missing out that we should run another screening. We've nearly sold it out allready. The next screening is on Tuesday Feb 2 6.30pm at the National Film and Sound Archive Tix $5 and $6 and you can pre purchase (essential) by phoning 02 6249 4512 during business hours. Well done for such a good film and event. T - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Subject: Belfast Screening Hello Franny, Just a quick note to let you know that the screening in Belfast went very well. In terms of numbers there were about twenty people there (not a lot I know, but it's a small place and we couldn't have handled many more). We had a discussion afterwards about what we could do to help the campaign and to promote the film. Different individuals are approaching Belfasts independent cinema, asking the central library to stock it, sussing out the west Belfast Film Festival and asking around schools and community groups. The feedback was very positive indeed. As something to work towards we are planning another screening/action planning evening in the near future, I'll let you know when and where when I confirm the details. All the best P - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Subject: New York screening Downtown Community TV Center had a screening of McLibel and Beyond McWorld last night (January 12th). There were about 20 people. I had to outreach during holidays, therefore, I couldn't get a big crowd. However, people loved tapes. I distributed information flyers about tapes. Global Sweatshop Coalition spoke a little bit after the screening. In solidarity, H - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Subject: 'McLibel' screening, Colorado Hi Franny, Just wanted to let you know that the Boulder screening played well to a crowd of about 50 people. Good feedback and enthusiastic response. The appeal and the screening got a front page article in the Colorado Daily, which I'll fax to you. Best, J - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Subject: documentary Hiya, we saw the McLibel docco on channel 31 in Melbourne tonight. Just writing to say we're intending to look up the postal address of McDonalds in Victoria and start a bit of a "Send-it-Back" effort..... Cheers, L and M - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Subject: Re: Southampton (UK) screening Hi, Just mailing to tell you how the Southampton screening went last night. We had about 50-60 people and they weren't all familiar faces! We'd managed to get flyers into about 200 local copies of The Big Issue during the week, so that may have helped. Everyone seemed to enjoy the screening, questions were asked and loads of leaflets were taken. Several people wanted to know where to buy the video, so hopefully you'll be getting a few more cheques in the post... Also, we now hope to do one or two more informal screenings at local Greenpeace and FOE meetings. Best wishes, N - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ABOUT THE GLOBAL SCREENING, FROM 'THE BIG ISSUE' (UK). JAN 11-17 1999 Would you like lies with that? The 'McLibel' defendants are going back to the appeal court. To mark the event, a film about the trial will be showing around the world. Gibby Zovel reports. The longest civil trial in English history is about to get longer. Eight years on from the writ served on a single father and a part-time bar worker, Dave Morris and Helen Steel, the celebrated libel case brought By McDonald's - which has cost the coprtation �10 million - refuses to go away. The two members of London Greenpeace are going back to court at 10.30am tomorrow (Jan 12) to appeal against the verdict given at the end of the record-breaking, 314-day 'McLibel' trial. To mark the event, a film of the story that Michael Mansfield QC called "the trial of the century" will be screened at over 100 locations in 17 countries, including Turkey, Peru. Australia, China, the Czech Republic and the UK. It may be the only chance you'll get to see it. None of the UK TV networks will show Franny Armstrong's hour-long documentary, 'McLibel: The Video' (sic), despite the fact that it is being screened across America and features on the US flagship current affairs series '60 Minutes'. Franny Armstrong said: "As Michael Mansfeidl helpfully declared, 'This film is not libellous', but that is not really the point. Both the BBC and Channel 4 wanted to show it, but then pulled out becayse their lawyers got the fear at the last minute. You can't blame them - they have both had legal run-ins with McDonald's before, as have 90 other organisations. They know it doesn't matter what the truth is - Ronald only has to throw a writ and our ridiculous libel laws entangle them in court for all eternity". She says that the media is finally losing its grip, and consequently important stories are never coming to the piublic's attention. 'McLibel' is being distributed on cable and satellite TV, the internet, cinemas, home video and mobile, solar-powered movie theatres. But, adds Armstrong, "I'd still sell my granny for a slot after EastEnders." In fairness, Channel 4 did screen a reenactment of the trial, taken strictly from court transcripts, also called 'McLibel'. In Armstrong's film, Ken Loach directs the drama. Meanwhile here are some 'Fun McFacts' taken from Mr Justice Bell's verdict last year. McDonald's "exploit childrem" with their advertising, are "culpably reponsibile" for cruelty to animals, deceptively advertise their food as nutritious and pay their workers low wages. So why appeal? The judge (no jury was allowed to sit - the case was "too complicated") found 'not proven' in the majority of allegations made by Helen and Dave. The subject of the libel action, the leaflet 'What's Wrong with McDonl;d's, also made allegations about rainforest destruction, packaging, food poisoning, starvation in the Third World, heart disease, cancer and bad working conditions. "Not proven" does not mean not true, but that there was insufficient evidence, in the judge's opinion, to justify the allegations. Helen Steel told 'The Big Issue': "A central plank of our argument is that multinationals shouldn't be able to sue for libel. We are also arguing that their reputation was so destroyed that we should have won the case". How does it feel to be back in court? "Oh wild. But I get used to it", she replied, deadpan. In an attempt to circumvent the libel law, all the allegations against McDonald's, court transcripts and more Fun McFacts have been made available worldwide on the McSpotlight website. It has generated an enormous 65 million hits in two years. Armstrong's film is subtitled "Two Worlds Collide". Both worlds seem oddly naive. Between 1989 and 1991 the tiny London Greenpeace group was infiltrated by seven agents hired by McDonald's. One went as far as to have an affair with one of the group members. Another sent clothes to Dave's young son, Charlie. Later, with the trial looking like a PR disaster for McDonald's, Helen and Dave turned the tables. Shelby Yastrow, executive vice-president of the McDonald's Corporaton, flew in to the UK with senior vice-president, Dick Starman, to try and broker a deal in secret talks with the pair. Helen and Dave had a tape recorder running. "You're good at this press stuff and I don't want to get involved in that," appealed Mr Yastrow. "I don't want to have to worry that you're going to go out and say 'this guy flew over from America with a bag full of money', or 'this guy privately acknowledged that this is a stupid lawsuit' or something". Mr Yastrow then added "I can't take the chance on being stung twice." It ends with no deal, and Helen and Dave vow to fight on and reject any out-of-court settlement. They live surrounded by box-files, stacks of paper and protest leaflets. There were over 40,000 documents to read for the trial. "I don't have time for Charlie anymore", says Dave, sadly. " I tell thim that I just have to work". There's no escape. Ronald McDonald pays a visit to Charlie's playgroup. Helen tries to escape from the daily grind in court to climb a Scottish peak. When she gets to the top there's a man in a McDonald's T-shirt. The Golden Arches are said to now by the most instantly recognised symbol around the globe, even beating the Christain cross. Dave Morris points out that McDonald's has a 2 billion dollar annual marketing and propaganda budget. "It is essential that the public stand up to them and to all those institutions which currently dominate our lives and environment", he told The Big Issue. "This is a war over the future of our society and our planet and it is a war we intend to win." But the "trial of century" doesn't have appeared to have dented demand for McDonald's products. Last week a two-for-one offer for Big Macs, to celebrate the corporation's silver jubilee, was so oversubscribed they ran out of burgers. Do you want lies with that, Sir? - Website: http://www.mcspotlight.org - To order a VHS copy. Send your name and address, together with a cheque for �14.99 (or �11.99, concessions) made payable to "One-Off Productions", to: BM Oops, London WC1N 3XX - Watch it on the internet: http://www.spanner.org/mclibel/vdo/ - Donations for the campaign can be sent to Mclibel Sipport, c/o London Greenpeace, c/o London Greenpeace, 5 Caledonian Rd, N1 9OX. - Those McLibel screenings in full. (list of all the UK screenings). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - o n e - o f f p r o d u c t i o n s post: BM Oops, London WC1N 3XX tel/fax: +44 (0)171 375 3181 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://www.spanner.org/mclibel Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html The Year 2000 Bug - An Urgent Sustainability Issue http://www.peg.apc.org/~psutton/grin-y2k.htm
