This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Its only attribution is to IMDb, which may not be a reliable source for biographical information. Please help by adding additional, reliable sources for verification. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2011)

Jennifer Abbott
[[File:|frameless|alt=]]
Born	28 November 1965 (Age 46) Montreal, Canada
Occupation	Film Director Cinematographer Film Editor Documentary Film Maker
Years active	1998-present

Jennifer Abbott (born 28 November 1965) is a Canadian director, cinematographer and editor, best known as a documentary filmmaker. Her first feature documentary, A Cow at My Table (1998), explores contemporary Western attitudes to livestock and meat production. More recently, she served as co-director and editor of the widely acclaimed documentary, The Corporation (2003), which critically examines large corporations in the modern world. That film won numerous international film awards, including a Genie for best documentary, an audience award from the Sundance Film Festival, and a Top Ten Films of the Year designation from the Toronto International Film Festival. Her previous work includes the experimental short Skinned, and as editor for Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage (1999). She is also the editor of the book Making Video 'In': The Contested Ground of Alternative Video on the West Coast. She has taught at the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design in Vancouver.^[1]

Career[link]

Filmmaking[link]

Abbott’s first film was A Cow at My Table (1998). The film addresses the ongoing battle between animal advocates and the meat industry in hopes to educate the Western consumer. Five years in production took Abbott across Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand to meet with leading activists for the animal rights movement, as well as spokesmen from livestock industries.

In 2000, Abbott collaborated with director Mark Achbar to create Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage (2000). The documentary is a low-budget video diary of the first legally married lesbian couple in Canada. The film received multiple festival invitations, and was later broadcast on Canadian television networks.^[2]

Abbott continued her collaboration with Mark Achbar in 2003 when they co-directed the critically acclaimed documentary film, The Corporation (2003), written by Joel Bakan. The project began when Achbar and Bakan met at a funeral and realized they were both interested in globalization and its impact on society. The fact that no one had yet made a documentary on this issue shocked them both, so they decided to create one themselves. The film critically explores modern day corporations and the rise of dominant upper class institutions through the evaluation of corporate behavior towards society and the world at large. Through incorporating interviews with 40 corporate insiders and real-life case studies, Abbott hopes that the film will ultimately inspire strategies for change. During the editing process, Abbott went through over 800 pages of interview transcripts. These transcripts were digitized and narrowed down until she felt the material had narrative flow and would resonate emotionally with the audience. It was important to her that the documentary did not force ideas onto the audience, but rather to ask more questions and keep it open to interpretation.^[3] During the filming of the documentary, Bakan wrote the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power.^[4]

Abbott became involved with the documentary I Am (2011) after director Tom Shadyac saw The Corporation (2003) and invited Abbott to work as the editor on the film. The documentary explores Shadyac’s personal journey after a 2007 bicycle accident caused him to suffer from post-concussion syndrome.^[5] Abbott had an immediate connection with the film’s subject matter, beliefs, and core philosophy. Abbott worked remotely on the film from her home in Canada for two years.^[6]

Awards and Nominations[link]

[edit] The Corporation (2003)

• Best Documentary – The Genie Awards - 2005
• Genesis Award for Outstanding Documentary Film – United States Humane Society
• Top Ten Films of the Year – Toronto International Film Festival Group
• Audience Award (1st Runner-up) – Toronto International Film Festival
• Audience Award, World Cinema, Documentary – Sundance Film Festival - 2004
• Insight Award for Excellence – National Association of Film and Digital Media Artists ^[7]

[edit] I Am (2011)

• Documentary Award - Catholics in Media Associates (CIMA) - 2012 ^[8]

Personal Life[link]

Abbott currently lives on Saltspring Island in British Columbia, Canada. She is busy working on her next film, and is concurrently starting her second career as an organic farmer.^[9]

Filmography[link]

Director[link]

• A Cow at My Table (1998)
• The Corporation (2003)

Editor[link]

• A Cow at My Table (1998)
• I Am (2011)
• Let It Ride (2006)
• The Corporation (2003)
• Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage (2000)

Producer[link]

• I Am (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Mark Achbar
• The Corporation Official Site
• Jennifer Abbott at the Internet Movie Database

Mark Achbar is a Canadian filmmaker, best known for directing The Corporation and Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media.

Biography[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2011)

Achbar is a graduate of Syracuse University's Fine Arts Film Program. Achbar interned in Hollywood on the children's TV programme Bill Daily's Hocus Pocus Gang, followed by a three year stint in Toronto with Sunrise Films on their documentary series Spread your Wings and the CBC/Disney series Danger Bay. He then teamed up with director Robert Boyd, and received a Gemini nomination for Best Writer on The Canadian Conspiracy, a cultural/political satire for CBC and HBO's Comedy Experiments which chronicled Canada’s secret takeover of the USA. It won a Gemini for Best Entertainment Special and was nominated for an International Emmy.

Achbar moved into independent media, working in many capacities on films, videos and books on issues ranging from nuclear lunacy, poverty, and East Timor, to the media, U.S. hegemony and corporate power.

With Peter Wintonick, Achbar co-directed and co-produced Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, which was, until the release of The Corporation Canada's all-time, top-grossing feature documentary. Achbar’s companion book to the film hit the national best-seller list in Canada.

Achbar collaborated with editor Jennifer Abbott to create Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage, a low-budget video diary by the couple known as Canada's first legally married lesbians. This true story of “boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy becomes girl” received festival invitations from around the globe and was broadcast in Canada on Pridevision and the Knowledge Network.

In 1997, Achbar initiated a project titled The Corporation with author and University of British Columbia law professor Joel Bakan. Bakan wrote the film and book, while Achbar directed, produced and executive-produced the film. Jennifer Abbott joined the team as editor and co-director in 2000. The documentary compares globalized corporate psychology and practice to formal definitions of psychopathic behaviour, touching on environmental and social issues, as well as historical origins of corporate behaviour.

Selected films[link]

As director and producer:

• Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992)
• Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage (1999)
• The Corporation (2003)

As associate producer:

• Bitter Paradise: The Sell-out of East Timor (1996)

As Executive Producer:

• Denis Delestrac's PAX AMERICANA and the Weaponization of Space
• Sam Bozzo's BLUE GOLD: World Water Wars
• Velcrow Ripper’s FIERCE LIGHT (when spirit meets action)
• Kevin McMahon’s WATERLIFE (The Great Lakes reveal humanity’s thirst for self-destruction)
• Mathieu Roy’s and Harold Crook's SURVIVING PROGRESS (the escalating costs of progress)
• Katherine Dodd's THE FEMBOT MYSTIQUE (a sassy fembot’s take on future robotics)
• Oliver Hockenhull’s FROM NEURONS TO NIRVANA (utopian pharmacology) [Note: Achbar solely involved in the development phase]
• Barbara Mainguy’s MODERN MADNESS (defining modern madness)
• Jill Sharpe’s SEX, BREATH AND DEATH (quest for transcendence)
• Fredrik Gertten’s POISON IN A BANANA REPUBLIC (workers sue toxic transnationals)

Awards[link]

• Gemini Award nomination, Best Writer, The Canadian Conspiracy — "a cultural/political satire for CBC and HBO's Comedy Experiments."

[edit] Awards for The Corporation

• Audience Award, World Cinema, Documentary Sundance Film Festival
• Audience Award Philadelphia International Film Festival
• Audience Award Vancouver International Film Festival
• Audience Award Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival
• Audience Award FIC Brasília International Film Festival
• Audience Award (1st runner-up) Calgary International Film Festival
• Audience Award (1st runner-up) Toronto International Film Festival
• Insight Award for Excellence National Association of Film and Digital Media Artists, USA
• Best Documentary The Genie Awards, 2005
• Genesis Award for Outstanding Documentary Film United States Humane Society
• Audience Award for Best Feature Length Film Ecocinema International Film Festival, Rhodes
• Best Feature Documentary Environmental Media Association Awards
• Reel Room Audience Award for Best Documentary Sydney Film Festival
• Joris Ivens Special Jury Award International Documentary Festival, Amsterdam
• NFB Best Documentary Award Calgary International Film Festival
• Best Feature Length Documentary Ecocinema International Film Festival, Rhodes
• Top Ten Films of the Year Toronto International Film Festival Group
• Best Documentary Program or Series - History/Biography/Social/Political Leo Award
• Best Direction in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
• Best Screenwriting in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
• Best Picture Editing in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
• Best Overall Sound in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
• Best Sound Editing in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
• Best Documentary (1st runner-up) Seattle International Film Festival
• Special Jury Mention Montreal New Film And Video Festival

[edit] Awards for Manufacturing Consent

• Golden Sesterce (Grand Prize) 1992 Visions du Réel documentary film festival, Nyon, Switzerland
• Special Mention, FIPRESCI International Press Jury 1992 Visions du Réel documentary film festival, Nyon, Switzerland
• Special Mention, Public Jury 1992 Nyon International Documentary Film Festival
• Federal Express Award for Most Popular Canadian Film 1992 Vancouver International Film Festival
• Gold Hugo (Best Social/Political Documentary) 1992 Chicago International Film Festival
• Special Mention, Unanimous Jury Award 1992 Toronto International Festival of Festivals
• Jury Prize for Excellence 1992 Atlantic Film Festival
• Public's "Most Loved" Documentary 1992 Sydney International Film Festival
• Gold Apple 1993 National Educational Film and Video Festival
• Honourable Mention 1993 American Film and Video Festival
• 'Director's Choice Award 1993 Charlotte Film and Video Festival
• Voted "Best of the Festival" by Public 1993 Edmonton Global Visions Film Festival
• Gold Conch (Grand Prize ex-aqueo) 1994 Bombay International Documentary Film Festival
• Grand Prize- Best Political Documentary 1994 Canadian Documentary Film Festival

Nominations or semi-finalist[link]

• Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
• International Documentary Association Awards
• Blois International Film Festival
• Quinzaine du cinéma québécois
• The Orwell Award
• Best Documentary of the Year - New Internationalist Magazine

External links[link]

• the Evil Twin Booking Agency on Mark Achbar
• NFB interview — Rebel with a Cause: Mark Achbar
• Mark Achbar at the Internet Movie Database

Peter Oborne (born 11 July 1957) is a British journalist and political commentator. He was educated at Sherborne School and The University of Cambridge. He is a Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph columnist, author of The Rise of Political Lying and The Triumph of the Political Class, and, with Frances Weaver, the pamphlet Guilty Men. Oborne is particularly known for acerbic commentary on the hypocrisy and apparent mendacity of contemporary politicians.^[1][2][3] Oborne describes himself as a "regular Anglican churchgoer",^[4] and his wife, Martine, is curate at St Mary's Church, Islington.

Career[link]

Oborne read history at Christ's College, Cambridge, taking a BA^[5] degree in 1978.

He is the author of a highly critical biography of Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell and, in a different vein and contrast, a generous biography of the cricketer Basil D'Oliveira (for which he won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 2004) whose selection for England to tour South Africa in 1968 caused that country's apartheid regime to cancel the tour. He is also a vocal critic of the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe and author of a pamphlet, published by the Centre for Policy Studies about the situation in the country entitled A moral duty to act there.^[6]

As a television journalist he began by making three polemical documentaries with filmmaker Paul Yule – "Mugabe's Secret Famine" (2003), "Afghanistan – Here's One We Invaded Earlier" (2004), and "Not Cricket – The Basil D'Oliveira Conspiracy" (2004). In April 2005 he presented the Channel 4 programme in the Election Unspun^[7] series, Why Politicians Can't Tell The Truth,^[8] examining how the major political parties in Britain allegedly pursue an agenda designed to appeal only to a narrow band of floating voters expected to be decisive in the UK General Elections of 2005. In May 2007 he presented a Dispatches programme on Channel 4 called Gordon Brown: Fit for Office?^[9]

On Monday 20 June 2005 he wrote an article for London's Evening Standard with the title "Why the US is now our great enemy".^[10] In this article he argues how, although he and his generation were brought up to love the US, today they are the greatest threat to world civilisation. Global warming is the hinge point he describes around which this ally has turned into 'the biggest threat'.

In April 2006, it was announced that Oborne was taking up a new position at the Daily Mail as a political columnist, while retaining his connection with The Spectator as a contributing editor. Fraser Nelson of The Scotsman replaced Oborne as the Spectator's political editor.

On Monday 7 July 2008, Oborne presented a Dispatches programme on Channel 4 called It Shouldn't Happen to a Muslim.^[11] In this film and the accompanying leaflet Muslims Under Siege^[12] co-written with television journalist James Jones, it was argued that the demonisation of Muslims has become widespread in British media and politics. The pamphlet was serialised in the The Independent^[13] and prompted heated debate in the following weeks.

In February 2009, Oborne renewed his attack on MPs for alleged abuses of the 'additional costs allowance' (ACA).^{[2][14][15][16]}

Oborne's extensive contacts on the right of British politics mean he is now generally regarded as one of the foremost conservative commentators in the country. He is regularly lampooned in the satirical magazine Private Eye as 'Peter O'Bore'.^[17]

In 2009 he also contributed to Charlie Brooker's Newswipe on BBC Four. Most of a segment, discussing cross-party collusion and corruption, had to be removed due to its potentially libellous nature. Peter Oborne was on the Orwell Prize's Journalism shortlist for 2009.^[18]

Again in collaboration with James Jones, Oborne penned the pamphlet, THE PRO-ISRAEL LOBBY IN BRITAIN, which outlined the influence enjoyed by pro-Israeli lobbyists on media and politics in the United Kingdom. The article asserts that while the lobbying efforts of groups such as Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), Labour Friends of Israel, and the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) are not illegal, their funding is untraceable, their operations are not transparent, and media seldom declare the influence of junkets arranged by these pro-Israeli entities on the tenor of their writing. Oborne and Jones conclude that changes are needed "because politics in a democracy should never take place behind closed doors. It should be out in the open and there for all to see." He also presented the Channel 4 Programme Dispatches Inside Britain's Israel Lobby^[19]

In collaboration with Conservative Member of Parliament for Hereford & South Herefordshire Jesse Norman, Oborne produced the pamphlet Churchill's Legacy – the Conservative case for the Human Rights Act in the summer of 2009. Published by Liberty, the book shows how 'the Act is not a charter for socialism but contains the most basic rights from 900 years of British history.'

In September 2011, Oborne and Frances Weaver authored the pamphlet 'Guilty Men' for the Centre for Policy Studies.^[20] The report sought to identify the politicians, institutions and commentators who the authors felt had tried to take Britain into the European Single Currency and claims to expose the "often unscrupulous and vicious personal attacks" carried out by the Euro supporters. Oborne particularly identifies William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Owen as three voices of opposition to early Euro entry that suffered personal attacks from these sources.

Oborne has been both lambasted and lauded for his particularly frank public comments in the 28 September 2011 edition of the BBC programme Newsnight. In the debate about the crisis of sovereign debt in the so-called Eurozone, he referred to Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, speaking from a television studio in Brussels and spokesman for European Union economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn, as "that idiot in Brussels" multiple times eventually resulting in Tardio's walking out of the studio. Oborne was 'chided' by Jeremy Paxman, chief Newsnight anchor, for 'gratuituous rudeness' after he himself, given Oborne's 'pace-setting,' and before Tardio's walk-out, had asked for a response from, 'Mr. Idiot in Brussels.'^[21][22][23]

Postmodernism[link]

Oborne has argued that much of late 20th/early 21st century disenchantment with politics is due to a postmodern design of political agendas and programmes with subsequent implementation that denies the existence of an 'independent reality'. That is, that there is something that is called truth.^[24] Truth gives way to (mere) credibility.^[25] Commensurate with the evaporation of truth is the condensation of narrative as a setting for events. This worldview is then put to use in legitimating claims of acting in 'good-faith' or within/according to 'The rules' (said 'rules,' of necessity, formulated, accidentally or otherwise, to admit more than one interpretation) when such actions are confronted by moral challenge.^[26]

He cited New Labour as a 'front-wave' with the architects of this 'new reality' such as Peter Mandelson.^[3][27] (Oborne's 4 March 2009 Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture at the Center for Policy Studies was built upon this theme^[28]).

He has underlined, strongly, the 'capturing' of the 'independent' institutions of mainstream media (MSM) in the implementation.^[29]

Works[link]

• Alastair Campbell: New Labour and the Rise of the Media Class. Aurum, 1999. ISBN 978-1-85410-647-6
• A moral duty to act there. Centre for Policy Studies, 2003. ISBN 978-1-903219-51-5
• The Rise of Political Lying. Free Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-7432-7560-6
• Basil D'Oliveira: Cricket and Conspiracy : the Untold Story. Time Warner, 2005. ISBN 978-0-7515-3488-7
• The Triumph of the Political Class. Simon and Schuster, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7432-9527-7

See also[link]

• Politico-media complex (PMC)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Oborne's Daily Telegraph column

Criticism

• Charlie Whelan. Poison Pen New Statesman. October 1999
• Shepherd, R. Another Vast Jewish Conspiracy [2] Wall Street Journal November 2009

Ron Jeremy
Ron Jeremy receiving the "Positive Image Award" at the "Free Speech Coalition Awards Annual Bash Event" - Los Angeles, CA on Nov. 14, 2009
Born	Ronald Jeremy Hyatt[1] (1953-03-12) March 12, 1953 (age 59)[2] Queens, New York, U.S.[2]
Nationality	American
Other names	R. J., Ronald Jeremy, Ron Jeremey, Ron Jeremy, David Elliot
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Weight	180 lb (82 kg; 13 st)
No. of adult films	2098 as actor, 281 as director (per IAFD)[3]
Website
http://ronjeremy.com/

Ronald Jeremy Hyatt (born March 12, 1953), usually called Ron Jeremy, is an American adult film actor. Nicknamed "The Hedgehog",^[1] he was ranked by AVN at number one in their "The 50 Top Porn Stars of All Time" list.^[4] Jeremy has also appeared in non-pornographic films, such as The Chase, Orgazmo, They Bite, The Boondock Saints and 54.^[5]

He is noted for his 9.75 inches (24.8 cm) penis (self-reported)^[6]—and he has gained some notoriety for being capable of autofellatio (which he first demonstrated on-screen in Inside Seka).

Early life[link]

Ron Jeremy was born in Queens, New York to a middle-class Jewish family;^[2] his father, Arnold, was a physicist and his mother a book editor^[7] who served in the O.S.S. during World War II, as she spoke fluent German and French.^[8]

Jeremy attended Cardozo High School in Bayside, Queens, where former CIA director George Tenet and actor Reginald VelJohnson were his classmates.^[9][10] He earned a bachelor's degree in education and theatre and a master's degree in special education from Queens College in New York.^[11] He taught special-education classes in the New York City area and was a substitute teacher for regular classes.^[12]

Pornographic film career[link]

Ron Jeremy with Dennis Hof and Heidi Fleiss at the Adult Video Network Convention 2006 in Las Vegas

Jeremy left the teaching profession (he called it his "ace in the hole") to pursue an acting career in New York City, and says he learned what it was like to make no money as an actor who "starved Off-Broadway."^[11] Jeremy posed for Playgirl after his then-girlfriend submitted his photo to the magazine,^[10] and subsequently moved into the adult film industry as a means to support himself.^[11]

He started using his first and middle name professionally in the adult industry, after his grandmother Rose was pestered by people calling her thinking they were contacting him.^[7] Rose—listed at that time as R. Hyatt in the phone book—was pestered at all hours by prospective suitors who’d seen Jeremy in Playgirl. "She had to move out of her apartment for a month," he confides. "My father told me, 'If you want to get into this naked, crazy business, so be it, but if you use the family name again, I’ll kill you.'"

Jeremy had his nickname "The Hedgehog" bestowed upon him by Bill Margold after an incident on the set of Olympic Fever, shot in 1979.^[13] Jeremy flew in from New York to shoot the movie, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, expecting warm weather. During his motorcycle ride to the set, located near Lake Arrowhead in the California mountains, the weather deteriorated to blizzard conditions, which chilled him to the point of hypothermia. Upon arriving at the set, Jeremy was immediately whisked away to warm up in a hot shower. When he finished, his skin had taken on a pink hue from the temperature extremes, and the hairs on his body were standing on end. Margold's comment upon seeing Jeremy after the shower was, "You are a hedgehog, my friend. A walking, talking hedgehog."^[14] Contrary to popular belief, the nickname had nothing to do with Jeremy's weight gain, as he was quite physically fit at the time.

Jeremy is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for "Most Appearances in Adult Films";^[15] his entry on the Internet Adult Film Database lists more than 2,000 films in which he has performed, and an additional 281 films which he directed.^[16] By way of comparison, John Holmes—the next highest-ranked male star on the AVN Top 50 porn stars^[4]—has only 384 acting credits listed on the IAFD.^[17]

One joke that made the rounds within the industry at the time was "the kinkier acts some actresses would not perform were bestiality, sado-masochism and sex with Jeremy."^[1] However, he has since been recognized for his contributions to the adult industry by being inducted into both the AVN and XRCO Hall of Fame. Additionally, Jeremy's work earned him a spot on the Adult Star Path of Fame located in Edison, New Jersey. Ron Jeremy has said that violent video games are worse than porn.^[18]