Citizens United, the conservative, Supreme Court-case-winning no-profit that produced Newt Gingrich’s “America at Risk” documentary, is releasing two more films this month. The first, coming next Wednesday: “Fire from the Heartland,” a documentary that features Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wy.), and Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) as examples of what CU’s David Bossie calls “an awakening among women in America.”
The next, coming on September 30: “The Battle for America,” a film that stars Dick Morris and makes the case that the 111th Congress has to be replaced. (The working title was “Bill of Indictment.”)
By the end of the year Citizens United will have churned out five films, but Bossie tells me that the schedule might become less ambitious in 2011 if he gets his dream off of the launchpad. That dream: Citizens United’s first dramatic film, a feature that depends on an event in the news “that hasn’t happened yet.” A director and writer are lined up for the project, which Bossie anticipates would cost more than the $600,000 to $1 million that the organization spends on documentaries. The first documentary on deck for 2011 is the third in a trilogy about Cold War leaders, focusing on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. (The first films, hosted by Newt Gingrich, covered the lives of Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II.)
“These are optimistic films about citizen leaders who liberated Europe,” says Bossie. “They’re a nice break from the heated politics we have right now.”
