How does Government regulate the economy? In an idyllic suburban neighborhood, Jerry (Patton Oswalt) runs his big business lemonade stand and has the market cornered - until ten-year-old Addie (Taylor Buck) opens her own stand across the street. Competition equals war, and both sides use - and abuse - a government regulator (Mo Collins) to try and win. In the end, one special customer (Werner Herzog) will decide their fate.
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Writer: Ramin Bahrani
Producers: Manu Gargi, Ramin Bahrani
Executive Producer: Kevin Turen
Cast:
Jerry: Patton Oswalt
Addie: Taylor Buck
Government Regulator: Mo Collins
Neighborhood Hero: Werner Herzog
Production Manager: Erica McIntosh
First Assistant Director: Alan Steinman
Editor: Alex Camilleri
Script Consultant: Derek Anderson
Production Designer: Adam Willis
Art Director: Almitra Corey
Director of Photography: James Laxton
First Assistant "A" Camera: Richard Avalon
Second Assistant "A" Camera: Nick Nikides
"B" Camera Operator: Jay Keitel
First Assistant "B" Camera: Albert Frigone
DIT: Bram Weinkselbaum
Costume Designer: Becca Battoe
Assistant Costumer: Kayreth Williams
Hair/Make-up: Annie Cardea, Victoria Boothroyd
Sound Mixer: Dan Monahan
Boom Operator: Jay Golden
Gaffer: Mark Farney
Key Grip: Tyler Johnson-Williams
Swing/Driver: Nicola Pizzi
Location Manager: Deven Chiereghino
Assistant Location Manager: Victoria Howard
Casting Director: Deborah Dion
Music by: BC Smith
Production Assistants:
Priya Amritraj
Aidan Benitez
Loretta Dennis
Dennis Harris
Jordan Kurtzman
Jordan Paley
Catering: Gigi Snacks
Craft Service: Chris Liner
Assistant Crafty: Brian Gork, Erik Hensin
Sound Design: Abigail Savage
Re-recording Engineer: Tom Effinger
Sound Post Facility: Dig It Audio, Inc.
Sound Post Facility Producer: George Dellinger
Color Services: Color Collective
Color Producer: Claudia Guevara
Colorist: Alex Bickel
Color Assist: Jeff Altman
Visual Effects: Post Mango
VFX Artist: Daniel Apodaca
A Noruz Films Production
Ramin Bahrani
Writer/director RAMIN BAHRANI’s films have screened at the Venice, Cannes, Sundance, Berlin and Toronto Film Festivals. He has won numerous awards, including the FIPRESCI critics prize for best film in Venice (“Goodbye Solo,” 2009), and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among many others. He has been the subject of retrospectives in venues such as the MoMA in New York. In 2010, legendary film critic Roger Ebert proclaimed Bahrani as “the director of the decade.” His latest film, “99 Homes” (Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dern) will premiere this year.
Director's Note
“On a cold winter’s day, a group of porcupines huddled together to stay warm and keep from freezing. But soon they felt one another’s quills and moved apart. When the need for warmth brought them closer together again, their quills again forced them apart. They were driven back and forth at the mercy of their discomforts until they found the distance from one another that provided both a maximum of warmth and a minimum of pain. In human beings, the emptiness and monotony of the isolated self produces a need for society. This brings people together, but their many offensive qualities and intolerable faults drive them apart again. The optimum distance that they finally find that permits them to coexist is embodied in politeness and good manners. Because of this distance between us, we can only partially satisfy our need for warmth, but at the same time, we are spared the stab of one another’s quills.” - Arthur Schopenhauer
Schopenhauer’s aphorism can help illustrate how the government regulates the economy and the manipulative hand big business often has in it.
Quiz
Which of these “Wall Streeters” was busted for insider trading by the SEC?
45%Bernard Madoff
18%Gordon Gekko
12%Albert Wiggin
25%Ivan Boesky
25% of respondents chose the correct answer: Ivan
Boesky.
During the high-flying 1980s, Wall Street was the place to be – but suspicion around
Ivan Boesky began to arise when his bets always paid off. Insider trading is against the law because it gives
one investor an unfair advantage over other investors.
Which of the following U.S. agencies is responsible for monitoring money laundering?
38%The Justice Department
42%The IRS
4%The Department of Sanitation
17%The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (they print our money)
38% of respondents chose the correct answer: The Justice
Department.
Though other agencies may help identify and provide evidence against violators of
money laundering, it is the Justice Department that prosecutes the cases. Money laundering is not just about
organized crime moving money from here to there, but banks are often complicit in these transactions. HSBC,
Standard Chartered, Bank of New York and other banks have paid steep fines for helping smugglers, drug
traffickers, sanctioned governments and terrorists clean their finances.
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln started this agency to help pay for war expenses:
14%The U.S. Postal Service
52%The IRS
25%The U.S. Mint
10%The U.S. Armed Forces
52% of respondents chose the correct answer: The
IRS.
Originally called the Office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the agency was supposed
to be temporary to help collect a newly enacted income tax of 3% on income over $800. The law expired and so did
the agency, but in 1913, the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ushered in a new era of tax paying that is
still in place today. Every year, the IRS charges both companies and individuals with the crime of tax evasion.
Which government agency oversees industries that generate 25% of US consumer spending and employs millions
of people?
34%The Food and Drug Administration
7%The US Postal Service
43%The Small Business Administration
16%The Federal Communications Commission
34% of respondents chose the correct answer: The Food and Drug
Administration.
The benefits of the FDA include building the confidence of American consumers in
the products that the FDA regulates. Safe foods and safe and effective medical products are key components of
continuing to achieve longer, healthier lives for Americans, as well as increasing productivity and reducing
disability. In recent years, the FDA has been given significant new responsibilities, including the
implementation of sweeping new food safety laws and the regulation of tobacco.
Twitter
Wall Street Journal claims Burger King's attempt at inversion is not to avoid taxes, but is due to Canadian over-regulation. Do you buy it?
@Garcia4AZHouse
Tweeps: Did Obama fix that salmon regulation freshwater/saltwater thing yet?
@StevenTDennis
FACT: There's an FAA regulation which mandates that 1 out of 4 airport terminals in the US must smell like Cinnabon? #TheMoreYouKnow
@FM95country
Do monopolies on pharmaceutical patents lead to better medication and treatment? I tend to think not.
@EsotericaMe
So, #GOP tell me why you're so big on self-regulation in the finance industry when our country almost went under bc of its absence in 2008?
@johntmarohn
Did you know?
In 2013, SAC Capital agreed to pay $1.8 billion fine for inside trading - the largest such fine in history.
Money laundering was first recorded 4,000 years ago in China when merchants would hide their money from their rulers.
The 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act prohibited interstate commerce in adulterated and misbranded food and drugs.
The Clean Air Act regulates emissions from cars, trucks, factories and aircraft and also includes noise pollution.
"Ponzi Scheme" is named after Charles Ponzi who duped investors with promises of high returns without making investments.
