[act-ma] 12/15: "HotCoffee" - Free UPandOUT film screening - Thursday, Dec 15

[pf soto]

/<http://rule19.org/download-film/film-111215-hotcoffee.pdf>Hot Coffee/
*a Scalding Takedown on Tort Reform*

Thursday, Dec 15th, in Cambridge   [please download & distribute flyer 
<http://rule19.org/download-film/film-111215-hotcoffee.pdf>]

In 1992, a 79-year-old Albuquerque woman, Stella Liebeck, spilled a 
scalding cup of McDonald's coffee on herself, suffering third-degree 
burns and years of expensive medical treatments that led to her lawsuit 
that had the whole country talking. Hot coffee - Seinfeld mocked it. 
Letterman ranked it in his top ten list. And more than fifteen years 
later, its infamy continues. Everyone knows the McDonald's coffee case. 
It has been routinely cited as an example of how citizens have taken 
advantage of America's legal system, but is that a fair rendition of the 
facts?

/*Hot Coffee*/ examines the real story behind Stella's case along with 
three other cases of people seeking justice  - for a fascinating look at 
the tort-reform movement and its impact on our civil-justice system. 
This film reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, while 
exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who 
funded the effort and to what end. After seeing this film, you will 
decide who really profited from spilling hot coffee.

/*Hot Coffee*/ attempts to offset the disinformation campaign produced 
by giant corporations. Tort reform and medical malpractice caps are hot 
button political topics. There's such a huge corporate-funded marketing 
campaign behind tort reform that few people understand the reality: It 
mostly benefits corporations at the expense of taking away a jury's 
right to make a decision.

Watch and share in the outrage.

"/It may be hard to understand why tort reform is even on the national 
agenda at a time when insurance industry profits are booming, tort 
filings are declining, only 2 percent of injured people sue for 
compensation, punitive damages are rarely awarded, liability insurance 
costs for businesses are minuscule, ... and premium-gouging underwriting 
practices of the insurance industry have been widely exposed./''  ~ 
Center for Justice and Democracy, 2004

"/I am concerned about how to reverse the process by which a 
fundamentalist right and a corporate elite were able to seize power in 
the United States./" ~Todd Gitlin

"/Eye-opening indictment of the way big business spins the media/." ~Variety

"/Stunning debut - Sends audiences out of the theater thinking in a 
brand new way./" ~Washington Post*


When/where*
243 Broadway, Cambridge - corner of Broadway and Windsor,
entrance on Windsor
rule19.org/videos <http://rule19.org/videos/>

Please join us for a stimulating night out; bring your friends!
free film, free refreshments, & free door prizes.
[donations are accepted]
/
"You can't legislate good will - that comes through education./" ~ Malcolm X

*UPandOUT film series* - see rule19.org/videos <http://rule19.org/videos/>

Why should YOU care? It's YOUR money that pays for US/Israeli wars - on 
Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine, So America, etc etc - for 
billionaire bailouts, for ever more ubiquitous US prisons, for the loss 
of liberty and civil rights...














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