Thomas Frank’s new book, “Pity the Billionaire” is now on sale.  The book dovetails perfectly with “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” to update how the conservative right has surged back to power after the 2008 economic crisis.

Tom begins his book tour, with the following schedule.  Check Tom’s web site for venue and other details.

• Wednesday, January 4 – New York City
• Thursday, January 5 – Boston
• Friday, January 6 – Washington, DC
• Tuesday, January 10 – Raleigh, NC
• Wednesday, January 11 – Chicago, IL
• Thursday, January 12 – Fairway, KS
• Friday, January 13 – Wichita, KS
• Tuesday, January 17 – Minneapolis, MN
• Wednesday, January 18 – Denver, CO
• Thursday, January 19 – Seattle, WA
• Friday, January 20 – Portland, OR
• Thursday, February 2 – Philadelphia, PA
• Tuesday, February 28 – Washington, DC

We were lucky enough to read an advance copy of “Pity the Billionaire,” and we think it’s the perfect political book to start 2012.  Others think so too.

We were pleased to discover that POV, the acclaimed and reliable outlet for independently produced documentaries on PBS television, included “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” when compiling a United States of Documentaries, a list of the best documentaries covering each of the 50 states.

As the POV bloggers write,

The United States of Documentaries is a representation of the best documentaries each state of our great union has produced. When I say produced, I mean the main story and subject are set in that state. And when I say best, it could either be that the film itself is great, or that its connection to the state is the most unique or telling.

Documentaries bring us closer to the world. We get to go places we normally can’t, and learn about fascinating people and important issues that might otherwise be ignored. But just how comprehensive is our understanding of our own country, based on the documentaries we see? What you see before you takes a first stab at answering that question.

Sharing a list with the Maysles Brothers, Barbara Kopple, Steve James, and many of our other favorite documentary filmmakers is a great honor indeed.  We certainly found that many Kansans find the movie to be true to Kansans, even if Kansas liberals and moderates wish it weren’t.

If you visit the POV site, you’ll get a chance to weigh in on your opinion.

We recently came across a map of Netflix “local favorites” across the country, generated by the good folks at Slacktory… we’ve altered it to highlight the finding that “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” is a favorite in, yes, Kansas (along with “Ducktales, Volume One.”)

From WebProNews:

Some highlights include the southern portion of Texas liking The Alamo, while the Seattle area still like Singles. Meanwhile, some people in Kansas really like What’s The Matter With Kansas, although, the Wizard of Oz is not listed anywhere in the state.

Click through to see the original map, which is worth a closer look.

After completing the documentary “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” director Joe Winston got what he least expected – a government contract.

After seeing the documentary, a representative of the U.S. Department of Education offered Winston a chance to bid on production of a short documentary on the Walton Rural Life Center, an elementary school in the tiny town of Walton, KS, about forty minutes north of Wichita.

In 2007, the Walton School was in danger of being shut down.  It was a good school,  but population decline in the area had left it with too few students to justify staying open.  For a town like Walton, with fewer than 300 people, losing its only school could be a crippling blow.

Instead of giving up, the school reinvented itself by using a U.S. Department of Education charter school grant to incorporate agriculture into every aspect of the curriculum, being perhaps the first public elementary school in the nation to do so.  Now, students as young as five years old take care of cows, chickens and goats as part of their studies.  But they aren’t just learning to farm – they’re conducting hands-on experiments and projects to learn math, science, reading, and other basic skills.  Bright-eyed in their enthusiasm, Walton students have embraced the new model of hands-on learning through agriculture.

Five years later, the school is bursting at the seams with students, and academic achievement, attendance, test scores, etc. have all risen to make Walton one of the very best schools in the state.

Walton is an unequivocal Kansas success story: the same school, with the same staff, is now thriving as a rural public school, in partnership with parents, family farms and small businesses.  A small agricultural town gets to survive by being a small, agricultural town.

You can see the video below and the Department of Education blog post about it here.

On Wed, January 25, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” will debut a Special Edition DVD of the film. Sporting a crisp new wide screen transfer, the disc offers a host of extras which add richness and depth  to the movie itself.

EXTRA FEATURES:

Audio Commentaries - with filmmakers Joe Winston and Laura Cohen, and author Thomas Frank.  They’ll take you inside the making of the film and directly connect people and events depicted in the film to today’s Tea Party Movement.

Extended and Deleted Scenes

Exclusive extended and additional scenes not shown in theaters including:
•   Christian home schooling (extended)
•   Patrick Henry College (extended)
•   The late Dr. George Tiller and his  adversaries (extended)
•   Inside the Pro-Life movement (deleted)
•   Angel Dillard chooses conservative Christianity (extended)
•   Farmer Donn Teske on free markets (deleted)

Audience Q&A

Delve deeper into the revelations of the conservative movement with author Thomas Frank, and filmmakers Laura Cohen and Joe Winston in this insightful audience Q&A filmed at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago.

We’ll have special discounts for subscribers to our mailing list, so if you haven’t already,  be sure to sign up today!

You’ll  be able to buy the DVD from us, from Amazon.com and many other leading retailers.  You’ll also be able to rent it on Netflix and see the movie (without extras) on Amazon.com’s Video on Demand Service.  Soon, the movie will come to other digital platforms as well, be sure to ask for it!

“What’s the Matter with Kansas?” will air several times during late November and early December on LinkTV, available as DIRECTV Channel 375 | DISH Network Channel 9410.  The special screenings are part of LinkTV’s pledge drive.

Here are the first air dates, more to follow:

Friday, November 26, 2010 – 8:00 pm Pacific Time / 10:00 pm Central Time

Saturday, November 27 – 5:00 pm Pacific / 7:00 pm Central

Wednesday, December 1 – 9:00 pm Pacific / 11:00 pm Central

Friday, December 3 – 8:00 pm Pacific / 10:00 pm Central

Sunday, December 5  - 5:00 pm Pacific / 7:00 pm Central

Tuesday, December 7 – 4:00 pm Pacific / 6:00 pm Central

Saturday, December 11 – 3:00 pm Pacific / 5:00 pm Central

Monday, December 13 – 6:00 am Pacific / 8:00 am Central

More details on LinkTV’s web site.

In the wake of the 2010 midterm elections, Countryside Unitarian Universalist Church in Palatine, IL has organized a free screening of “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” for one night only, Friday, December 10, 2010.

Members of the church organized the screening by contacting us and purchasing a Community Screening Kit (we have several offerings, depending on the size of the group and whether you want to charge admission, etc.)  Prior community screenings in various parts of the country have been very successful, a great way to bring art-house movies to audiences who might not otherwise see them.

If you are part of a group that might want to hold a screening, be sure to drop us a line at info@whatsthematterwithkansas.com and we’ll make it easy for you.

The screening will be followed by a Q & A with the filmmakers, conducted via Skype (ain’t technology great?)

Here are the details:

“What’s the Matter with Kansas?” community screening

Countryside Church Unitarian Universalist
1025 N. Smith Street
Palatine, IL  60067

Friday, December 10, 2010
7:00 pm
FREE admission

Q&A to follow immediately afterwards.

On Monday, October 25, 9:00 PM Eastern Time,  The Rachel Maddow Show will present an hour-long documentary special, “The Assassination of Dr, Tiller.”

The abortion doctor was slain in his church in Wichita on May 31, 2009.  His murderer, Scott Roeder, has been convicted to life in prison without possibility of parole. Dr. Tiller’s status as one of very few doctors who would provide third-trimester abortions made him a controversial figure – a role he did not shy away from. His clinic was a reason Operation Rescue chose Wichita for the 1991 “Summer of Mercy” campaign to shut down abortion clinics – a high-water mark of Pro-Life activism which altered the landscape of U.S.  politics.

Dr. Tiller was never shy about advocating for abortion rights, or confronting the Pro-Life movement.  His life had been threatened many times, and he had been shot before, back in 1993.

Dr. Tiller has a small but pivotal role in “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” and now his fascinating life and role in the abortion debate will be more fully explored in the upcoming MSNBC film. We have not seen the film, but the producers did reach out to us earlier in the year, and we assisted them with research and archival footage (hat tip to Pro-Life Advocate Mark Gietzen, who appears in both productions, and put them in touch with us.)

We never met Dr. Tiller while filming in Kansas – for years he was constantly under investigation or lawsuit of one sort or another, and wouldn’t speak to the media.  But whatever one’s views on the abortion debate, he was a brave and fascinating man.  We have high hopes that the Rachel Maddow special will do him justice.

(Note: our expanded coverage of Dr. Tiller and his adversaries can  be found here.)

Dr. George Tiller

Donn Teske, a self-described “red-neck farmer from Kansas” who’d never left the country before, recently found himself in Senegal on fairly short notice.

President of the Kansas Farmers Union, and a star of the movie “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” Donn just returned from two weeks in Kaolack and Dakar.  He participated in an international farmer exchange program, offering to help the Senegalese farmers become more efficient at growing and marketing millet.

Donn Teske (on the right) in Senegal on a farmers exchange program

Donn has posted his journal entries and photos on the Kansas Farmers Union blog (his posts start here.)  It’s well worth a look, esp. if you are familiar with Donn from our movie.

He introduces his adventure as follows:

Yep, I’m writing this from Brussels, danged Donn who has never traveled beyond the American borders in all his travels all these years besides Winnipeg a couple of times.  And shoot, Winnipeg hardly counts as out of the country.

It all started when I received an email sent out by National Farmers Union putting out a call for participants in a “Farmer to farmer” program hosted by the NCBA (no, not the cattle group, the National Cooperative Business Assn.) They were requesting expert assistance in working with Senegal producers in their efforts to raise and market Millet. I thought that I would be a pretty good candidate for this effort, (except for the part about growing Millet) but Millet is quite a bit like Milo and I’ve grown quite a bit of Milo over the years. This is the part where my neighbors are all saying “he’s the crappiest farmer in the county what is he going to do over there to help them out????”

Senegal ranks 156 out of 177 countries on the Human Development Index. Around 70% of the population are farmers and 63% of the population survives on less than $2 per day! WOW, talk about a need!

You can read the rest here and here.

UPDATED 7/24/10 – Barbara Ehrenreich will join Thomas Frank for this special event!

Barbara Ehrenreich and Thomas Frank will speak and sign books (including copies of Franks recently-revived Baffler magazine) on Wednesday, July 28, at Borders Park Avenue, 461 Park Avenue (at 57th Street) in New York City.

The title of the forum is: “What’s the Matter with Kansas? six years later – the backlash in hard times.”

Thomas will reflect on how times have changed – and how they haven’t – since his highly influential best-seller debuted in 2004.  Barbara Ehrenreich, whose books, from “Fear of Falling” to “Nickel and Dimed,” to name just a few, have been tremendously influential, will also speak.

Of course, this event is in celebration of the opening of the movie “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” in New York City on Friday, July 30 at the Producers Club IndieHouse Cinema, 358 W. 44th Street in mid-town Manhattan.

Director Joe Winston will also be in attendance, and offer a brief sneak preview of the upcoming movie and give away free passes to a lucky few from the audience!

”WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS? SIX YEARS AFTER: THE BACKLASH IN HARD TIMES”

WHEN:  Wednesday, July 28, 2010, 7:00pm

WHERE:  Borders Bookstore, Park Avenue and 57^th St.