Attention Chicago Filmmakers!
4 Hearts Announces 1st Annual Red Carpet Short Film Showcase
Are you a Chicago filmmaker looking for exposure and want to get the word out about your short film? 4 Hearts is currently seeking short film submissions to showcase for the 4 Hearts 1st Annual Short Film Showcase taking place on Saturday, July 21, 2012 at The Holiday Star Theater in Park Forest, IL from noon until 3pm.
The highly anticipated event will kick off with a red carpet, followed by the screening, and end with a 30-minute Q & A panel with the filmmakers. Submissions are due by Tuesday, May 15th. Please include your name, a brief bio, and contact information with your submission. Links to videos hosted online can be emailed to fourhearts@ymail.com.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
All film genres accepted. Short films should be 20 minutes or less in length.
Viewing copies must be submitted in DVD format.
The price to submit films is free.
Tickets to attend the event are $12.00 per person. All selected filmmakers will receive 1 free ticket.
MAIL SUBMISSIONS TO:
4 Hearts
ATTN: Short film submissions
PO Box 570473
Tarzana, CA 91357
Selected applicants for the showcase will be notified by June 1st. If selected, filmmakers must provide a quality DVD of their work for screening and at least 1 person must attend the event to represent the film on the panel. Please note that copies submitted will not be returned.
Battered Washington still chasing gold
Battered Washington still chasing gold
This is the extraordinary story of a sportsman betrayed by his closest friend, of a life destroyed by someone else’s cheating and deceit and of a sport struggling to cope with the aftermath of a doping explosion.
Tyree Washington could have been an athletics superstar. He should have gold medals galore, world records, sponsorship deals and a healthy bank balance.
He should have, but he doesn’t. And none of it is his fault. 
Washington, Chris Jones and Young lost their gold medals after Antonio Pettigrew admitted doping
Washington was a 400m runner with a rangy running style and a trademark headband around his shaved pate. As a 21-year-old he won bronze at the 1997 World Championships, anchored the US 4x400m team to gold and was part of the quartet that set a new world record the following year.
Both the relay medal and record have now been taken off him, scratched from the books after his team-mate Antonio Pettigrew admitted doping throughout the period.
Worse was to come. In 2003 he won silver at the Worlds in Paris behind Jerome Young and again took gold in the 4x400m. First the relay gold went, courtesy of team-mate Calvin Harrison’s ban. Then the bombshell – his best mate Young had been doping too.
“They robbed me,” he says simply. “Jerome took away my moment. He took away everything.”
It was Young’s duplicity that distressed Washington the most. The pair had roomed together on the European circuit for years, hung out, done all the things that best friends do.
“When Jerome won the world title, I was happy for him,” Washington told me. “If it wasn’t going to be me who won it, I wanted it to be him.
“That night, though, I looked into his eyes and I knew something was wrong. He didn’t seem right to me. He wasn’t at peace. I was his best friend – with anyone else, he could look at them and they wouldn’t notice, but I’m Ty. I felt there was something wrong.
“When all the allegations came out, it made sense. He tested positive, and I was like, ‘Hey J, what happened?’ and he said, ‘No Ty – it’s not true – they’re trying to set me up.’ Then it happened the second time, and I was like, ‘Oh man…’
“I wanted to believe him, but it happened so many times. And he was with Trevor Graham’s group – these are people with athletes that have doped.”
Washington’s friend Young (centre) beat him into silver in 2003 but subsequently admitted doping
That Washington had made it to the start line in Paris was something of a miracle in itself. Brought up by his single mother, with his father in prison, he suffered from such acute asthma as a child that he spent long periods in hospital.
After his breakthrough year in 1997, his life lurched off the rails again two years later when his 18-month-old niece was murdered by her mother Rosalyn. Washington testified in court against his sister and saw her imprisoned for life – something he says “broke me apart” – but is now trying to support her as she battles a cancer so advanced that she is losing her sight.
In 2003 he was unbeaten both before and after the Worlds. Michael Johnson wrote in his BBC column that Washington could dominate the 400m for years to come. Then came Paris and Young’s victory, followed by a succession of debilitating injuries. His track career would never again hit the same heights.
In February this year, Washington was finally upgraded to world champion in the IAAF’s record books. When we speak, however, that’s as far as it’s gone. He’s still waiting for his medal and his winner’s cheque. The sponsorship money he would have received as world champ is almost certainly gone forever.
“I love athletics, but it feels like I’m being treated like the guy who did something wrong,” he says. “They gave me the title six years later, and it really doesn’t make up for it.
“My friends say that they should have a ceremony at this summer’s Worlds in Berlin to give me my medal – it would only take two or three minutes. It’s the least they could do, but they’re not even doing that.
“I’ve lost millions of dollars in sponsorship. Not winning that gold that night – my sponsors backed out, because they don’t want a second-place finisher. I didn’t get the increase in my base salary for being a world champion. There’s so much money that I lost and I can’t get back.”
Washington remains angry with both US Track and Field (USTAF) and the IAAF over what he perceives as a lack of sympathy and assistance. “There’s the blood sweat and tears, the being in hospital for hours on end, and being away from my kid so I can make a living – but they just see me as a has-been. They hope I’ll go away, and I’m appalled by it.
“I’m going to tell it like it is. I love my country, but the way they’ve treated me, I’m embarrassed to have run for the United States.”
For their part, the governing bodies say their hands are tied. “It’s not unique to Tyree, but it illustrates how athletes lose out when other athletes cheat,” says USATF spokeswoman Jill Geer.
“If someone were to test positive at the 2007 Worlds, their prize money would be withheld until the test was completed, but here’s a situation where the prize money has already been paid out.
“It’s years down the road, and recovering money that no longer exists is frankly a problem. Going to Jerome to ask for the money – Jerome doesn’t have £30,000. Getting blood from a stone is very difficult.”
Neither the IAAF nor USATF have any jurisdiction over athletes who no longer compete. In effect, Young is out of reach.
“If Jerome had been banned for just one year and wanted to come back to compete, he would need to pay the money back to compete – and that’s the carrot and stick used by the IAAF and us to get money repaid,” says Geer.
“But in the case where the athlete doesn’t want to compete again, and also doesn’t have the means to pay, it gets very complicated. We don’t have the legal leverage to get the money out. It’s something that’s very, very difficult to solve.”
Washington, a passionate and engaging man, is angry not only for himself but at the damage done to athletics as a whole by the doping culture.
“When an athlete makes that decision, they’re not just affecting themselves and seven other rivals,” he says. “They’re affecting families and friends, coaches and agents, the sporting world. There’s a black cloud over the whole sport. People think athletics is a freak show, a contest about who can drug up the most.
“They start to think, Was Ty drugging? Was Marc [Raquil, 2003 world bronze medallist] drugging because he had that fantastic finish? I was clean, Marc was clean, everyone but one man was clean – but Jerome ruined it for all of us.”
Washington is not the type of man to sit around feeling sorry for himself. While he continues to fight for the money and respect he feels he is owed, he has set up a campaign called Killeroids to warn high school students and young athletes how steroid abuse can ruin lives.
“I wanted to fight back, and I thought the best way to do it was to educate,” he says. “This is my way of trying to build up the sport. 
Tyree Washington”Marion [Jones] and Justin [Gatlin] failed the sport. The world looks at track and field and thinks we have all failed. We’re role models and teachers, and kids look up to us. If we make a wrong decision, it’ll affect them all. I want to get a message out there that we are trying to kick the cheats out.
A week after Tyree and I first chat, and a few days after I ask USATF and the IAAF about his case, there is finally some good news.
Tyree hears from USATF that a new gold medal has been forged for him by the IAAF and sent on to the States. USATF also promise to present his medal at the national championships in Eugene at the end of June.
For Washington it is a bittersweet moment. On one hand he is delighted – he will at last receive the gold, six years after Young took it from him in Paris. On the other, he will never know the feeling of standing alone atop the podium at a World Championships.
The prize money, the sponsorship money, is not his. And, ultimately, the pain of betrayal by his best friend remains.
“This will help me and all athletes past and present,” he says. “But as an athlete, I fought til the very end. I went out there full force for my country, so I’m going to do whatever I can to get justice.
“People say I’m bitter. I’m not bitter, Tom, I’m upset – but wouldn’t you be upset if someone took four gold medals and a world record away from you?”
African Americans with $836 Billion in Total Earning Power, only $321 Million Spent on Books while $7.4 Billion Spent on Hair and Personal Care Products and Services
With $836 Billion in Total Earning Power, only $321 Million Spent on Books while $7.4 Billion Spent on Hair and Personal Care Products and Services
New ‘Buying Power’ report shows black consumers spend as economy improves
New 16th edition shows expenditures rise to $507 billion
(November 1, 2010) African-American consumers are cautiously increasing their spending in some key product categories, even as they continue to make adjustments in a slowly growing economy. The finding comes from the soon to be issued 16th annual edition of “The Buying Power of Black America” report.
In 2009, black households spent an estimated $507 billion in 27 product and services categories. That’s an increase of 16.6% over the $435 billion spent in 2008. African-Americans’ total earned income for 2009 is estimated at $836 billion.
The report, which is published annually by Target Market News, also contains data that reflect the economic hardships all consumers are facing. There were significant declines in categories — like food and apparel — that have routinely shown growth in black consumers’ spending from year-to-year.
“These latest shifts in spending habits are vital for marketers to understand,” said Ken Smikle, president of Target Market News and editor of the report, “because they represent both opportunities and challenges in the competition for the billions of dollars spent by African-American households. Expenditures between 2007 and 2008 were statistically flat, so black consumers are now making purchases they have long delayed. At the same time, they re-prioritizing their budgets, and spending more on things that add value to their homes and add to the quality of life.”
The median household income for African-Americans dropped by 1.4% in 2009, but because of students going out on their own, and couples that started their lives together, the number of black households grew 4.2%. This increase meant that many household items showed big gains. For example, purchases of appliances rose by 33%, consumer electronics increased 33%, household furnishings climbed 28%, and housewares went up by 37%.
Estimated Expenditures by Black Households – 2009
Apparel Products and Services $29.3 billion
Appliances 2.0 billion
Beverages (Alcoholic) 3.0 billion
Beverages (Non-Alcoholic) 2.8 billion
Books 321 million
Cars and Trucks – New & Used 29.1 billion
Computers 3.6 billion
Consumer Electronics 6.1 billion
Contributions 17.3 billion
Education 7.5 billion
Entertainment and Leisure 3.1 billion
Food 65.2 billion
Gifts 9.6 billion
Health Care 23.6 billion
Households Furnishings & Equipment 16.5 billion
Housewares 1.1 billion
Housing and Related Charges 203.8 billion
Insurance 21.3 billion
Media 8.8 billion
Miscellaneous 8.3 billion
Personal and Professional Services 4.1 billion
Personal Care Products and Services 7.4 billion
Sports and Recreational Equipment 995 million
Telephone Services 18.6 billion
Tobacco Products 3.3 billion
Toys, Games and Pets 3.5 billion
Travel, Transportation and Lodging 6.0 billion
Source: Target Market News,
“The Buying Power of Black American – 2010″
“The Buying Power of Black America” is one of the nation’s most quoted sources of information on African-American consumer spending. It is used by hundreds of Fortune 1000 corporations, leading advertising agencies, major media companies and research firms.
The report is an analysis of consumer expenditure (CE) data compiled annually by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The CE data is compiled from more than 3,000 black households nationally through dairies and interviews. This information is also used for, among things, computing the Consumer Price Index.
The report provides updated information in five sections:
- Black Income Data
- Purchases in the Top 30 Black Cities
- Expenditure Trends in 26 Product & Services Categories
- The 100-Plus Index of Black vs. White Expenditures
- Demographic Data on the Black Population
The 16th annual report on “The Buying Power of Black America” also includes a preview of findings from the forthcoming 2010 Census report.
Copies of “The Buying Power of Black America” can be purchased from Target Market News for $99 each. For more information call 312-408-1881, or click here to purchase online.
By Black Men in America
Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal
SEATTLE — Amazon.com has taught readers that they do not need bookstores. Now it is encouraging writers to cast aside their publishers.
Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times
Laurel Saville’s memoir about her mother was self-published at first. It is scheduled to be published by Amazon next month.
Amazon will publish 122 books this fall in an array of genres, in both physical and e-book form. It is a striking acceleration of the retailer’s fledging publishing program that will place Amazon squarely in competition with the New York houses that are also its most prominent suppliers.
It has set up a flagship line run by a publishing veteran, Laurence Kirshbaum, to bring out brand-name fiction and nonfiction. It signed its first deal with the self-help author Tim Ferriss. Last week it announced a memoir by the actress and director Penny Marshall, for which it paid $800,000, a person with direct knowledge of the deal said.
Publishers say Amazon is aggressively wooing some of their top authors. And the company is gnawing away at the services that publishers, critics and agents used to provide.
Several large publishers declined to speak on the record about Amazon’s efforts. “Publishers are terrified and don’t know what to do,” said Dennis Loy Johnson of Melville House, who is known for speaking his mind.
“Everyone’s afraid of Amazon,” said Richard Curtis, a longtime agent who is also an e-book publisher. “If you’re a bookstore, Amazon has been in competition with you for some time. If you’re a publisher, one day you wake up and Amazon is competing with you too. And if you’re an agent, Amazon may be stealing your lunch because it is offering authors the opportunity to publish directly and cut you out.
“It’s an old strategy: divide and conquer,” Mr. Curtis said.
Amazon executives, interviewed at the company’s headquarters here, declined to say how many editors the company employed, or how many books it had under contract. But they played down Amazon’s power and said publishers were in love with their own demise.
“It’s always the end of the world,” said Russell Grandinetti, one of Amazon’s top executives. “You could set your watch on it arriving.”
He pointed out, though, that the landscape was in some ways changing for the first time since Gutenberg invented the modern book nearly 600 years ago. “The only really necessary people in the publishing process now are the writer and reader,” he said. “Everyone who stands between those two has both risk and opportunity.”
Amazon has started giving all authors, whether it publishes them or not, direct access to highly coveted Nielsen BookScan sales data, which records how many physical books they are selling in individual markets like Milwaukee or New Orleans. It is introducing the sort of one-on-one communication between authors and their fans that used to happen only on book tours. It made an obscure German historical novel a runaway best seller without a single professional reviewer weighing in.
Publishers caught a glimpse of a future they fear has no role for them late last month when Amazon introduced the Kindle Fire, a tablet for books and other media sold by Amazon. Jeffrey P. Bezos, the company’s chief executive, referred several times to Kindle as “an end-to-end service,” conjuring up a world in which Amazon develops, promotes and delivers the product.
For a sense of how rattled publishers are by Amazon’s foray into their business, consider the case of Kiana Davenport, a Hawaiian writer whose career abruptly derailed last month.
In 2010 Ms. Davenport signed with Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin, for “The Chinese Soldier’s Daughter,” a Civil War love story. She received a $20,000 advance for the book, which was supposed to come out next summer.
If writers have one message drilled into them these days, it is this: hustle yourself. So Ms. Davenport took off the shelf several award-winning short stories she had written 20 years ago and packaged them in an e-book, “Cannibal Nights,” available on Amazon.
When Penguin found out, it went “ballistic,” Ms. Davenport wrote on her blog, accusing her of breaking her contractual promise to avoid competing with it. It wanted “Cannibal Nights” removed from sale and all mentions of it deleted from the Internet.
Ms. Davenport refused, so Penguin canceled her novel and has said it will pursue legal action if she does not return the advance.
“They’re trying to set an example: If you self-publish and distribute with Amazon, you do so at your own risk,” said Jan Constantine, a lawyer with the Authors Guild who has represented Ms. Davenport.
Readers’ Comments
The writer knows her crime: “Sleeping with the enemy.” Penguin declined to comment.
If some writers are suffering collateral damage, others are benefiting from this new setup. Laurel Saville was locked out by the old system, when New York publishers were the gatekeepers. “I got lots and lots of praise but no takers,” said Ms. Saville, 48, a business writer who lives in Little Falls, N.Y.
Two years ago she decided to pay for the publication of her memoir about her mother’s descent from California beauty queen to street person to murder victim. She spent about $2,200, which yielded sales of 600 copies. Not horrible but far from earth-shaking.
Last fall, Ms. Saville paid $100 to be included in a Publishers Weekly list of self-published writers. The magazine ended up reviewing her memoir, giving it a mixed notice that nevertheless caught the attention of Amazon editors. They sent Ms. Saville an e-mail offering to republish the book. It got an editorial once-over, a new cover and a new title: “Unraveling Anne.” It will be published next month.
Ms. Saville did not get any money upfront, as she would have if a traditional publisher had picked up her memoir. In essence, Amazon has become her partner.
“I assume they want to make a lot of money off the book, which is encouraging to me,” said Ms. Saville, who negotiated her deal without an agent.
Her contract has a clause that forbids her from discussing the details, which is not traditional in publishing. The publicity plans for the book are also secret.
Can Amazon secretly create its own best sellers? “The Hangman’s Daughter” was an e-book hit. Amazon bought the rights to the historical novel by a first-time writer, Oliver Pötzsch, and had it translated from German. It has now sold 250,000 digital copies.
“The great and fascinating thing about Amazon’s publishing program is that there can be these grass-roots phenomena,” said Bruce Nichols of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which republished the novel this summer.
Ms. Saville no longer even contemplates a career with a traditional publisher. “They had their shot,” she said. She is now writing a novel. “My hope is Amazon will think it’s wonderful and we’ll go happily off into the publishing sunset,” she said.
Help fund Digg into Books web show!
Click here for details: http://www.indiegogo.com/project/widget/44072?a=244980
Our Story
Digg Into Books is a first-of-its kind show. It is an exciting national traveling book club show/ talk show that feature live interviews with book clubs, celebrity authors, as well as up-and-coming writers from around the world.
The purpose of the show is to provide a national platform for book clubs, authors and readers to connect on a fun and intimate level. The show has already begun to attract attention from viewers because it encourages honest and raw dialogue that is not seen on any other TV program to date.
Visit: www.diggintobooks.com to watch episode 1 and 2
The Impact
This show will lift the dark cloud hovering over literature right now. With all of the bad news about bookstores closing in our country. Digg into Books will make reading fun again and have you relating to people just like yourself. Help me bring literature in the homes of America thru media.
What We Need & What You Get
I need funding to allow me to continue to travel across America and film the people who keep literature alive in America. Also allow me to market this great cause and you will help me get our children reading books again.
Other Ways You Can Help
You can also help by sharing this campaign thru social media and lets keep literature alive in our country.
