Toronto Screening...Finally!

INDEPENDENT AMERICA FINALLY COMES HOME...TO TORONTO

Documentary director Hanson Hosein and Executive Producer Tom Powers invite you to attend the Toronto screening premiere of the award-winning documentary, "Independent America: The Two-Lane Search for Mom & Pop" (www.independentamerica.net).

The screening will take place on Monday, July 16th at 7 p.m. at the Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen Street W. (www.thedrakehotel.ca). with both the director and executive producer in attendance.

This comes two weeks after the U.S. broadcast premiere of the film on The Sundance Channel -- along with these recent high-profile write-ups in BusinessWeek and the cover page of the Toledo City Paper (check out more of our publicity here).  We'll be showing the 52-minute broadcast version of the documentary (which has also been shown in Japan, Australia, Qantas Airlines First Class (!) and soon New Zealand), and expect to have a rousing conversation afterwards.

The Toronto show is very much a homecoming for Independent America: Tom and Hanson both grew up here.   It's also where they hatched their partnership two years ago.  We're charging a nominal $5 entrance fee to cover the costs of the venue.

Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop follows Hanson Hosein (Emmy and Overseas Press Club winner) and his wife, Heather Hughes as they hit the road, shooting their own film, traveling 13 thousand miles through 32 states in search of Independent America.  They do it all while abiding by two simple rules of the road:

1)   No Interstates: They can only travel on secondary highways and country roads

2)   They can only do business with Mom & Pop.  No McDonalds, No Best Westerns. No Wal-Marts.

The documentary feature uncovers the growing discontent with big box, corporate America.  The filmmakers capture pockets of resistance across the country, which adds up to a nationwide opposition: Starbucks is vandalized in Colorado. Supporters of an anti-big box law in Arizona are compared to Nazis.  A rebellious Texan city forces Borders Books into retreat. Patriotic residents of America's "Fourth of July" capital in Nebraska start to turn on their new super center. And an entire town in Wyoming goes into business for itself after it's abandoned by its chain department store.