‘The little film that could’ comes to C-Span, Dok Leipzig & your living room

Whether you’re receiving our seasonal mailing for the first time or with us for over a decade, thank you for being a part of what we’re creating at Changeworx. Thanks to supporters like you, over a year after the film’s premiere we are now entering one of our biggest weeks ever for our still-new film FOLLOW THE LEADER:

• Sunday night nationwide in the US, C-Span will broadcast an hour-long primetime interview (8-9pm) about the film featuring several clips.

• Tuesday evening in Germany at 5:30pm, the film has its German Premiere at the prestigious festival Dok Leipzig, where FOLLOW THE LEADER was first pitched publicly within the Documentary Campus pitching forum in 2007.

• We’re also a week from the statewide elections in Virginia, where featured participant Ken Cuccinelli (Ben’s mentor in the film) is currently the Republican candidate for Governor in perhaps the most important political race of the year for providing insight toward what will happen in the nationwide 2014 midterm elections.

“When we meet the ambitious high school seniors of FOLLOW THE LEADER, the documentary looks like an examination of the care and feeding of Young Republicans. It quickly becomes an entirely different, and far more interesting, film…As a portrait of baby politicos, FOLLOW THE LEADER contains some fascinating insights. Maybe all politics is just like high school, the film suggests. Really, though, the movie is about so much more than politics. Its true subject isn’t the vicissitudes of politics, but of life.”

— Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post

Last month we were honored to have a week-long theatrical release in the Washington, D.C.-area at the Angelika Film Center Mosaic, timed to the back-to-school period and overlapping with the 9/11 anniversary. The film was also broadcast on the new series America ReFramed on PBS stations elsewhere in the country the same week. Among other press, we were particularly pleased that Roll Call
covered the film and the theme of 9/11’s impact on our participants. After reading about the film in the press, C-Span Founder & Executive Chairman Brian Lamb (pictured at the Angelika with our film poster, left) came out to a screening; days later, he invited me to come on his show on C-Span to discuss it. What a privilege it was to discuss the project, and a wide range of topics I’m not typically asked about (least of all for broadcast), for a full hour! Tune-in or set your DVR to see what we discussed on C-Span’s aptly titled show “Q&A” THIS Sunday on C-Span at 8-9pm (rebroadcasts Sunday, 11pm-12am & Monday, 6-7am).

Prompted by this national broadcast, we are also offering DVDs & Blu-Rays for sale for the first time at the Changeworx Online Store, at a discounted price for a limited time. Previous films including SUNNY INTERVALS AND SHOWERS (also featured near the end of the C-Span hour) are also available for convenient purchase in both North American (NTSC) and European (PAL) formats. If you know any college or high school educators who might be interested in using the film in their classrooms, we would be particularly grateful for any referrals; feel free to just hit reply and to send me any leads or ideas directly.

If you want to bring the film to your community, we are also continuing our College & Community Tour through the Spring. And if you want to bring the film to your local AMC, Cinemark, or Regal cinema, it’s now up on Tugg.com for risk-free cinema screenings nationwide. (And for those who want something even simpler, it’s availabe in the US on iTunes, Amazon, Xbox, Playstation, Google Play & Vudu.)

REALITY CHECK GOES PUBLIC

October was also a big month for REALITY CHECK INTERACTIVE – our interactive format for television, computer, iPad and iPhone that breaks social issue documentaries into episodes alternating with interactive sections. In the RCI experience, participants’ responses are reported anonymously but shared in real-time split along demographic lines so that all participants get a “reality check” about what others really think & feel. A successful live event, we presented the online, on-demand platform idea publicly for the first time just a few weeks ago: Briefly at the Storycode Transmedia gathering in New York held at Ogilvy, and then at the inaugural Storycode DC Launch Event during Washington’s Media Rise Festival. Partly an introduction and demonstration, partly a call for collaborators, the response (especially from civically-engaged Washingtonians) was electric. Please
get in touch if you are a designer, technologist, developer, or potential beta-tester who wants to help us create the prototype REALITY CHECK: FOLLOW THE LEADER INTERACTIVE. The aim is to provoke more thoughtful dialogue – and work toward the de-polarization of our polarized political space in America – leading up to the 2014 elections next year.

CHANGEWORX SPOTLIGHT

With the exception of FOLLOW THE LEADER‘s Graphics Producer Emily Branham, who also happens to be my dearest advisor in life as well, two people have been particularly instrumental behind the scenes to FOLLOW THE LEADER‘s continuing distribution success – each for well over a year now. Amélie Walker-Yung
is a superstar web designer who developed our Official Website and designs various Changeworx materials (such as the template for this E-Newsletter!). The web developer behind sites for clients from Coyote Ugly Saloon to Archaeological Institute of America, Amélie never seems to get flustered and always does brilliant work on-time & on-budget! Also a superstar, I can’t imagine a publicist who’s more conscientious and hard-working than Brian Geldin. Now in his 4th year as publicity liaison for DOC NYC, Brian has a busy November representing films including The Ghosts in Our Machine, opening Nov. 8 in New York & Nov. 15 in L.A. I can’t recommend each of them highly enough, and you should approach
Amélie & Brian well in-advance (before their schedules fill up) if you have any web design or publicity needs!

We’ll close this Fall Edition of the Changeworx E-News by mentioning another ‘little film that could’ – AMONG THE BELIEVERS (former working title: Two Children of the Red Mosque), directed by Hemal Trivedi & Mohammed Naqvi, produced by Changeworx & Manjusha Films. A recent Emmy-winner for editing on Oscar-winner Saving Face, Director Hemal Trivedi’s first full-length film as a director is slowly but steadily moving toward completion. What a long way it’s come from when we attended HotDocs together a few years ago (pictured, above) to pitch it together for the first time! Our multi-ethnic, pan-religious team can’t wait to share it with you at some point next year.

If you ever have thoughts or feedback about our work at any time, we’d love to hear from you. On behalf of everyone involved in our projects and from the bottom of my heart, all good wishes to you for a joyous Fall Season.

Jonathan and Team Changeworx

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CHANGEWORX Online Store: http://bit.ly/1agX4V4

FOLLOW THE LEADER on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/15mUHdh

CHANGEWORX on Twitter: http://bit.ly/192UfER

JGL new personal Twitter: http://bit.ly/14bhFVi

Tugg screenings: http://bit.ly/14WelgR

iTunes: http://bit.ly/17Ux436

Amazon: http://amzn.to/13zBVW6

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FOLLOW THE LEADER

A provocative, amusing coming-of-age story about teen boys who discover…politics isn’t just child’s play.

The Only Film to World Premiere during the 2012 Republican & Democratic Conventions

Featured by CNN, Fox News, Politico, and The Huffington Post

Sold for Distribution in 10 countries across Europe and Japan

“A real-life coming-of-age story for political junkies” – Education Week

“Completely authentic…and without political bias like no film I’ve ever seen.”

– Rich Tafel, President, Public Squared; Founder, Log Cabin Republicans

“Like Michael Apted’s 7 Up Series” – Filmmaker Magazine

Reflecting on who we are as Americans

A confession: I was moved to tears by yesterday’s marking of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Dream” speech, which articulates so beautifully the idea & ideals of America. There’s a certain pomp-and-circumstance that Americans sometimes just get right about recognizing important events and figures as they recede into history. But I often ask myself: Why can’t we become as good at understanding our own present-day American culture and the wider world around us?

At CHANGEWORX, we’re working every day to provoke needed conversations about more recent history and present-day realities – both here and abroad – through our films. Our active projects explore politics, religious extremism, mental health, eco-conservation, and identity. A few updates:

HOW TO SEE FOLLOW THE LEADER THIS FALL
*ANNOUNCING D.C.-AREA THEATRICAL RUN!*
Angelika Film Center Mosaic (Fairfax, VA), Sept. 6-12

“FOLLOW THE LEADER is a service to history. A fascinating, valuable film. It captures the beginning of the story, which nobody is ever able to do…it knocked me out.”  – D.A. Pennebaker, Filmmaker,
Don’t Look Back, Monterey Pop, The War Room

Much has happened since FOLLOW THE LEADER‘s twin World Premieres during the Republican & Democratic National Conventions exactly one year ago. This fall brings several new and exciting opportunities to see the film in the U.S. that coincide with the start of school and the anniversary of 9/11 – an immensely formative event for the film’s millennial participants. It’s also worth noting that Ben’s mentor featured in the film is Virginia Republican Ken Cuccinelli, who’s now neck-and-neck in the most competitive Governor’s race in the country this campaign season against former Democratic Party Chair Terry McAuliffe.

• Come to our Washington, D.C.-area Theatrical Run: From Sept. 6-12, FOLLOW THE LEADER is playing at Angelika Film Center Mosaic in Fairfax, VA(corner of Lee Hwy & Gallows Rd). Every screening is an event featuring Q&As with filmmakers and participants, and even raffle prizes! Please share the news (and this link: http://bit.ly/15T5T10) with anyone you know nearby – we’d greatly appreciate any and all help publicizing the run. We can’t wait to see you there! (Right-click for Press Release.)

• Host a College & Community Tour event: Right-click to download our Invitation or just get in touch.

• Bring it to your local AMC, Cinemark, or Regal cinema via Tugg.com: Easy & no-risk, you create an event for free and encourage people to buy tickets online. If a minimum number of tickets sell, Tugg delivers the film directly to your local theater, simple as that!

• Watch it on TV: FOLLOW THE LEADER airs THIS SUNDAY, September 1, as the Season One Finale of the new PBS/WGBH World series America ReFramed. (Nearly everyone can find the right station HERE, though we’re sorry that America ReFramed isn’t available in the D.C.-area or L.A. Markets.)

• Watch it On-Demand: FOLLOW THE LEADER is available now on iTunes, Amazon Instant, Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation, Google Play, and Vudu, thanks to Cinedigm. (International digital availability – and a European screening we just heard about this morning! – will be announced this Fall too, by the way.)

PAKISTANI PRODUCTION NEAR COMPLETE

Since 2009, Changeworx and Manjusha Films have been producing films about Pakistan’s troubled modern history, Islamic fundamentalism, and the educational opportunities (or lack thereof) for Pakistani children today. Our first finished film together, SHABEENA’S QUEST, aired on Al Jazeera internationally last year, and will be seen on brand new channel Al Jazeera America in the coming weeks (check listings). Our larger project, also directed by the fearless Hemal Trivedi & Mohammed Ali Naqvi, will provide viewers with access to the private world of the highly influential Red Mosque madrassah (religious school) network – through the intimate stories of its Chief Cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz and two of its students. As the central front in the “war on terror” is arguably shifting to Pakistan, TWO CHILDREN OF THE RED MOSQUE will provide unique insights into one of world’s most misunderstood countries. We’re very grateful to Ford Foundation, Tribeca Film Institute, Center for Asian American Media, Sheffield Doc/Fest’s MeetMarket, IFP, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Influence Film Foundation, and Women Make Movies for their generous support. You’ll be hearing more about the film and our progress as we move toward completion in the coming year.

YOUR FUTURE REALITY CHECK &
A BLAST FROM THE PAST

“Leading the way in non-traditional distribution…”
– Filmmaker Magazine

Since last summer, we’ve been grateful for a steady flow of interest in REALITY CHECK INTERACTIVE. A participatory game and social experiment, RCI is a presentation format that breaks non-judgmental feature documentaries into episodes alternating with interactivity. REALITY CHECK deepens engagement by making viewers active participants who share their responses about a film’s characters, ideas & related issues. (Right-click to download our Press Kit & read the FAQ for more info.) REALITY CHECK: FOLLOW THE LEADER INTERACTIVE has seen limited touring as a live event that receives off-the-charts ratings, but putting on a live performance event can be prohibitively expensive. So that more people can participate, we’re in the midst of translating it into an online, on-demand interactive experience. Next month, we’ll be providing a brief overview at the Storycode New York transmedia MeetUp on September 17th, and giving a talk with demonstration at the Storycode DC launch event on September 24th during the Media Rise Festival. The goal now is to have a beta version online by next Spring after rounds of user testing, so that it can influence political discussions leading up to the 2014 midterm elections.

Before closing out this season’s Changeworx E-news, one final announcement: The 10th Anniversary of SUNNY INTERVALS AND SHOWERS will be celebrated in the U.K. in November with a screening & panel discussion at the London International Documentary Festival. We’ll also be releasing a 10th anniversary DVD this winter with a new commentary from Allan (pictured when I saw him in June, left) and plenty of other extras. If you’d like a copy of SUNNY INTERVALS, the only way to get one now is to contact Changeworx directly (please do!), but we’re also hoping to announce wider availability soon.

Thanks for the privilege of writing to you every few months to share our progress. Links to our social media along with other sites mentioned in this email are listed below: If you do share a link(s), please know it makes a real difference! I’ll be at the screenings next month, and then at the IFP’s Independent Film Week in New York later in September…please be in touch if you want to meet there to discuss our projects our yours!

Wishing you the change you wish for,
Jonathan and Team Changeworx

FOLLOW THE LEADER on Facebook
CHANGEWORX on Twitter
Newly active personal Twitter
Angelika Film Center Mosaic info/tickets (Extra thanks for sharing this one!)
Tugg screenings
American ReFramed
iTunes
Amazon

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What will your world be like in 2040?

Here at Changeworx we spend our time thinking about the future. What will our world be like a generation from now around 2040? All our films follow change over time as it unfolds on-screen in participants’ lives. If we see the present in a new way, we better understand the past & can better glimpse the future. For us, that’s the essence of documentary media-making. Welcome to Changeworx E-News for Spring 2013.

Who will become America’s next President…in 2040? This questions lingers in the background of FOLLOW THE LEADER, a “real-life coming-of-age story for political junkies” (Education Week). The film follows three teenage boys who at sixteen-years-old want to be President, as they go down three different paths toward maturity. Seen already on television across Europe and in Japan thanks to our many foreign broadcast partners, the film will be released more widely in the U.S. this summer.

COMING SOON IN NEW YORK

Thanks to the Southern Circuit, we’ve just finished a 10-city tour of theatrical dates throughout the American South at colleges, theaters and government buildings filled with thoughtful audiences & provocative Q&A sessions. Next week, we return to New York for a special homecoming screening at New York’s IFC Center as part of the Stranger than Fiction series, hosted by Thom Powers & Raphaela Neihausen. Follow the Leader screens on Tuesday, May 14th at 8pm. After the film, we’ll be going for drinks around the corner. And most of our NYC-based team including Co-Editor Carla Ruff, Graphics Producer Emily Branham, Composer Zack Martin (TBC), Re-recording Mixer Rob Daly, and Colorist Pedro Padilla will be there – please help us make it a memorable event by joining us to celebrate their amazing work, a full seven (yes, 7!) years from the film’s first shoot!

We’re also honored to announce that Follow the Leaderhas been selected as one of only four features to compete in the Northside Film Festival’s Competition. Our Brooklyn Premiere will be on June 20th (time TBA) at Videology in Williamsburg. We’re excited to be part of such an innovative Festival and such a varied & provocative line-up. (For those outside of NYC, more national news in the final section).

COMING-OF-AGE IN PAKISTAN

This Saturday, Pakistanis go to the polls for a general election for the first time in five years. The impact of what they decide affects the entire world in ways that most of us in the West barely understand. Changeworx’s top priority among our films currently in production is our work with Manjusha Films that seeks to inform us about how the difficult choices many ordinary Pakistanis must make today are driven by economic, religious and political forces outside their control.

Our first collaboration, for Al Jazeera, follows remarkable school principal Shabeena as she fights to bring education to the children – particularly the girls – in one rural Pakistani village. SHABEENA’S QUESTpremiered recently and is now available worldwide for free streaming, accompanied by statements from Directors Hemal Trivedi & Mohammed Ali Naqvi. Working with a largely local crew, Hemal, Mo, Co-Producer & journalist Naziha Syed Ali, Executive Producer Whitney Dow and I have also been in Production since 2009 on Hemal’s ambitious & important TWO CHILDREN OF THE RED MOSQUE. The film charts the stories of two rural Pakistani teenagers who’ve attended one of Pakistan’s most notorious Islamic schools, with unique access to important figures in Pakistani life who place their lives in context. Supported by Ford Foundation, TriBeCa Film Institute, Center for Asian American Media, Chicken & Egg Pictures, IFP, & Women Make Movies in the U.S., we are pleased to announce the project’s selection for Sheffield Doc/Fest’s MeetMarket, where we look forward to discussing the film with decision-makers in June.

FOLLOW THE LEADER: NATIONAL & ON-DEMAND

For those in the U.S., we’re also pleased to announce our partnership with Tugg.com to release the film in cinemas “on-demand” nationwide beginning in June –Follow the Leader will be live on the platform by May’s end for individuals and groups to start “tugging” it to local AMC, Cinemark, Regal and independent cinemas almost anywhere in the country. We’re also very excited about digital and TV partnerships in the works that are going to make it possible for everyone in North America to see the film in their own homes later this year. More details will be announced in our Summer E-News, and sooner via Facebook & Twitter (please like us, follow us, & share your thoughts here if you don’t already – we’re grateful for your participation & it makes a real difference!)

We’re also continuing our live event screening tour of colleges & communities nationwide throughout the fall. Our tour offer is available for download as a pdf from our website (or just hit reply & ask for it!), and we’ve been continuing to build more vital outreach partnerships that are instrumental in our grassroots release strategy. Just last month, we presented the trailer & discussed the film at awesome conferences run by our partners National Youth Association & Student Voice, which ran an amazing event sponsored by Dell and held at New York’s Microsoft office. Our cross-platform work on Follow the Leader: REALITY CHECK INTERACTIVE that premiered with an amazing experimental live event at The Paley Center for Media is also gaining speed. We’re working toward translating the live interactive episodic event into an on-demand interactive version of the film – along with an online platform that lets people take a “deep dive” into the surprising realities of what other people really think. We’ll report back with you in Changeworx’s E-News this fall.

Thank you again for your support & for reading about our progress at this time of great change for the world & our media industry. Please be in touch directly with any comments or questions, or if you want to be involved in any of our work. Onward to 2040!

Wishing you the changes you wish for,
Jonathan & Team Changeworx

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Welcome to the first-ever Changeworx E-News!

We’re a little bit late in moving fully into the 21st Century…but it’s our pleasure to announce our new website, tell you about our current Kickstarter campaign for Follow the Leader, and share other updates about four films currently in production!

FOLLOW THE LEADER

As you may know, a big focus of ours these days is the engagement campaign to complete & launch distribution for our seven-year labor of love, Follow the Leader. As one of our main participants (thank you, Nick!) said in an email to his friends the other day “Jonathan’s poured his heart and soul, not to mention loads of personal money, into this film for 7 years…so I hope you can take just a few minutes to check it out and consider lending your support!”

A heartfelt coming-of-age story with a bit of comedy thrown in, Follow the Leader will be used to spark meaningful & reflective conversations about American political realities in the months surrounding this important US Election Season. Through our linked transmedia project Reality Check Interactive, we’re saying that yes we can talk to all sides, and indeed each of us must engage with people who disagree with us in a fair-minded way for the good of our country.

As bitter political feuds seem to erupt everywhere in public, quietly behind the scenes we’ve been screening Follow the Leader for groups as diverse as Roosevelt Institute (a non-profit carrying forward the legacy of Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt) and Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform. You can see more on that, including exclusive video, in our updates on the Kickstarter page next week. We hope you’ll join us & spread the word – a personal email from you to a friend with the Kickstarter link
(www.kickstarter.com/projects/followtheleader/follow-the-leader-and-reality-check-interactive) is the best way to get someone to take action!

Director Hemal Trivedi shares a story & a laugh with Orlando Bagwell (Ford Foundation) at ITVS’s Diverse Muslim Voices Exchange organized in Honolulu, Hawaii.

ALSO COMING-OF-AGE – IN PAKISTAN

For the past three years, Changeworx has also partnered with Manjusha Films on another timely and critical coming-of-age story – this time set in Pakistan near where Osama bin Laden was killed. Featuring unique access, Two Children of the Red Mosque is the story of a twelve-year-old girl and boy who pursue different dreams after studying at Pakistan’s most notorious Islamic school. In perpetually uncertain and dangerous circumstances, we wouldn’t be making the amazing progress we are lately without the generous support of Tribeca Film Institute, Center for Asian American Media, IFP, Women Make Movies and our newest funder, The Ford Foundation.

As you know, Changeworx productions can take a while – because our passion is for following real characters and stories as they evolve on-screen. And you can’t typically rush real change. But our same “multicultural dream team” – our fearless leader Hemal Trivedi, Mohammed Naqvi, Naziha Syed Ali, Whitney Dow and I – are also finishing up a short film this week for Al Jazeera, about a school principal’s struggles to get the girls in her village educated. We’ll let you know when Shabeena’s Quest is airing and playing at Festivals too later this year.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL…

Nick & his dad Louis in their DeLorean DMC-12, as featured in Follow the Leader — and previously in the Back to the Future film series

It’s been an exciting time of new opportunities and expansion at Changeworx as we settle into our company’s broader post-recession mission that goes beyond being a production home for my own directing projects. We’re working on more International Co-Productions – and, in addition to the projects mentioned above, we’re enthusiastic about collaborating with Germany’s DreamTeam Medienproduktion on a biography for American audiences of Doug Tompkins (Founder of The North Face and ESPRIT, turned environmental activist and large-scale wilderness conservationist in Chile & Argentina). Next month also sees the release of a project we’re working on with multi-Grammy-winning jazz bassist Marcus Miller (Producer for Miles Davis, Luther Vandross and David Sanborn, to name a few), timed to the release of his amazing new album
Renaissance. And August also marks the launch of Changeworx Educational, our boutique distribution arm that aims to make sure our work and a few other films that chart change over time are seen in as many colleges and schools as possible.

ONWARD TO THE FUTURE

Future Changeworx Newsletters will go out only each season, and periodically when there are special announcements. We look forward to continuing to update you about our ongoing activities, while also looking back on past productions like Sunny Intervals and Showers – which we’ll be releasing next year in a commemorative 10th Anniversary DVD Edition with exclusive features.

Next week, we’ll be announcing a few events in August and September for supporters of Changeworx and Follow the Leader on Kickstarter. We can’t wait to see many of you in-person, and whether we’ll see you soon or not, hope you’ll keep in touch!

With gratitude and good wishes, we look forward to the changes to come,

Jonathan & Team CHANGEWORX

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After living abroad during 9/11 and for nearly a decade, Follow the Leader began as a personal investigation into the politics of today’s youth, whose contradictory views confused me while teaching in the U.S. post-9/11. But rather than trying to define millennial opinion generally, my approach was to follow teens who had signed on wholeheartedly to the “War on Terror” as they became adults. Ben, D.J. & Nick’s stories add new pieces to a media story that has largely assumed millennial youth are simply “liberal”. But providing a fair-minded investigation to the boys’ initially “conservative” ideas was always only part of the point, we wanted to explore how their distinctly different choices on the cusp of adulthood show how kids like them are already redefining what these terms mean as their generation shapes American politics’ future.

Born as Reagan left office and the Berlin Wall fell, Ben, D.J. & Nick were raised to believe in an American exceptionalism that was shattered on 9/11 when we learned that America was great but not invincible (in Ben’s words). As they finish high school and begin college, the film shows moments in their lives during what are typically critical years for the crystallization of political beliefs. Ben, D.J. & Nick’s political obsession does place them in a minority, but their mindsets also distill the political experience of millions of teens at the crossroads of tradition & change – while illustrating the universal process of how people learn to process political ideas.

D.J. and Jonathan

Follow the Leader also encourages readings beyond the classical coming-of-age story on its surface. By sympathetically portraying its characters on their own terms, the film provokes us to reexamine both our preconceptions about youth and conservatives, as well as our own political views. Furthermore, the relative absence women and minorities in a film about future leaders – and the at times politically incorrect views of the characters – asks us to reflect on the entrenched inequalities within the American political system. Did President Obama’s election truly signal America’s political maturity, or instead partly obscure how U.S. politics isn’t as “changed” as many would like to believe? As Election Day 2012 nears, can we think longer-term and consider who we can expect to be America’s new President …in 2040?

(Editor’s note: This post is also published as the “Director’s Statement” on this website.)