Rick Goldsmith’s STRIPPED FOR PARTS (Documentary, 88 min) is the story of a secretive hedge fund that is plundering what is left of America’s newspapers, and the journalists who are fighting back.
Hedge fund Alden Global Capital is quietly gobbling up newspapers across the country and gutting them, but no one knows why– until journalist Julie Reynolds begins to investigate. Her findings trigger rebellions across the country by journalists working at Alden-owned newspapers. Backed by the NewsGuild union, the newsmen and women go toe-to-toe with their “vulture capitalist” owners in a battle to save and rebuild local journalism in America. Who will control the future of America’s news ecosystem: Wall Street billionaires concerned only with profit, or those who see journalism as an essential public service, the lifeblood of our democracy? Thanks to Alan Kaplan for sponsoring this screening.
A co-presentation of Albany FilmFest and the Berkeley Film Foundation
RICK GOLDSMITH has been producing and directing documentary films since 1981. His mission as a filmmaker is to tell stories that encourage social engagement and active participation in community life and the democratic process, and to stimulate young minds to question the world around them. STRIPPED FOR PARTS is the third in a trilogy of films with journalism themes, following TELL THE TRUTH AND RUN: GEORGE SELDES AND THE AMERICAN PRESS and THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBUERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS.,both nominated for Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature.