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betting on zero

"There should be a subgenre of documentaries solely defined by their capacity to incite righteous anger in the audience. Titles would include 'Blackfish,' 'Inside Job,' 'The Act Of Killing,' and Ted Braun's 'Betting On Zero.'"

-Indiewire

From ‘Darfur Now’ writer/director Ted Braun comes a riveting docu-thriller following controversial hedge fund titan Bill Ackman as he puts a billion dollars on the line in his crusade to expose Herbalife as the largest pyramid scheme in history. Herbalife claims Ackman is simply a market manipulator out to make a fortune from short-selling their stock, but Ackman insists Herbalife deliberately targets low-income and immigrant communities and robs them of their life savings. Herbalife is joined on the counterattack by longtime Ackman nemesis (and fellow Wall Street billionaire) Carl Icahn, while Ackman finds an unlikely ally in Chicago activist Julie Contreras, who rallies the Latino community to get the Federal government to intervene. Blending tales of high-stakes corporate intrigue with working-class people caught in the crossfire, Braun paints a stirring picture of the American Dream gone wrong.

BETTING ON ZERO premiered at TriBeCa Film Festival in April, 2016, where it earned a special jury mention for investigative filmmaking.

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ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Writer-director Ted Braun’s critically acclaimed first feature film, DARFUR NOW, was nominated for best documentary of 2007 by the National Board of Review and The Broadcast Critics Association, and went on to win the NAACP Image Award for best documentary of the year. Warner Brothers distributed DARFUR NOW worldwide and financed along with Participant Media, which spearheaded a global social action campaign. For his work writing and directing the film, the International Documentary Association awarded Braun their 2007 Emerging Filmmaker of the Year. Braun is an Associate Professor in Screenwriting at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts where he has just been appointed the Joseph Campbell Endowed Chair in Cinematic Ethics.

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about the producers

GLEN ZIPPER

Glen Zipper is a founding partner with Zipper Bros Films and formerly the Head of Documentary Features for Exclusive Media’s Spitfire Pictures. In addition to producing the Academy Award®-winning documentary UNDEFEATED, Glen recently produced the non-fiction horror film THE NIGHTMARE (dir. by Rodney Ascher), DEEP WEB (dir. by Alex Winter), KILLING THEM SAFELY (dir. by Nick Berardini, A FASTER HORSE (dir. by David Gelb), and executive produced ALL THINGS MUST PASS for director Colin Hanks.

Glen is currently producing TREAD for director Paul Solet ("GRACE"), and ZAPPA, which set the record as the highest funded documentary in Kickstarter history. His other prior credits include the Grammy Award®-winning FOO FIGHTERS BACK AND FORTH and the Emmy Award®-winning GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD. Twitter: @glenzipper

DEVIN ADAIR

Devin Adair is founder of Adair Entertainment. Devin produced BREAK POINT (JK Simmons, Jeremy Sisto, Amy Smart) which premiered at SXSW and BETTING ON ZERO with Glen Zipper. Devin is in pre-production on GRACE, a film she wrote and will direct, produced by Trish Hofmann (GET ON UP, Emmy and Golden Globe nominated HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN, DEVIL, NOTORIOUS, THE NEW WORLD), Gabe Cowan, (SXSW audience award winner CHEAP THRILLS and numerous other films including Courtney Cox’s directorial debut, BEFORE I GO), and Laure Sudreau, founder of Ourobors Entertainment.

SONYA BURRES

Since completing her studies at the American Film Institute (AFI), Executive Producer Sonya Burres has worked as a producer, line producer and executive producer. She produced the award-winning feature ALWAYS SAY GOODBYE and co-produced the film ZOE. From 2001-2006 Ms. Burres and her two Norwegian partners operated a commercial production company, Brown Cow Pictures, that filmed internationally. She has produced projects for ShowTime and Channel 4, and writes about cinema and television for a variety of outlets.

BILTMORE FILMS

BETTING ON ZERO is the first film presented by Biltmore Films, an independent film production and development company based in North Carolina. Biltmore Films specializes in business and financial subjects.

See The Film

**NOW NOMINATED FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT AT THE 2018 WGA AWARDS**

http://www.wga.org/news-events/news/press/2018/2018-writers-guild-awards-screenplay-nominations-announced

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Reviews

Betting On Zero is 100% FRESH on ROTTEN TOMATOES!

Read The New York Times' Betting On Zero review.

Read Village Voice's Betting On Zero review.

Read Screen Daily's Betting On Zero review.

Read Indiewire's Betting On Zero review.

Read The Washington Post's Betting On Zero review.

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PRESS

"It isn't a dramatization. It's a hard news documentary. And its message is all the more visceral because this fight that riveted Wall Street in 2014-15 is not only real – it's still ongoing." –Blouinartinfo.com

"Herbalife Exposé Will Hit Theaters in March" Bloomberg

"Ackman-Herbalife Battle to Hit Big Screen With Distribution Deal" Bloomberg

"The Activist and Herbalife: Just Maybe Ackman's Right" New York Times

"Filmmaker says lobbying firm tried to 'thwart' screening of documentary" Washington Post

"The Herbalife Saga Is 'Far From Over'" Yahoo Finance

Watch Betting On Zero director Ted Braun's 4/15/16 interview on Bloomberg TV.

Watch Ted Braun's 4/15/16 interview on CNBC.

"Tribeca Fest: 'Betting On Zero' stirs Herbalife waters" LA Times

"Lights, Camera, Ackman: Herbalife On The Big Screen" Wall Street Journal

"Ackman-Herbalife Feud Gets Fresh Scrutiny at TriBeCa Film Fest" Bloomberg.com

ARRANGE A SCREENING

To arrange a screening of BETTING ON ZERO in your community, please fill out the form below.

<a href="https://filmbuff.wufoo.com/forms/zrotuc90421zc8/">Fill out my Wufoo form!</a>

pre-order a digital copy

in theaters 3/17/17

NYC: Village East 3/17–3/23 | Buy Tickets

LA: Laemmle Monica 3/17–3/23 | Buy Tickets

Houston: América Cinemas Sharpstown Center 3/17–3/23 | Buy Tickets

Ft. Worth: América Cinemas La Gran Plaza 3/17–3/23 | Buy Tickets

Minneapolis: Emagine White Bear 3/17–3/23 | Buy Tickets

Denver: SIE Film Center 3/20

Westchester: Pelham Picture House 4/6 | Buy Tickets

Sante Fe: Jean Cocteau Cinema 4/7–4/13

Columbus: Gateway Film Center 4/7–4/13 | Buy Tickets

ATTEMPTS TO suppress and DISCREDIT BETTING ON ZERO

Hours after Betting On Zero premiered at TriBeca Film Festival, where paid contractors distributed leaflets attempting to discredit the film, Herbalife launched an attack website. The website, bettingonzero.com, is a repository of false and misleading information about the film and is subject to periodic wild and dramatic revisions.

The initial version, which can be accessed here, made the case that Betting On Zero was funded by Bill Ackman, whose campaign to draw regulatory attention to Herbalife's business practices is one of the subjects of the film. This was a lie, and the company knew it was a lie, as it appears to admit on an updated version of the website in its description of its numerous meetings with director Ted Braun.

After the FTC announced it would force Herbalife to pay $200 million in restitution and completely restructure its business, the film's financier publicly discussed his involvement with the film in this interview on CNBC, and the company changed its tune. Here is the new version of bettingonzero.com, which argues that critics of multilevel marketing companies cannot be trusted to speak honestly about multilevel marketing companies, and that people who manage money for others cannot support documentaries about business and financial subjects that reflect their personal beliefs.

Incidentally, paid contractors posing as 'community activists' also leafletted the August 6 screening in East Hampton, NY, but at least on that occasion they admitted to one of the producers that they had no idea what the film was about.

Most recently, Herbalife's lobbying firm bought up more than 170 tickets to the Washington, DC premiere on October 7. Either they invited a lot of friends who didn't show up or they didn't want people to see it.

The core findings of Betting On Zero are practically identical to the core findings of the FTC after its multi-year investigation of Herbalife. This is not a coincidence.

For more information about what the FTC found, please view the FTC's lawsuit against the company here.