News & Blog

Breakthrough Documentary on Global Education Completed

Press Contact: Chad Heeter: 317-650-4665

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, September 3, 2007 ?Broken Pencil Productions announces the completion of its breakthrough documentary, Two Million Minutes ?A Global Examination.

Eighteen months in the making, the film chronicles the lives of six high school students in three countries around the world ?The United States, India and China. Observing the various pressures and priorities of these students, their schools and their families provides insight into the changing nature of competition in the knowledge economy.

Supplementing the view from the students?perspectives is a world-class group of experts who elaborate on the differences in education among the countries and discuss implications for America.

Interviewees include Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Congressman Bart Gordon, (D-TN), U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology, Vivek Paul, former CEO of WiPro technologies of India, Tim Draper, Managing Director of Silicon Valley venture firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Vivien Stewart, Chinese Education Specialist at the Asia Society, Richard Freeman, a Harvard University economist and Vivek Wadhwa - Executive-in-Residence at Duke University.

The Two Million Minutes documentary was conceived by Executive Producer Robert A. Compton while he traveled throughout India and Southeast Asia in 2005 and 2006. Compton, a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and Harvard MBA, saw dramatic differences in the educational attitudes and experiences between cultures.

Joining Compton on the film project as Directors and Editors were veteran journalists and film makers Chad Heeter and Adam Raney. Both Heeter and Raney have traveled extensively, been members of Teach for America and had directed documentary short films around the world. They hold Master’s degrees in Journalism and Latin American Studies from UC Berkley.

Scenes from Two Million Minutes ?a title that alludes to the amount of time high school students have to build their intellectual foundation and prepare for college and careers ?will be shown as a work-in-progress at the Broad Seminar on Education for a Global Economy in Washington on September 9, 2007.

International education and business experts will attend the seminar, organized by the Hechinger Institute at Teachers College at Columbia University.

The hour-long documentary explores how each culture’s educational priorities and norms are adopted and accepted by schools, family and the students. The stark differences in attitude, effort and priorities of these students?high school experiences offer important clues to the future of economic competition in the 21st century.

The seminar on September 9, 2007, will initiate the launch of a grassroots, countrywide schedule of screenings, seminars and conversations on Two Million Minutes ?and the need for American leaders, educators, parents and students to be cognizant of the global intellectual competition rising around them.

Further press releases and updates on screenings, discussions and seminars will be posted at www.2mminutes.com