Citizens United Productions will premiere a documentary film about American Exceptionalism, entitled “A City Upon A Hill,” hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich, this Friday, April 29 in Washington, D.C. “A City Upon A Hill” is written and directed by award-winning film maker, Kevin Knoblock (“Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous With Destiny,” “Nine Days That Changed The World,” “America at Risk”).

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Throughout our history, the United States has risen to meet great challenges — sometimes out of necessity but often out of the determination to create a better future for the next generation. At the time of our founding, no other nation had adopted the radical ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No other nation had declared, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights” — rights that no king or government could take away.

“A City Upon A Hill” explores the concept of American Exceptionalism from its origin to the present day. What makes our Declaration of Independence and Constitution special? Why did George Washington relinquish power? How did we climb out of the Great Depression to become the world’s greatest economic power? Why did we lead the liberation of Europe during World War II? And why was it important to be the first to land on the moon? Learn the answers to these questions and more in “A City Upon A Hill.”

In “A City Upon A Hill,” Michael Barone says, “I don’t think it’s arrogant to believe in American Exceptionalism, that we have a special role in history because when we believe that, we’re not believing that we as individuals are particularly special and good or virtuous that we’ve done so much. We’re simply acknowledging what seems to me to be the plain fact of history – that we stand on the shoulders of giants, that we are lucky enough to have inherited, or in the case of immigrants, to have chosen, the heritage that belongs to the United States of America.”

America is a unique nation, and stands above all others because of that uniqueness. Unfortunately, President Obama wants to move America to more of a European style of Democracy. From Egypt to France, President Obama has been on an apology tour telling global leaders that America is just one of many exceptional nations.
This documentary, featuring interviews with historians, politicians, and experts, including Donald Trump, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Rep. Allen West, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Buzz Aldrin, Douglas Brinkley, Edwin Meese III, Allen Guelzo, Fred Barnes, Michael Barone, Andrew Breitbart, S.E. Cupp, Phyllis Schlafly, and many more, tells the story that America is not just one of many, but America is indeed an exceptional nation.

Please view the trailer and find out more about the American spirit and the exceptional nature of our country at http://www.cityuponahill.com/.

We have some exciting events planned for this year’s Film Festival at CPAC 2011!  Starting at 2pm on Thursday, February 10th, Newt and Callista Gingrich will introduce our film America at Risk: The War With No Name.  America at Risk, hosted by the Speaker and Mrs. Gingrich, takes an in-depth look at the war against radical Islam featuring exclusive interviews with some of the top national security experts in the world.  After the film, join us for a reception with Mr. and Mrs. Gingrich.

On Friday afternoon February 11th, we have a special event planned to honor conservative women.  Fire from the Heartland: The Awakening of the Conservative Woman, will be screened at 1:30pm, featuring an introduction by co-star Rep. Michele Bachmann.  After the film, conservative icon and Fire from the Heartland co-star Phyllis Schlafly will deliver remarks to the audience.  This much anticipated speech will be followed by a panel discussion on the film, co-sponsored by the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute. 

Be sure to stick around Friday evening for our celebration of President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday beginning at 8pm!  This event, which is co-sponsored by Young America’s Foundation, will begin with their Ronald Reagan short film, Still Point in a Turning World. This will be followed by the presentation of President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday cake, made especially for this event by Carlo’s Bake Shop from the hit television show “Cake Boss”!  Then have your cake and eat it, too, while watching our unforgettable feature film Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous With Destiny. Live introductions and remarks will be made by Governor George Allen.

In addition to these fantastic events, please see the complete Film Festival schedule below or view it online at CitizensUnited.org/CPAC!  All screenings are free of charge to CPAC attendees, and will be held in the Delaware Ballroom. 

I look forward to seeing you at the CPAC Theater and Film Festival this week!

CPAC Theater Schedule – Sponsored By Citizens United Productions

Delaware Ballroom

Thursday, February 10th

11:00 am – Iranium (Presented by Clarion Fund, Explores the dangers posed to the United States and the international community by a nuclear Iran, 60 minutes)

12:00 – 12:30 pm – Iranium Question & Answer session

1:00 pm – 1:45 pm – Blogger lunch with Citizens United Productions President David N. Bossie & short video presentation:  David v. Goliath: The One Year Anniversary of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (Credentialed Bloggers Only)

2:00 pm – America At Risk: The War With No Name * (Live introduction by co-hosts Newt and Callista Gingrich, 90 minutes)

3:45 – 4:30 pm – Citizens United Reception with Speaker Newt Gingrich and Callista Gingrich

5:00 pm – Battle For America * (A call to action by Dick Morris to take back our country, 90 minutes)

7:00 pm – Perfect Valor* (A patriotic salute to Iraq war heroes, narrated by Sen. Fred Thompson, 90 minutes)

9:00 pm – Citizens United Productions Double Feature, Rediscovering God In America I & II* (The critically acclaimed series, hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich, 120 minutes)

Friday, February 11th

9:30 am – We Have The Power * (Making America energy independent, hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich, 60 minutes)

11:00 am – Border War: The Battle Over Illegal Immigration* (An inside look at the ongoing crisis, 90 minutes)

1:30 pm – Fire From The Heartland* (The Awakening of the Conservative Woman, Live introduction by co-star Rep. Michele Bachmann, 90 minutes)

3:30 pm – Fire From The Heartland co-star Phyllis Schlafly delivers remarks to CPAC theater audience

3:45 pm – 4:30 pm – Panel Discussion: The Awakening of the Conservative Woman, co-sponsored by Citizens United and Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute

5:00 pm – Generation Zero* (The economic crisis is not a failure of capitalism but a failure of culture, as featured on “Hannity,” 90 minutes)

8:00 pm – President Ronald Reagan 100th Birthday Celebration, co-sponsored by Citizens United and Young America’s Foundation

• Screening of Ronald Reagan short film:  Still Point in a Turning World, Live introduction by Governor George Allen and Kate Obenshain, 30 minutes
• Presentation of President Ronald Reagan 100^th birthday cake, by Carlo’s Bake Shop from the hit television show “Cake Boss”

Saturday, February 12th

9:00 am – Nine Days That Changed The World * (Pope John Paul II’s 1979 pilgrimage to Poland and his role in the fall of Soviet Communism, hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich, 90 Minutes)

10:30 – 10:45 am – Nine Days That Changed The World Question & Answer session

11:00 am – The Ground Zero Mosque: Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks  (Executive Producer Pamela Geller/Associate Producer Robert Spencer, 120 minutes)

1:15 pm – Sick And Sicker (When the government becomes your doctor, a film by Logan Darrow Clements, 50 minutes)

2:15 pm – 2:45 pm – Sick And Sicker  Question & Answer session

3:00 pm – Doonby (Every story’s worth telling, every life’s worth living, starring John Schneider and Robert Davi, written and directed by Peter Mackenzie, Live introduction pending, 119 minutes)

5:00 – 5:30 pm – Doonby Question & Answer session

*A Citizens United Productions Film, www.citizensunited.org

Reagan, Judy Garland, Henry Fonda, Boris Karloff, Gene Kelly

This rare date night out without the various Spawn of Konig, naturally coincided with a gig for me: as my wife was settling into the Director’s Guild Screening Room on W. 57th. 72nd street performing a comedy sketch with TV host extraordinaire Bill Boggs in his live show Talk Show Confidential. The cue for my sketch with Bill is the end of his Richard Nixon anecdote. Boggs tells a very funny story of being a teen-aged intern in the 1960s on a talk show, and the guest is Richard Nixon. Boggs is assigned to Nixon, to make sure Nixon gets to the set on time. En route, Nixon makes a pit stop. Young Boggs is then confronted with his first major, television talk show crisis: how to tell the imposing former Vice President that he’s not only about to go on camera with his fly open, but it’s a “Grand Mal Unzipping,” the kind where your shirt tail is hanging out of the fly.

It’s a funny story, and Boggs tells it well. So, Nixon unzipped, we do our sketch, I hop a cab to the screening – just in time to hear emcee Monica Crowley tell the second funny Nixon anecdote of the evening.

It’s now thirty years post Grand Mal Unzipping. Young Monica Crowley is an intern for former President Nixon at his Saddle River, NJ home / office. Former President Ronald Reagan pays a visit. Monica gets the rare opportunity to be photographed standing in between two presidents. Just before the cameraman shoots, our impetuous young Monica seizes both the opportunity and the aging presidential buttocks, and gooses Nixon and Reagan! The result: a photo of a young, grinning Monica and two very surprised old presidents (or, as Reagan inscribed the photo: “To Monica, a rose between two thorns”).

After the screening, we had a great time hanging out with an actress friend who I’ve known twenty years – but never knew anything about her politics. Turns out she’s a big Reagan fan, and a lifelong Republican. I asked her if she talked politics at auditions or on the set. “Well, I don’t avoid it…But, if I’m in a room full of true believers, what’s the point? I was doing a voice over job last year that had to be rescheduled because I was out of town on the first date they wanted to use me. I was in Minneapolis at the Republican National Convention. The next week at the job, the director was incredulous: ‘Why were you at the Republican Convention? What were you doing there? You mean you’re supporting McCain??’ I said: ‘Okay, let’s just do the work…’”

The documentary, by the way, was very good. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on how Reagan’s experience negotiating contracts with the studios as president of the Screen Actors Guild directly influenced his negotiating tactics years later with the Soviet Union and the Democratic congress. A couple of things Reagan learned as SAG president: “The purpose of negotiating is to get a deal” and “I’d rather get 80% of what I want then to go off a cliff with my flag flying”.

Ahem. Maybe the current SAG president could learn a thing or two from the old conservative?

And so, with our stomachs bloated with delicious hors d’oeuvres, clutching our gift bags with free Ronald Reagan coffee mugs, our big date night completed, the lovely Bride of Konig and I returned to the Palatial Konig Estates, relieved our brilliant teen-aged daughter of her duties babysitting for her younger brothers, watched the Mets drop another one to the Dodgers, and went to sleep.

While Reagan’s childhood, Hollywood career, and two terms as California Governor are covered, the meat of the focus is on Reagan’s handling of the Cold War. Through the interviews and Reagan’s own handwritten diaries, we’re given an insider’s look at the beat by beat history in what proved to be, much to everyone’s surprise, including many of Reagan’s allies, an astonishingly successful quest to put the Soviet Union on “the ash heap of history.”

There are many Reagan documentaries currently available, including some very good ones, but what makes “Rendezvous With Destiny” unique is its focus on how the President’s mind worked. While the main story covers the intriguing high-stakes chess moves of the Cold War, the overall theme is a fascinating examination of Reagan’s psychology and mindset as he made those moves. It’s easy to forget just how controversial and out-of-the-box Reagan’s thinking was at the time, but having those who were there frame the historical and political context for us is a reminder that Ronald Reagan was a true visionary.

Planned by the filmmakers or not, the time spent on Reagan’s successful economic policies comes with a rich irony. Reagan came into office facing a very troubled economy, much worse than what we’re going through today.  The result of the tax cutting and deregulation known as Reaganomics not only lifted America out of economic crisis but started us down the path of an unprecedented quarter-century of growth broken only  by a couple of short, shallow recessions.  Reliving this while at the same time realizing our current President is meeting today’s economic troubles doing the complete opposite of what  Reagan proved works is — well, I guess by “irony,” I meant “scary.”

Written and directed by Kevin Knoblock, “Rendezvous” is professionally produced, well shot and great looking in widescreen. All the production values are across the board superb and Anthony Marinelli’s score made enough of an impression that I took a note so as not to forget to mention it. You may already be familiar with the historical beats of Reagan’s life and career, but “Rendezvous” stands out because it allows you to better understand (and appreciate) a great but elusive man.

NOTE: For those of you in the area, the Reagan Presidential Library will host a “Rendezvous with Destiny” premiere in Simi Valley California on Sunday, March 15th. Newt Gingrich will be there and here’s where you can get the specifics.

I’ve been in Los Angeles six years and have already visited the library four times. There’s no place like it.