Portland, Oregon

Accra, Ghana

Havana, Cuba

Havana, Cuba

Bay of Bengal, India (near Calcutta)

Havana, Cuba

Luoyang, Henan, China

WWOOF Farm in Southern Portugal

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Lima, Peru

I was lucky enough to go around the world last year for my new documentary, Plant This Movie. This is the reel that I cut when I got back.

Why can’t we vote with our cell phones? Why can’t we vote online? The security for cell phones is actually quite strong. The phone company knows who owns the phone, they have your bank account information. Your identity can easily be verified. Indeed, cell phone voting is already used to determine one important election: [...]

Just finished work on the fundraising teaser for my new documentary, the working title of which is “Food Not Lawns”. Here it is:

If you know any documentary producers or have any other fundraising ideas, don’t hesitate to drop me a line. karneyhatch@gmail.com or 818-585-5838

This is a video that I thought might never make it to the light of day, but it finally has.  Enjoy!

Tao of the Palouse

The banking industry is sending out mixed signals at the moment.  Just last month, several large banks including Bank of America and Chase were trying to convince people to stay with overdraft “protection” ahead of the rule change that goes into affect this summer that will make it so consumers have to opt in rather [...]

Okay, time to connect some dots.  I was inspired by an article on the Huffington Post about a proposal from State Rep. Brian Egolf of New Mexico.  He has introduced a bill to move the State of New Mexico’s money from Bank of America to community banks and credit unions throughout the state.
Naturally I thought, [...]

Ariana Huffington is working on starting a movement to get people to switch from their big banks to community banks and credit unions.  Great idea (and one that a bunch of the consumer advocates in my film are on the side of)!
A woman on Facebook , Carol Merrill, said it best: when you switch to [...]

This is a red-letter day, no question about it.  The Fed gave us opt-in, which means that new and existing account holders have to sign up for overdraft protection rather than be automatically enrolled when they open an account.  But the fight is far from over.  As Eric Halperin of the Center For Responsidle Lending, [...]

On November 19, which happens to be my birthday, “Overdrawn!” will screen on Capitol Hill.  Here’s an electronic version of the press release, with links:

11/6/09 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Karney Hatch, karneyhatch@gmail. com
“Overdrawn!” Screening on Capitol Hill
Ralph Nader to head panel of experts at Q & A
WASHINGTON, D.C. - - “Overdrawn!”, a documentary on predatory lending [...]