Ann McElhinney is a journalist and documentary film director and
producer. Her work examining the real life costs of environmental
policies has outraged many in the environmentalist movement and she
has received several death threats.
An inspiring and entertaining public speaker, she was voted the
most popular speaker after Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter at CPAC.
One blogger recently described her as "the Irish Sarah
Palin" (it was not meant as a compliment.)
She is the director and producer of FrackNation (2013)-a
documentary on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and the natural gas
boom in the US and abroad. FrackNation shows how unfounded
opposition to fracking is damaging the lives of some of the poorest
and hardest working people in America. FrackNation dispels myths
and tells the story of the people directly
affected by fracking
bans.
FrackNation premiered January 22, 2013 on Mark Cuban's AXS TV.
The New York Times called the film "meticulously
researched...provocative." And Variety said it was a "briskly
paced...mischievous pic."
FrackNation bypassed traditional funding methods and instead
turned to Kickstarter, a crowd-funding website. In 60 days, 3,305
backers donated $212,265 to tell the truth about fracking. It was
one of the most successful campaigns in Kickstarter history.
She has also recently produced and directed a series of short
films
exposing environmental hypocrites who want others to live
with less, but
who refuse to change their own lifestyles: James
Cameron Hypocrite,
Robert Redford Hypocrite and Prince Charles
Hypocrite. Her short films have garnered over 2.5 million views on
YouTube.
In 2009, she produced and directed Not Evil Just Wrong, a film
which examines the devastating consequences of the global warming
hysteria. The film highlights the tragic consequences of the first
triumph of the environmental movement, the ban on DDT, which has
needlessly resulted in the deaths of more than 40 million children
and adults in the developing world.
Previously, McElhinney produced and directed Mine Your Own
Business (2006) - the first documentary that asks difficult
questions of the
environmental movement. As a result, 80 NGOs, including
Greenpeace, called for the film to be banned when it was screened
in the National Geographic auditorium in Washington DC. Protestors
compared Mine Your Own Business to "Nazi propaganda" and
"pornography" .
However, Canada's The National Post said "Mine Your Own Business
is devastating because it combats prejudices and fantasies with
pictures that refute thousands of weasel words. Images spun from
afar. It deserves to be seen by anybody who wants to understand the
impact on poor people of radical environmentalism.
McElhinney has also made documentaries for the BBC, CBC (Canada)
and RTE (Ireland). The Search for Tristan's Mum (RTE, 2005)
concerned the case of Tristan Dowse, a baby who was adopted by an
Irish man and his wife in Indonesia. Two years later, when the
adoptive mother became pregnant, they abandoned Tristan in an
Indonesian orphanage.
The case outraged Ireland and McElhinney tracked down Tristan's
natural mother and, going undercover, infiltrated the baby-selling
ring. Tristan is now living with his natural mother in Indonesia
and the baby sellers are serving lengthy jail sentences.
The Irish government initiated a high court protection order to
protect Tristan's interests and when delivering his judgment,
Justice John McMenamin said McElhinney deserved the "highest of
praise" for her investigative journalism.
McElhinney was featured in and was the Associate Producer of the
highly controversial documentary Return to Sender (2005) for
CBC.
McElhinney has also written for or is a regular contributor to
an array of
international media organizations including CNN, FOX
News, ABC (US), BBC, CBC (Canada), ABC (Australia), RTE (Ireland),
The Sunday Times and the Irish Times. She is a regular on a number
of US talk radio shows including Hugh Hewitt, the Dennis Miller and
Randi Rhodes show.
She is a regular contributor to Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood
site.
McElhinney has worked as a journalist and filmmaker in the US,
Canada, Romania, Bulgaria, Chile, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam,
China, Ghana and Uganda.
She has most recently spoken at conferences in Washington DC,
New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Toronto, Grand
Rapids, Phoenix, San Diego, St. Louis, Santa Barbara and Salt Lake
City. She also lectures on campuses across the US on the dangers of
environmental extremists and the scam of sustainability.
McElhinney produces and directs documentaries with her husband
Phelim McAleer.
Filmography
FrackNation (2013) Director & Producer
Not Evil Just Wrong (2009) Director & Producer
Mine Your own Business (2006) Director & Producer
The Search for Tristan's Mum (RTE, 2005) On Screen
Journalist
Return to Sender (CBC, 2005) Associate Producer
Romanian Twins (BBC, 2004) Assistant Producer
Speaking topics
1) The Dangers of Environmentalism
2) How Business has lost its Guts (and how the poor will suffer
for their cowardice)
3) Capitalism - A Love Story: How I rejected liberalism and
learned to love Capitalism
4) Bono and Bill Gates - capitalists who hate capitalism and
want the poor to remain poor.
5) The Enemy Within - How cowardly conservatives are the biggest
enemies of Middle America and the World's Poor
6) Global Warming....and other environmental nonsense
7) Education System...a hatchery for liberal ideology
8) How Social Welfare Kills: a British case study
9) How not for profits and environmental organizations are
determined to keep the poor of the world in poverty - and how you
can stop them
