Education and business leaders who screened filmmaker Bob Bowdon’s film “The Cartel,” a pro-school-choice documentary detailing waste and corruption in New Jersey’s education system, praised it for illuminating a difficult and important issue.
“Really well done,” said Johnathan Reale of Mine Hill. “I think it was a good piece of advocacy journalism.”
But those who weren’t at the Rialto Theatre in Westfield Wednesday night — and who saw the movie earlier — had a different take on the two-hour film.
“It’s one-sided,” said Steve Baker, the New Jersey Education Association’s associate director for public relations. R20;It’s propaganda; that was their intent. The whole thing was very fast and loose with the facts.”
Bowdon, a first-time filmmaker, released the documentary in October 2009 after spending two years working on it.