When we wrote about The Principle in January, the controversial documentary about Earth's place in the Cosmos was soon to open at the AMC in Orange. The only other Orange County connection at that time (and an admittedly very slim one) was that The Principle executive producer and on screen talking head Robert Sungenis had been praised on his website by Michael Collins Piper. Piper is a Holocaust “revisionist” who Steven Frogue, as president of the South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees, had invited to a planned (and later cancelled) symposium at Saddleback College in 1997 on John F. Kennedy's assassination.
With today's launch of The Principle on DVD, Blu-Ray and live streaming, there is a much stronger OC connection. FrontGate Media of Rancho Santa Margarita was retained by Stellar Motion Pictures LLC as the official agency for representation of the DVD and Blu-Ray launch, the companies jointly announced.
Scott A. Shuford, FrontGate's founder and chief engagement officer, says he was drawn to the film's (literally) central thesis: that scientific shows Earth is at the center of the universe.
“The Principle has revealed surprising results from recent large-scale surveys of our universe,” Shuford says in the announcement. “These surveys uncover evidence of the significance of Earth in the cosmos, and question the centuries old belief that the Earth does not have a central position in the universe. I’m fascinated by the discoveries the filmmakers uncovered, and their questions that have led to such an abrasive response from the science establishment.”
That's a reference to the resistance to the film from the science community, which includes theoretical physicist and cosmologist Lawrence M. Krauss, foundation professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State. Like Sungenis, Krauss appears on screen in The Principle, but he claims the filmmakers “mined” other interviews he's given and spliced them into the film without his knowledge. Meanwhile, narrator Kate Mulgrew of Star Trek Voyager and Orange is the New Black fame, claims that she was hoodwinked by the filmmakers and is not a geocentrist.
Mulgrew was also quick to note that she is not an anti-Semite, a label that has been branded by some on Piper and Sungenis. Indeed, it was reporting on that with the theatrical release of The Principle that spurred Sungenis and director Rick DeLano to issue separate statements denying they are anti-Semites and lambasting the media for focusing on that rather than the merits of their film.
In a new statement, DeLano praises FrontGate Media. “We chose FrontGate because of their highly experienced and coordinated team across PR, social and advertising,” he says. “With their strong history of working on films, and documentaries in particular, we are excited to have their mind-share.”
It's a mind-share that, in the case of FrontGate Media, specifically targets “the faith and family values audience.” The company, which was founded in 2001 and bills itself as “Your Gateway To The Christian Audience,” is also currently working on Pope Francis’ Wake Up! album and Bible Belles’ Adventures of Rooney Cruz series of children books
If this makes you want to own or stream a copy of The Principle, visit ThePrincipleMovie.com.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.