(For reference)

Their particular form of protest comes from poking fun at serious issues such as world trade rules, corporate greed and the human role in global warming. And, they are so good at it that the suits usually don’t know the joke is on them until it’s way beyond face-saving time.

They’ve pinioned officials at the World Trade Organization, FEMA and Halliburton. In my book, I included their 2007 antics at a Canadian oil convention. Impersonating executives from ExxonMobil and the National Petroleum Council, The Men had a roomful of industry types on their feet and solemnly lighting candles made from what they claimed to be the next big renewable energy source: Vivoleum, a “fossil fuel” supposedly made from the human flesh of people killed in hurricanes, floods and other global warming-related disasters.

Given what's on TV this time of year, there are many worse ways to spend a Monday night. But even before seeing it, I have a complaint for the filmmakers: the title. The Yes Men certainly make it more fun to fret about corporate corruption and lack of political will, but change the world? At best, they call attention to its many dysfunctions.

July 20: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

More dates and trailers after the jump.

July 27: Dog Day Afternoon

August 3: On The Waterfront

August 10: Rebel Without A Cause

DCist also reports that films will screen Mondays through August 10, starting with Close Encounters of the Third Kind on July 20.

"We will have Screen on the Green this summer," Rauch said in an interview with Washington City Paper. "And if we don’t, we’re gonna have 16,000 people with DVD players and iPhones sitting on the mall, in a flash mob or something. We’ll find a way."

Inspired by President Obama's successful grass roots campaigning, Rauch started the Facebook group "Save Screen on the Green!" in May, shortly after HBO announced it was pulling the plug due to lack of co-sponsorship.

Obama haters and skeptics of new media organizing take note. The Facebook group has picked up nearly 2,500 members and launched a letter writing campaign. All of which, says Rauch, have made him HBO's go-to D.C. contact.

“I’ve been in direct communication with their Screen on the Green coordinator," he says. "I’m, in a way, the local connection for them on this."

Rauch has been checking in with HBO and referring interested local sponsors to the company's Screen on the Green representative for negotiations. Surprisingly or not, HBO is just as intent on keeping SOTG alive as Rauch and his contacts. So far, HBO still needs a co-sponsor to put up the remaining $150,000 for SOTG.

“It seems like HBO has been working with some people," Rauch says.

"They’re working with the National Park Service to make sure that they can find dates that are in a series of times that are good for showing—I think they wanna get five movies in at the minimum. It’s a lot of logistics that HBO is working on with Park Service."

Now it's just a matter of finding that co-sponsorship.

After a fruitless e-mail blitz on everyone from Lockheed Martin to AT&T (“Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were pretty quick to tell us to stop e-mailing them"), Rauch turned to Facebook group members for help. Peppering his pleas with Obama-like buzz-words "community," "initiative," and "advocacy," Rauch see's direct appeals to members' own companies and employers as the best bet to save SOTG.

"Someone that worked for Booz Allen Hamilton got a meeting with some of their head honchos to try to promote this in addition to our e-mails," Rauch said. "Unfortunately, they couldn’t commit to it."

Currently, Rauch has no local committed investors. But, in addition to HBO's SOTG rep, he is working with the D.C. Film Alliance. Rauch's latest initiative, designing and selling "Save Screen on the Green!" T-shirts to raise money and awareness, is in the works. He's hoping the Film Alliance will help.

"I’m just a regular citizen," Rauch said. "I don’t have a corporate bank account where I can protect people's money when they buy something from me, like a T-shirt. But the film alliance would be able to do something like that."

Selling shirts and writing letters may seem ineffectual to some, but, according to Rauch, maintaining a presence and building a community of SOTG advocates is most effectual.

"We’re not going to start seeing a protest and a march down the street of our Facebook group," Rauch said. "In fact, I think what makes the Facebook group effective is we have almost 2500 in just our Facebook group alone–strength in numbers."

Rauch said he is expecting a phone call from HBO early next week with "news." He urges people to join the SOTG Facebook community for updates about the T-shirt initiative and the status of SOTG.

"I think it's patriotic for people to get involved and support SOTG," Rauch said. "It’s the only film festival that is in the nation’s back yard. It’s just important—it's free, and in a place that’s just inspiring."

In the meantime, keep practicing the HBO dance.

We Love DC is reporting that HBO has canceled this year's Screen on the Green. The blog writes:

"HBO has cancelled the long-running Screen on the Green program for 2009, according to a representative from HBO’s consumer affairs department."

So no Double Indemnity on the Mall, no Rebel Without A Cause under the stars. No reason was given for the cancellation of this summer event.

DCist confirms the bad news.

Quaid and Moore will star in an HBO movie called The Special Relationship. Which would be totally gag-inducing if the story centered on Bill and Hillary instead of Bill and Tony Blair, and "the unique and sometimes turbulent political relationship between the newly installed PM and the U.S. president."

Martin Sheen will again play Blair. (Already knocked that one out of the park in The Queen, as well as in the 2003 TV movie The Deal. Geez, Hollywood, how about giving someone else a chance?)

Story at Variety.

"You can call me Ted. I sell life insurance, if you need some." That's Ted Haggard, the former evangelical preacher who was fired and/or resigned from his posts after having an affair with a male prostitute and buying meth, talking to TV critics Friday here in Los Angeles.

Haggard and his family were promoting Alexandra Pelosi's 45-minute HBO documentary "The Trials of Ted Haggard," which debuts Jan. 29. "Now that we've got the freedom to answer questions, we want to answer questions," he said. Pelosi, daughter of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, revealed that "Ted had an agreement with the church that he would not tell his story, and he was recently released from that."

As to his "trials," the life insurance salesman and former National Association of Evangelicals president said, "I now know more about hatred than I've ever dreamed. And I know it doesn't help. And I know about judgment, and I know it doesn't help."

Haggard said "I made the wrong decision" and that "my hope was always that I could deal with my issue on my own," he's "grateful now for [gay escort] Mike [Jones]'s decision to expose that, and I'm grateful for my family's decision to be faithful to me when I wasn't faithful to them." His wife, Gayle, told critics that "our marriage was strong and is stronger now because of the honesty and the transparency and our ability to communicate about these things."

As to the drugs, Haggard said, "I'm not sure what I bought. And it conflicted me. It was, I love it; I hate it. I don't really know what to do with this." But he said he's convinced that "without this scandal, I had the potential of becoming dependent and increasingly compulsive, and probably really ruining my life. I certainly lost my career and my reputation."

While Ted called his behavior "hypocrisy," he sidestepped repeated questions about sexual orientation, including his own. "I think sexuality is confusing and complex," he said, vaguely referencing the "very positive, constructive process" he's going through, adding later, "I am thoroughly and completely satisfied with my relationship with my wife." He also insisted that "all people are in equally desperate need of redemption, love, inspiration, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, those things. We are in a world that's short on love and high on hatred and judgment, and I've gotten it from every side. I get it from the religious side as well as the unreligious side, and I just think we can all improve."

Haggard's daughter Christy — who appeared in front of critics along with her brother, Marcus –was more direct. While she said "there was a lot of misrepresentation which resulted in a lot of confusion, a lot of unnecessary hatred towards our family," she said later, "We were more judgmental than we are now, and people were hurt by us. And I know that a lot of people deserve a very sincere apology from our family because we are all the way we are for a reason."