Recently a blogger has referred to this “documentary”, as an “infomercial”. This makes a lot of sense with respect to its executive producer, Walter Maksym.
After the March 3, 1991 airing of the 60 Minutes piece on Werner Erhard, Werner Erhard then filed a defamation lawsuit against 20 defendants, including the San Jose Mercury News, individual reporters, other forms of news media, CBS, Hustler magazine, the National Enquirer, commercial publications and even private groups that had criticized Werner Erhard or his teachings.
According to a San Jose Mercury News story from April 7, 1992 entitled: “Est Founder sues critics; suit names Mercury News writer”, the lawsuit was filed in March 1992 in Chicago’s Cook County Circuit Court, and Werner Erhard was represented at the time by Illinois attorney Walter Maksym.
Today, the company “Walter Maksym Publishing” lists books including “Diets Don’t Work!”, “Diets Still Don’t Work!”, “One Hour Orgasm”, and “Who Taught You That?”. However, these books are ALL listed on Amazon.com as published by some Texas based company called “Breakthru Publishing”. And what is another publication involving Werner Erhard published by Breakthru Publishing ? Why, it’s none other than the book by Jane Self, called 60 Minutes and the Assassination of Werner Erhard.
In the issue of John Marshall Law School Briefcase, Fall 2006, Vol. 6, Issue 2, Walter Maksym is described as such: “Walter Maksym is executive producer of the upcoming film “STASH,” set in Chicago. Maksym is president of Walter Maksym Publishing, president of Diets Don’t Work, Inc. and president and executive producer of Eagle Island Films.”
I wonder how this “documentary” can be considered anything BUT an “infomercial”, as the blogger had written, when its Executive Producer, or rather, the president and executive producer of “Eagle Island Films”, one of the two production companies behind “Transformation: The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard”, was in the past the attorney for Werner Erhard in lawsuits against the press/media, as well as being the current president of a company that has all these books that in the past were published by Breakthru Publishing, the same publishing company that had published 60 Minutes and the Assassination of Werner Erhard ??? It is most likely that this “documentary” will probably not go down in history as a “documentary” or a “film”, but rather … something else. Especially when the background behind the production of the “documentary” is taken into account.
