Please Remove Your Shoes

About the Movie Please Remove Your Shoes is a revealing documentary about broken government process. It is also an empathetic story about a half dozen public servants who try to fix it. And it is a familiar topic to all of us who have flown in the last fifteen years: the security routine at the airport - first the FAA and now the TSA. Please Remove Your Shoes examines the period before 911 and the current situation eight years later and asks the questions that make Washington squirm: “Are we really any better for all our money spent? Or is it safe to say that nothing has changed? The answers come in excoriating detail in places, and by unnerving implication in others. Direct disobedience of agency charter, subversion of management practices, and terrifying abuse of power and secrecy become the film’s markers for the superagency charged with protecting us on airplanes. With testimony from some of the original congressional lawmakers who have created TSA to the federal air marshals, screeners, and testing agents who “served” it, you’ll wonder if we weren’t actually safer before 911, as they reveal their personal stories about a government agency run amok, which lies and covers up its oversights as frequently as it makes them. Vivid HD visuals and undercover recordings add grit and realism to the personal horror stories of the “cast.” The film leaves no doubt that we need a better system to watch over our transportation. But the unsettling feeling that occurs to most is a sense of broader familiarity with the sins of this agency that look disconcertingly similar to the crimes of others. Who will watch our watchdogs? Flying in an airplane will never be the same after you’ve watched Please Remove Your Shoes. History of the Project As an aviation publisher frustrated with inconsistent regulation of competitors to his publishing constituency, Fred Gevalt sued the Federal Aviation Administration in 1998. He lost the suit, but managed to prevail politically, and the FAA was forced to write new regulation to accommodate the problem. This was his personal education about the capriciousness and irresponsibility of executive branch agencies and the damage they can do to commerce and society at large. Upon the sale of his business in 2006 and departure as publisher in 2007, Gevalt began worrying about the unusual rise in influence and size of the Transportation Security Administration, the agency developed after 9/11 to provide airport security. He wanted to write a book. But realizing that documentary film has attained a significant following as entertainment and social commentary, he decided to film first, and write later. In recognition of the familiar airport process, both the film and the book are entitled “Please Remove Your Shoes.” As a two-person crew, Gevalt and his daughter Emelie (and later Co-Producer Lorraine Pouliot) Please Remove Your Shoes criss-crossed the US many times for interviews of people from media and security experts to former air marshals, FAA security agents, and others.



After a year of initial documentary research and interviewing, however, it became clear that the topic of security was too complex to cover completely in a ninety-minute movie. Efforts to tell the TSA story bogged down with the “back stories” of the sociology of fear, economic impact, and media involvement. Gevalt found himself essentially writing a book “on camera.” He also realized that a stronger, simpler, and more dramatic story was necessary to retain the audience’s interest. So the beginning of 2009 saw the project reignited with an expanded crew, including a writer, director, editor, and full production crew. Hiring Rob DelGaudio and BlackPearl Productions of Hopkinton, Massachusetts to take over the preproduction, production, and postproduction, the new organization decided to begin the filming all over with an emphasis on visuals, more dynamic interviews, and a story focus on the civil servants that FAA and TSA had employed through the period 1995 – 2005. A new period of discovery has accompanied the second effort, with a drive to get to the bottom of TSA’s creation by Congress, and deep inside the heart of a bureaucracy that seems to care more about its public image than the mission it was charged to accomplish. Please Remove Your Shoes looks at the way a key federal “super agency” was conceived, developed, and managed, as seen through the eyes of some very interesting and patriotic individuals who are in a position to know the truth. The video discoveries of 2008, while more obscure, and often more abstract have not been put aside.

You can make a difference.
The Issue
There is something Un-American about the Transportation Security Administration: It is heavy handed, it violates at least three Amendments to the US Constitution. It is rigid and inflexible. It is managed by unmotivated career bureaucrats. It is lazy and ineffective. And we're not getting what we paid for.

The Opportunity
One third of the US Senate and the entire House of Representatives must be re-elected in November of 2010.  The “Christmas Bomber” of 2009 revealed the absurd ineffectiveness and complacency of TSA. Through distribution and promotion of Please Remove Your Shoes and its message, we will launch an active effort to lobby congress for realistic change and tighter control of a super agency run amok.
With intense criticism of this agency’s operation and massive sensitivities about government spending in general, the political climate is ideal for curbing abuse and waste by TSA.  Distribution of the movie to Congress and the White House can be expected to at least put this topic on their agenda.

The Effort
Certain congressional groups like The House Transportation Subcommittee will be canvassed as early as possible in an effort to get the subject of air security reform onto their agendas early in the re-election process.
A majority of the effort for the cause will be education of the public to bear pressure on their representatives. In addition to movie screenings nationwide, presentations at organizations like Rotary Club will be held, with tailored edits of Please Remove Your Shoes  in illustration of the problems of current TSA practices.  
The Suggestions to Congress
Reread the conclusions of the 9/11 Commission. Give us a solution that works, is proportionate to the threat, and keep it that way - no more “mission creep.” Clarify the roles of “deterrence” and “interdiction” in aviation security, and see that TSA and the intelligence agencies are properly involved and understand which role they have.

1) Establish and enforce tough proficiency standards.
2) Emphasize results, scrap the PR.
3) Recruit the right people, with intelligence and integrity - train and test them frequently.
4) Promote based on performance.
5) Decentralize decision making - encourage local problem solving.
6) Admit mistakes and shortcomings - then fix them.
7) Keep terrorists off balance with flexible, changing tactics.
8) Identify realistic threats and dangerous people.
9) Design practical and effective countermeasures.
10) Motivate TSA management to set and achieve meaningful goals.
11) Clear out bureaucratic survivors.

 

We need your help to fix aviation security.

Help us regain control of our government and remind congress that American citizens must be involved in the process. In addition to the expense of producing Please Remove Your Shoes, Boston Aviation Services, Inc. an individually financed Massachusetts Corp. has the burden of self distribution. Make life a little easier and a little safer the next time you go to the airport!  While contributions must be treated as all political contributions (not tax deductible) your financial participation in this cause will help us get the job done.
Call or email your congressmen, and send them paraphrased versions of these suggestions.  Demand a response.  Follow-up again to see whether anything has been done. Offer to host and organize a screening.  Contribute- to help us expand the distribution of Please Remove Your Shoes. 
Keep in touch via our website to learn of progress made at fixing America's aviation security system.