Award-winning film festival features 'up & coming' directors, producers, Hollywood veterans
The GI Film Festival, now in its fourth year, announced its film selections for its May 11-16 event in Washington, D.C. The GI Film Festival is the only film festival in the nation to honor the successes and sacrifices of American service members through the medium of film.
Overall, the GI Film Festival will feature a total of 35 narrative and documentary full-length and short films during the five-day event. Subject matter ranges from World War II themes of courage, sacrifice and brotherhood to present-day struggles including veteran homelessness and post-traumatic stress. GO HERE for complete film descriptions and trailers.
"This year the GI Film Festival will put the spotlight on the full range of human emotions experienced by American GIs inside the arena of war and back on the home front," said GI Film Festival co-founder Brandon Millett. "This is an exceptional line-up of films that will entertain, captivate and inspire," added festival co-founder Laura Law-Millett.
Festival screenings include actress Glenn Close's directorial debut in Pax - the story of Sergeant Bill Campbell who returned home from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. Sgt. Campbell reclaims his life from an unlikely source: a dog named Pax, trained by an inmate at the Bedford Hills (NYC) Correctional Facility for Women. Following the screening, a panel discussion on post-traumatic stress disorder will include Ms. Close, former ABC co-anchor and award-winning reporter Bob Woodruff and Brigadier Gen. Loree Sutton, Director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.
The festival will also host the world premiere of Starting Strong, a new Army reality show created, produced, directed and narrated by actor Ricky Schroder as well as an advanced screening of the new documentary Lt. Dan Band: For the Common Good with special guest actor Gary Sinise. Filmmaker and veteran of the 82nd Airborne, Jonathan Flora,directed Lt. Dan Band.
Another festival world premiere, Chosin, features the work of two Iraq War veterans, Brian Iglesias and Anton Sattler, who lived out of a van and operated on a shoestring budget to complete their epic documentary Chosin, which chronicles one of the most savage battles in American history, the Korean War's Chosin Reservoir Campaign.
The GI Film Festival's Filmmaker Boot Camp will return this year. Budding directors and other attendees will learn how to finance, market and pitch their own films at the all-day event.
The GI Film Festival will be held at the Carnegie Institution for Science, 1530 P St., N.W., Washington, D.C. The festival will host the post-traumatic stress panel at the Canadian Embassy and a congressional reception in the Russell Senate Caucus Room. Media registration is available HERE. Go to www.gifilmfestival for more information. See a slideshow from May 14th here.
About Brandon Millett: Co-founder of the GI Film Festival, a national non-profit organization dedicated to honoring the U.S. Military, and as a communications and media professional, Mr. Millett has advised a variety of organizations, from Fortune 500 companies to non-profit start-ups. His media campaigns have earned coverage from virtually every major news outlet worldwide, including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, to name a few. His work has appeared in numerous top publications, including The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and the Baltimore Sun. As a spokesperson, he has conducted hundreds of interviews on national radio and television programs from Dennis Miller to NPR's "To the Point" to Fox News Live. Mr. Millett previously served as a senior director of Judicial Watch, the nation's largest government watchdog organization.
Monday, May 3, 2010
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