GI Film Festival

THE GI FILM FESTIVAL RETURNS TO WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA

Tenth Annual “Sundance for the Troops” Runs May 21-29

The Nation’s Only Military Film Festival Announces Complete Lineup for 2016 

The GI Film Festival (GIFF), the nation’s premiere entertainment enterprise exclusively dedicated to presenting the veteran experience through film, television and special events, today announced its complete lineup for the 10th annual event, running May 21 – 29, 2016 in Washington, D.C. and Fairfax, VA.

This is the most power-packed and diverse line-up of movies we have featured over our ten-year history,” says GI Film Festival President Brandon Millett.  “This festival will confront every challenge facing our nation’s military veterans and their families, showcasing some of the most incredible stories of heroism you have ever seen. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll be on the edge of your seat, covering your eyes. Come to GIFF X and you’ll experience every single conceivable human emotion. It will be unforgettable.” 

Hailed by Bloomberg News as “Sundance for the Troops,” the GI Film Festival’s mission is to preserve the stories of military veterans through film, television and dynamic live special events. Since 2007, the GIFF has spearheaded the lead-up to Memorial Day in our nation’s capital by offering the country’s most expansive view of military themes on film. Including, for the first time this year, on Sunday night May 22, a special event honoring women in the military including a short film showcase and panel discussion.

Kicking off this year’s 10th-anniversary festival will be world-renowned actor Gary Sinise, a supporter of GIFF since year one. Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band will play a concert featuring favorite cover tunes at the Howard Theater on Saturday, May 21. Sinise states, “The GI Film Festival has become the ‘go-to’ place for militarythemed movies. Anyone and everyone with a military-themed film will end up at the GI Film Festival, or at least trying to get in."

Also highlighting the festival will be a 30th-anniversary screening of the military classic Top Gun, with a scheduled appearance from actor Val Kilmer, on Wednesday, May 25 at Angelika Film Center in Fairfax, VA, followed by an 80's after party.  On Thursday, May 26, GIFF will host an advance screening of the new film X:MEN: Apocalypse, for Wounded Warriors, including a special message from Director Bryan Singer. Friday night, May 27, will see the world premiere of the zombie action comedy Range 15, starring William Shatner, Sean Astin, and Danny Trejo, followed by an after party.

This year’s nine-day program boasts a dynamic lineup of 75-plus films. In addition, GIFF will offer interactive Q&As with filmmakers and on-screen talent, embassy soirees, live music, stand-up comedy, star-studded red carpets, and awards ceremonies, all honoring and lending a voice to the veteran community. The Program includes scheduled appearances by Val Kilmer, Gary Sinise, Stephen Lang, J.W. Cortes, Pablo Schreiber, Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN), Rep. Steve Russell (R-OK) and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).  

Progressive Racism By David Horowitz

"David Horowitz is an enormously important thinker among American conservatives."  --The Weekly Standard

David Horowitz's provocative new book, Progressive Racism dissects the racial morality play of white supremacy and black oppression, which has transformed the civil rights movement from a campaign against the denigration of individuals on the basis of their skin color into a demand for privileges based on skin color. Horowitz accuses racial extortionists like Al Sharpton and today's Black Lives Matter rioters of transforming a movement for equal rights into a lynch-mob targeting white America, which makes civil rights martyrs out of career predators whose crimes are primarily against African Americans.

Horowitz reveals the many ways that America's culture has been tragically warped by the progressive left, which no longer accepts the colorblind standard of Martin Luther King, Jr. but instead has persuaded the country to believe that whites are guilty before the fact and blacks are innocent even when the facts show otherwise. In Progressive Racism, you will learn about:

• The decline and fall of the Civil Rights movement;
• An alternative to affirmative action;
• Racial correctness and the race card;
• What Hillary Clinton won't say;
• Ten reasons why reparations for slavery are a bad idea; and
• Black skin privilege and the American dream.

In Progressive Racism, Horowitz examines how the term "racism" has been drained of its original meaning and made into a weapon to bludgeon opponents into silence. He describes how today's civil rights movement has become an oppressor of African Americans by supporting a failed school system in poor urban communities and a welfare system that has destroyed the black family and created an underclass dependent on government charity.

David Horowitz's experience as a civil rights activist goes back over five decades; he has been a witness to these events and betrayals, starting with his participation in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In 2001, he led a national campaign against a proposal for "slavery reparations" that would have required Americans who had no role in slavery to pay reparations to other Americans who were never slaves.

Progressive Racism is an indictment of the hypocrisy that now governs discourse on race, so that a lynch mob seeking to hang a police officer in Missouri because he was white can be portrayed as a civil rights protest and be supported by the first African American president of the United States. [more on Anti-White Racism...]

About the Author: David Horowitz is the bestselling author of numerous books including Unholy Alliance (2004), The Party of Defeat (2008) and Take No Prisoners: The Battle Plan for Defeating the Left (2014). David is the founder and chairman of the David Horowitz Freedom Center which is dedicated to the defense of free societies whose moral, cultural and economic foundations are under attack by enemies both secular and religious, at home and abroad.

Lessons My Father Taught Me By Michael Reagan

Son Reveals Ronald Reagan as Never Before

"Michael Reagan knew Ronald Reagan better than anyone alive today, and this book reveals him as more than just a great leader, but as a good father with a great soul, a role model for all of us. No one has done more to apply Reagan's principles than Michael, and this book is just one more example of that."    --Newt Gingrich, Fmr. Speaker of the House

Michael Reagan realized something. All his life people have been asking him the same question: "What was your dad really like?" So much had been written about his dad's life, his politics, his Hollywood career but little was ever revealed about Ronald Reagan the man, the private man, home with his wife, kids and friends.And nobody alive knows more about who Ronald Reagan really was than his eldest son, Michael.

For the first time, his just-released book Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan reveals Michael's personal insights into the qualities that made his dad - qualities that can help any of us succeed in our relationships and life. Michael says his father was "the greatest man he ever knew."

But their relationship - and his father's relationship with his other children - had been very rocky at times. The family had weathered a bitter divorce when Michael's mother, Jane Wyman, the famous Hollywood actress, decided she no longer wanted to remain with her husband. Michael wanted to show how his father successfully dealt with the personal defeat of that divorce and remained a great father to him and his sister.

He also uses this book to share the true secrets of his dad's greatness - overcoming tremendous obstacles to become a famous actor, governor of California and president.

He is convinced that people in all walks of life can tap into the same power of faith and love that motivated his dad.

In Lessons My Father Taught Me, Michael reveals several very surprising stories about his father - some even quite shocking - and many that have never been disclosed to the public before. The book reveals:

• Michael's years as a "Beverly Hills brat" and how his dad treated him differently than the kids of Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and other Hollywood stars;
• The big mistake he made with son Ron, Jr. and his failure to "show up;"
• How he discovered a man could express affection without embarrassment;
• The shocking fact that neither Ron nor Patti ever voted for their own father and the surprising reason why;
• Why Ronald Reagan believed "attitude is everything;"
• Reagan's obsession with keeping his charity secret - even from his own family;
• Ronald Reagan's private and "intense" work ethic and why he hid it from the public;
• Reagan's advice always to not only work hard but "work smart;"
• Reagan's obsession with "truth" and why even as an actor he couldn't play an evil character well;
• The important lesson about revealing your "inner truth" to your friends and family to bond and grow;
• His dad's belief that people should be open to "re-creating" their life if facts demanded;
• Time and again, Michael explains how his father used "failure as a launching pad" for his next big success;
• Ronald Reagan had only one reason he wanted to be president, and he revealed it one night to his son;
• A secret promise to his daughter Maureen made Sandra Day O'Connor the first woman Supreme Court justice (it had nothing to do with politics);
• How Reagan surprisingly wasn't bothered by rumors his son Ron might be gay;
• Michael's encounter with actor Alec Baldwin and what he had to say about the former president;
• How optimism can be nurtured and cultivated, it's not always genetic;
• The most important leadership quality his father had;
• The Christian ideals and values shared by his mother, Nelle, that shaped his life and worldview;
• The time Gov. Reagan jumped into a swimming pool wearing his jacket and tie, shocking onlookers;
• Why Reagan wanted to personally meet his would-be assassin John Hinckley and the reason the meeting never took place;
• Dealing with scandal: how Reagan used life principles to put to bed what was to be his Watergate;
• Ethics lessons: his dad revealed scandalous information about JFK to his family and explained why people of "good character" would never make an issue of that publicly;
• ...and much, much more.

Michael Reagan concludes in Lessons My Father Taught Me that his father's ultimate lesson was the "power of one" - that each and every individual has an incredible ability to make themselves a better person while influencing and changing the world.

NOTE: Michael is also available to talk about Donald Trump's candidacy, how his Dad may have felt about the GOP frontrunner, and the impact Trump will have on Ronald Reagan's legacy. Go here to read: "Michael Reagan, son of Ronald, on his relationship with his famous father and the state of politics today."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michael Reagan is the eldest son of Ronald Reagan and the chairman of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael, a New York Times bestselling author, is a popular national speaker on issues related to conservative politics. He blogs for Newsmax.com.