[Pacg] Social Justice Movie - "The War Tapes" - Tonight at 6:30pm - Watch the Trailor!

[Carolina 1961]

"The War Tapes"

* Winner Best Documentary *
Tribeca Film Festival

* Winner Best International Documentary *
BRITDOC Festival

Davenport Unitarian Church
3707 Eastern Ave
Upstairs in the Sanctuary
Tonight - 6:30pm

Watch the trailor here: http://thewartapes.com/trailer/

In March 2004, just as the insurgent movement strengthened, several members
of one National Guard unit arrived in Iraq, with cameras.  THE WAR TAPES is
the result – a uniquely collaborative film from a team that includes
Director Deborah Scranton, Producer Robert May (THE FOG OF WAR) and
Producer/Editor Steve James (HOOP DREAMS).

Straight from the front lines in Iraq, THE WAR TAPES is the first war movie
filmed by soldiers themselves.  It is Operation Iraqi Freedom as filmed by
Sergeant Steve Pink, Sergeant Zack Bazzi and Specialist Mike Moriarty and
other soldiers.

Zack is a Lebanese-American university student who loves politics,
traveling, and being a soldier. Steve is a carpenter with a sharp sense of
humor and aspirations to write, which he does with insight and candor. Mike
is a resolute patriot and father of two, who rejoined the army after 9/11.
All of them leave women at home—a mother, a girlfriend, and a wife.

While they battled unconventional forces, they recorded events that
conventional journalists have been unable to capture. They mounted tripods
on gun turrets, inside dashboards and used POV mounts on their Kevlar
helmets and vests. They filmed all of the footage in Iraq, which amounted to
over 800 hours of tape.

Zack, Steve, and Mike's unit, Charlie Company, 3rd of the 172nd Infantry
(MOUNTAIN) Regiment, was based at LSA Anaconda in the deadly Sunni Triangle,
under constant threat of ambush and deadly IED attacks. They traveled, as a
unit, 1.4 million miles during their tour, and lived through over twelve
hundred combat operations and two hundred and fifty direct enemy
engagements. That's almost one a day.

The soldiers were not picked by casting agents or movie producers. They
selected themselves. One hundred and eighty soldiers in Charlie Company were
given the opportunity. Ten chose to take it on, and ultimately 21 soldiers
filmed for the project, volunteering to share their eyes with America, not
knowing where this experiment would take them.

"There was something incredibly profound about the soldiers being the ones
to press the record button in Iraq that allows us into their world in a
never before seen way," said director Deborah Scranton  Producer Robert May
adds, "These soldiers were doubly courageous—as soldiers at war, and as
human beings willing to share that experience in an honest, powerful and
personal way."

The filmmaking team shot an additional 200 hours of tape documenting the
unfolding lives of the soldiers' families at home, both during deployment
and after the soldiers returned home. The families and girlfriends and
mothers had also signed on, ensuring that THE WAR TAPES—like any true story
about war—is not just about life inside the war, but the life left at home,
and the always difficult and sometimes beautiful way the relationships
develop and change.

Finally, the prodigious task of distilling over 1,000 hours of tape into the
finished 97-minute film took an entire year. "We had to figure out how to
preserve the complexity and rawness of their experience in the course of
telling their story—a story we truly believe has not been told before," said
producer and editor Steve James.

Although five soldiers filmed their entire year's deployment with one-chip
Sony miniDV video cameras, in the end, the film follows the lives of three.
"We wanted to tell a compelling, cohesive story—to focus on just a few
soldiers so that, most importantly, audiences will truly get to know the
soldiers seen in the film," said producer Robert May. "After watching this
film, we want people who don't know soldiers in their personal lives to feel
as if they know Zack, Mike, and Steve. And to accomplish that, we all had to
cut scenes and soldiers that we loved."

In the end, THE WAR TAPES is a complex, heartbreaking, and completely unique
opportunity for millions to witness first-person experiences of war—a
modern-day *Odyssey*—and the experience of homecoming.
This event is sponsored by the Social Justice Committee of the Davenport
Unitarian Church, Progressive Action for the Common Good, DFA-Quad Cities,
Move-On.org, and Iowans for Sensible Priorities

For more information, contact Caroline Vernon at 563-676-7580,
carolina1961 at gmail

RSVP to dfalink.com (you will have to create a username and password if you
are not already signed-up with DFA-Quad Cities - For more information on
DFA-QC, contact Alta Price at 563-332-5051, altaprice at yahoo.com


Hope to see you at the movie!
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