| News & Links | AFI-DISCOVERY CHANNEL SILVERDOCS DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL PRESENTS RESTREPO WITH FILMMAKER SEBASTIAN JUNGER SILVERDOCS

AFI-DISCOVERY CHANNEL SILVERDOCS DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL PRESENTS RESTREPO WITH FILMMAKER SEBASTIAN JUNGER

Silver Spring, Maryland, June 24, 2010—AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival presents a screening of RESTREPO. Armed only with cameras and a fierce commitment to present an unmediated vision of combat, journalists Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm, War) and Tim Hetherington fully embed themselves for a year with a platoon of U.S. soldiers stationed in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The remote 15-man outpost, “Restrepo”—named after a platoon medic killed in action—is a stronghold of al Qaeda and the Taliban, and arguably one of the U.S. Army's deadliest challenges. With unprecedented access and unflinching immediacy, RESTREPO reveals the challenges, triumphs, despair and intense camaraderie among the men who wake up each day under fire, never knowing whether they will make it home again. Showing with PRAYERS FOR PEACE. Post-screening discussion featuring the Filmmaker, moderated by CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan.

WHAT: RESTREPO

WHO: Sebastian Junger, Filmmaker

Lara Logan, CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent

WHEN: Friday, June 25, 2010

5:00 p.m. Screening

WHERE: AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD

OTHER FRIDAY EVENTS:

10:30 a.m. ANNOUNCING THE PUBLIC MEDIA CORPS: BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY. Who defines public media? What is the future of public broadcasting as a relevant form of engagement for communities of color? How can various technology and broader trends in social media be used to increase public media's community impact? This promises to be a stimulating discussion led by best–selling author, social critic and radio host Michael Eric Dyson. Featuring a live taping of his radio program.

11:00 a.m. Filmmaker Nicole N. Horanyi and producer Karoline Leth present THE DEVILLES about the Gearys who aren't your typical suburbanites. Terri (aka Kitten DeVille) is a burlesque star and Shawn fronts an L.A. punk band. After 26 years of good times and bad, they find themselves at a pivotal moment in a complicated marriage with no certain outcome. Showing with THE FAUX REAL.

11:00 a.m. Filmmakers Patrice Chagnard and Claudine Bories present the North American Premiere of THE ARRIVALS. Arriving on the shores of France is merely the beginning of a labyrinthian journey for more than 50,000 refugees seeking asylum through the municipal reception center in Paris each year.

11:30 a.m. In THE LIVING ROOM OF THE NATION, lives unfold with brutal intimacy in a collection of Finnish living rooms within a film balancing near-slapstick hilarity with inescapable Nordic angst. Irony mixes with pathos, dysfunction with heartfelt soul searching in a film that compels a closer look.

12:00 p.m. Free showing of “Intimate Relations,” short films featuring FLAWED, THE HOUSEKEEPER, KEEP DANCING, MISSED CONNECTIONS, MRS. BIRKS’ SUNDAY ROAST and QUADRANGLE.

1:15 p.m. Filmmaker Raymonde Provencher presents GRACE, MILLY, LUCY… CHILD SOLDIERS about Grace Akallo, one of many northern Ugandan women attempting to live a normal adulthood after being forced as children to fight for the Lord's Resistance Army, a notoriously brutal rebel group. Akallo and several others have become activists, striving to help female ex-rebels find a voice in the world, acceptance at home and forgiveness from one another. Showing with FOUND. Post-screening discussion featuring the filmmaker Raymonde Provencher, former Ugandan member of Parliament and chief negotiator between the LRA and the Ugandan government Betty Bigombe, co-founder ENOUGH Project, John Prendergast, film subject Grace Akallo, and moderated by Kathleen Kuehnast, Gender Advisor, Centers of Innovation (USIP).

1:15 p.m. Filmmaker Crayton Robey presents MAKING THE BOYS about the 1968 play by Mart Crowley that opened off-Broadway called The Boys in the Band featuring homosexual friends who gather for a birthday party that quickly turns ugly. No one could have guessed the impact that the small production would have on the tempestuous social climate of the 1960s. The film sheds new light on a cultural milestone now mostly forgotten.

1:45 p.m. WOMAN WITH THE 5 ELEPHANTS about eighty-five-year old Svetlana Geier, witness to unspeakable horrors, who has dedicated her life to language. Considered the greatest translator of Russian literature into German, Svetlana has just concluded her magnum opus, completing new translations of Dostoyevsky’s five great novels—known as the five elephants. Showing with PARA FUERA, A PORTRAIT OF RICHARD J. BING.

2:15 p.m. Filmmaker Stephen Marshall presents HOLYWARS, a film that follows two deeply committed men of faith–a Muslim and a Christian–as they travel the world spreading messages they both feel represent “the truth.” What happens when the men are put in the same room? This thought-provoking film is sure to push buttons and instigate discussions about the nature of religion, extremism and tolerance. Showing with THE VEIL.

3:00 p.m. SPOTLIGHT ON FESTIVAL TALENT: DOCUMENTARY PERSPECTIVES ON WAR. Join Filmmakers Amir Bar-Lev (THE TILLMAN STORY), Henry Corra (THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MCKINLEY NOLAN), and Sebastian Junger (RESTREPO) in conversation with The Washington Post Cultural Critic, Philip Kennicott.

3:45 p.m. Filmmaker Dylan Williams presents the World Premiere of MEN WHO SWIM, about a British man living in Sweden on the brink of turning 40, who combats his mid-life crisis by joining a men’s synchronized swimming team. Composed of middle-aged men from all walks of life, what begins as an escapist hobby evolves into a committed brotherhood as the team competes at the unofficial All Male World Championship in Milan. Showing with WORLD CHAMPION.

4:00 p.m. Filmmakers Alberto Herskovits and Mikael Wiström present the US Premiere of FAMILIA, which captures the emotional ups and downs of an impoverished Peruvian family struggling to create a better life and stay together in the midst of great difficulty.

4:30 p.m. HB0 CASE STUDY: MONICA AND DAVID featuring a discussion with Nancy Abraham, Senior Vice President, Documentary Programming, HBO; Ali Codina, Director/Producer, MONICA AND DAVID; and moderated by Diana B. Ingraham, AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Conference Producer.

4:30 p.m. Filmmaker Aaron Schock presents the East Coast Premiere of CIRCO, an intimate look at a family’s struggle to preserve the institution of their small traveling circus in rural Mexico. At once producers, performers, and roadies, the Ponce family—the driven owner-father, his questioning wife, and their dedicated children—forms the heart of CIRCO, which explores the inner workings of the circus business as well as family sacrifice, loss of childhood, and the preservation of a fading art form.

5:00 p.m. Filmmaker Sebastian Junger presents RESTREPO about journalists armed only with cameras and a fierce commitment to present an unmediated vision of combat, who fully embed themselves for a year with a platoon of U.S. soldiers stationed in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. Their unprecedented access and unflinching immediacy reveals soldiers’ experience on the battlefield in a way never seen before on screen. Showing with PRAYERS FOR PEACE. Post-screening discussion featuring the Filmmaker, moderated by CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan.

6:15 p.m. Filmmakers Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood present the World Premiere of ON COAL RIVER about the residents of the Coal River Valley in West Virginia who begin to notice that a host of medical problems are linked to a Massey-owned coal waste dumping ground that sits above the local elementary school and demand action. Post-screening discussion with the Filmmakers and subject, Reverend Billy, The Church of Life After Shopping.

6:15 p.m. Filmmaker Marcus Lindeen presents REGRETTERS which follows Mikael and Orlando, two aging Swedes with something unusual in common: They are both biological males who have undergone sex reassignment surgery but now wish to change back. The pair’s startling testimony forms a complex philosophical interrogation of gender performance and selfhood. Showing with I’M JUST ANNEKE.

6:45 p.m. Filmmakers Mika Hotakainen and Joonas Berghäll present STEAM OF LIFE. It’s neither a therapist’s office nor a lover’s bed where Finnish men’s deepest feelings about life, love and family are brought to the surface: It’s the sauna. The film allows the viewer to become a fly on the wall as it listens in on men—naked men—talking to other men (or occasionally a grizzly bear) in the sanctuary of the country’s ubiquitous saunas.

8:00 p.m. Filmmaker Alexandra Codina presents MONICA AND DAVID who, like many couples blissfully in love, are getting married. Yet unlike most married couples, Monica and David have Down syndrome. The film offers an intimate glimpse into the first year of marriage for this charismatic young couple and reveals the joys and struggles that are much the same as that of any newlyweds.

8:15 p.m. Filmmaker Boris Miti? presents GOODBYE, HOW ARE YOU? An unseen protagonist searches for opponents to challenge to a duel—the weapon: language. Specifically, the Serbian tradition of the satirical aphorism, a punchy escapade with a subversive twist deployed as a buffer against political corruption and the ravages of war. Showing with LIES.

8:30 p.m. Filmmaker Georgia Sugimura Archer presents BARBERSHOP PUNK, about software engineer Robb Topolski who became the unlikeliest hero in the “net neutrality” debate when he discovered his effort to share legal turn-of-the-century barbershop quartet music was being secretly censored.

9:00 p.m. Short films “Ghost of the Past,” featuring BYE BYE NOW, CORNER PLOT, MARIA’S WAY, NOTES ON THE OTHER, SELTZER WORKS, THE SPACE YOU LEAVE and TRASH-OUT.

10:00 p.m. Filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe presents the East Coast Premiere of THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS. George Lucas couldn’t have predicted how his world of Jedi knights and an evil Empire would impact millions of fans around the world. Nor could he conceive fans' reaction to his alterations to the theatrical version of STAR WARS or much-derided prequel trilogy. The film explores the complex relationship between the artist’s creation and the audience who claims it as their own.

10:45 p.m. Producer Matt Radecki presents MARWENCOL about a world at one-sixth scale that is created after a savage beating leaves Mark Hogancamp with near-total amnesia and severe physical injuries. With no money for traditional therapy, he obsessively builds a miniature World War II-era village in his backyard and populates it with detailed dolls and Nazi intrigue. Showing with THEY ARE GIANTS.

11:15 p.m. WE DON’T CARE ABOUT MUSIC ANYWAY… about the metaphorical edge of Tokyo where music crumples and the musicians are to blame. They wire themselves for sound, treat familiar instruments like cheap playthings, get lost in technology, and embrace every hiss, pop, thud, buzz and drone.