>From Karen Pomer: krpo...@gmail.com DIRTY WARS
CLOSING in LA AREA THURSDAY, JUNE 27th Don't Miss This Extraordinary Film! If you haven't seen it, go! If you have seen it take a friend who hasn't & go again! Sundance Film Festival 2013 Award Winner DIRTY WARS Featuring Jeremy Scahill - Directed by Richard Rowley A Secret Army. A War Without End. A Journalist Determined To Uncover The Truth! Opened Friday, June 7th in Los Angeles to Sold Out Crowds www.dirtywars.org <http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dirtywars.org&h=BAQGC-zf2&; s=1> Follows investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill, author of the international bestseller Blackwater, into the heart of America's covert wars, from Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia and beyond. Part political thriller and part detective story. Dirty Wars is a gripping journey into one of the most important and underreported stories of our time. LAST TWO DAYS - WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY June 26-27 - Santa Monica - Laemmle Monica 4 www.laemmle.com/theaters/3 June 26-27 - Beverly Hills - Laemmle's Music Hall www.laemmle.com/theaters/4/2013-06-21#get-tickets June 26-27 - Pasadena - Laemmle Playhouse 7 www.laemmle.com/theaters/6 June 26-27 - Costa Mesa/Santa Ana Regency Theatres South Coast Village www.regencymovies.com/main.php?theaterId=17 June 26-27 - San Diego - Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas www.landmarktheatres.com/market/sandiego/hillcrestcinemas.htm July 6 - Claremont -Laemmle's Claremont 5 www.laemmle.com/films/36947 <http://dirtywars.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a1e5b585a6e9452c9b12d458 f&id=d290d71248&e=30878e2ac5> http://gallery.mailchimp.com/a1e5b585a6e9452c9b12d458f/images/DIRTYWARS_FACE BOOK_03.jpg Review by Rob Nelson "Filed from the frontlines of the war on terror, documentarian Richard Rowley's astonishingly hard-hitting Dirty Wars renders the investigative work of journalist Jeremy Scahill in the form of a '70s-style conspiracy thriller. A reporter for the Nation, Scahill follows a blood-strewn trail from a remote corner of Afghanistan, where covert night raids have claimed the lives of innocents, to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), a shadowy outfit empowered by the current White House to assassinate those on an ever-expanding 'kill list,' including at least one American. This jaw-dropping, persuasively researched picture has the power to pry open government lockboxes." "This film blew me away from the first shot. It is one of the most stunning looking documentaries I've ever seen. So, for elevating the art of observational cinema through sophisticated lensing and an electric color palette, the <http://www.sundance.org/festival/stories/award-winners/> Cinematography Award for U.S. Documentary goes to Dirty Wars" - <http://www.sundance.org/video/sff13-2013-sundance-film-festival-awards-cere mony/> Sundance Juror Brett Morgen <http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/dirty-wars-sundance-review-413968> Dirty Wars: Sundance Review by John DeFore: "Bottom line: A strong filmmaking voice turns already disturbing material into a hot doc."The film's narrative drive offers a compelling package for viewers numbed by one news report after another about civilian deaths and secret hit lists. It's tough investigative tone and surprisingly stylish photography enhance cinematic appeal for a doc that merits theatrical exposure." <http://www.wwd.com/eye/people/dirty-wars-documentary-wins-praise-at-sundanc e-debut-6688669> 'Dirty Wars' Documentary Wins Praise at Sundance Debut by Marcy Medina: "Journalists are trained to keep themselves out of the story, but some can't help become a part of it. In one of the most well-received documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival, Dirty Wars, Jeremy Scahill is both narrator and subject of one of the most incendiary stories in recent history. Directed, shot and edited by fellow war journalist and filmmaker Richard Rowley, Dirty Wars follows Scahill, national security correspondent for The Nation, as he reports on the U.S.' covert war on terror, which according to the film has seen thousands added to the U.S. military's 'kill list,' and elite forces that operate in the shadows." <http://www.slashfilm.com/dirty-wars-review-and-the-government-thought-tortu re-in-zero-dark-thirty-made-them-look-bad-sundance-2013/> Dirty Wars Review By Germain Lussier: "Dirty Wars is a focused, fascinating and frightening look at war in the 21st century. A film you're sure not to forget." <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erica-abeel/a-true-life-thriller_b_2935188.ht ml> A True-Life Crime Thriller About America's Covert Wars By Erica Abeel, The Huffington Post: "Dirty Wars is a game-changing, mind-blowing film. Dirty Wars assumes the tantalizing shape of a mystery thriller as compelling as any feature film." <http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-dirty-wars-m ovie-obama-20130602,0,6721159.story> DIRTY WARS Filmmakers Go Behind Obama's Counterterrorism Nonfiction Film: Reporter-Narrator Jeremy Scahill, Director Richard Rowley, Writer David Riker Discuss Telling the Stories in the Documentary & US Policies. By Julie Makinen, Los Angeles Times - June 1st, 2013 www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-dirty-wars-movie-oba ma-20130602,0,6721159.story Those who tuned in to President <http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics/government/barack-obama-PEPLT007408.t opic> Obama's speech last month on counterterrorism and national security heard some pretty remarkable things: The commander in chief defending his decision to sanction the killing of a fellow citizen without due process, even while acknowledging that it's unconstitutional. A critique of the expansion of presidential powers that allowed him to do so. A warning that carrying out such assassinations on U.S. soil would be, well, a bad idea. It's enough to make even a devoted student of current affairs pause to reflect: Just how did we get here? The timely new documentary "Dirty Wars" offers some critical back story. Opening in L.A. and New York June 7, the film follows reporter Jeremy Scahill, national security correspondent for the left-leaning magazine the Nation, as he investigates the expansion of covert U.S. counterterrorism missions in places like <http://www.latimes.com/topic/intl/afghanistan-PLGEO00000021.topic> Afghanistan, <http://www.latimes.com/topic/intl/yemen-PLGEO00000072.topic> Yemen and <http://www.latimes.com/topic/intl/somalia-PLGEO00000615.topic> Somalia under the aegis of the Joint Special Operations Command. Scahill's quest started in 2010, before the secret and powerful JSOC became widely known after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. He and director Richard Rowley, a longtime friend, sought to throw light into the shadows where night raids and drone strikes kill suspected terrorists yet also mistakenly wipe out noncombatants and sow new seeds of anti-Americanism. Thousands of such raids and strikes have been launched in the last several years, with little public accounting of their efficacy - or even a list of the dead. Though the film tackles complex matters of national security policy, its approach is decidedly personal. In a series of gripping and sobering scenes, Scahill and Rowley bring us face to face with the family of an Afghan police commander whose home in the city of Gardez was erroneously attacked with lethal force by Americans; with Nasser al-Awlaki, an academic and former Fulbright scholar whose American-born son, a radical imam, and 16-year-old grandson were killed in U.S. drone strikes in Yemen; with Somali warlords who have become Washington's proxies in the murky fight against Al Qaeda in Africa. Scahill goes a step beyond that, foregoing the standard role of detached journalist guide. Instead, he narrates "Dirty Wars" in first person, revealing himself as a character wrung out by his own journey in a moral no man's land. Acknowledging what many war correspondents feel but rarely include in their dispatches, he shares an inner monologue of doubts & dilemmas, both as a reporter & simply as an American. "When I first visited Gardez, I had no idea where the story would lead," he says in a voice-over. "I didn't know just how much the world had changed, or how much the journey would change me." The release of "Dirty Wars," which premiered at the <http://www.latimes.com/topic/entertainment/movies/film-festivals/sundance-f ilm-festival-EVFES0000051.topic> Sundance Film Festival in January and won Rowley the prize for cinematography, follows the April publication of Scahill's book of the same name. (It's his second, after his 2007 bestseller "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.") The 642-page book can be read as a deeper, more formal companion piece to the documentary, which came about almost on a whim. "I hadn't thought about doing a film at all. I knew I wanted to do a book.... It was going to be called 'American Ninjas,' and it was just going to be about the guys in JSOC and their history," Scahill, 38, said over coffee in Los Angeles last month, a day after drawing a full house for a reading at the Last Bookstore downtown. "I had gotten a grant to support my reporting, and Rick had no money at the time. I said, 'Listen, I'll pay for your plane ticket to Afghanistan, we'll bunk in the same room and travel.' >From the moment we got there and started filming, I knew we were going to end up doing something together." Though the two had extensive experience abroad - Rowley has worked for <http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/media-industry/televi sion-industry/al-jazeera-%28tv-network%29-ORCRP000017580.topic> Al Jazeera, <http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/media-industry/bbc-OR CRP001723173.topic> BBC, CBC, CNN International and made several other documentaries - arranging access to remote locales was often difficult and frustrating, requiring meticulous planning, even kidnap and ransom insurance. "There's a lot of negotiating, because for Afghans, if you come there and something happens to you, an American, when you're in their home - someone comes and kidnaps you or you end up getting shot - their fear is America will come and wipe them out," said Scahill. At least once, Rowley and Scahill narrowly avoided being abducted. "After one meeting . our Afghan colleague told us, 'They were sitting there discussing the positives and negatives of taking you guys.' I said, 'Well, thanks a lot for speaking up!' And he was like . 'If I had spoken up I think they probably would have taken us,'" Scahill recalled. "I'm glad I didn't know at the time," he added. "If I had, I would have needed a Depends diaper."If the logistics could be harrowing, so could the emotions & thoughts that such reporting stirs up. "You come across people and they've lost something incredible, like their family has been killed, or someone's been maimed. They don't understand why a raid happened. And no one from the military has said, 'This is what happened, here's compensation.' So essentially you are an ambassador of your country, whether you agree with the policy or not, that's how you are viewed," Scahill said. "I did start saying to people, I'm sorry for what happened . and some people have criticized me for that, saying it's not journalistic." "I often feel like I'm in a position where I'm the only American these people are ever going to meet, and I want them to know that we actually care about this," he added. "Whether it's true or not in the government I don't know, but . where is the rule that journalists aren't allowed to be human beings?" Telling that dimension of the story wasn't initially in the cards. After two years of work, Rowley and Scahill had assembled a rough, four-hour cut of the documentary. They invited their friend David Riker, a screenwriter on narrative films, to view the footage and offer advice. 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