Tag Archives: veterans

“Hell and Back Again” Filmmaker Danfung Dennis Reacts to Oscar Nomination

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By Steve Goldbloom, Reporting for PBS and BTB at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival

Danfung Dennis woke up this morning in Park City as an Academy Award nominated filmmaker for his documentary Hell and Back Again. The film weaves together two overlapping narratives of a Marine at war on the front and in recovery at home. BTB caught up with the filmmaker earlier today on Main St at the Sundance Film Festival.

Hell and Back Again will air on May 24 on Independent Lens.

American Warriors Up Close in This is Where We Take Our Stand

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Currently airing on public television nationwide, This Is Where We Take Our Stand documents an unprecedented 2008 conference of veterans and active-duty soldiers called Winter Solider. Inspired by the 1971 conference of the same name, the four days of heartbreaking testimony revealed why many veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars concluded that their mission was unjust. ITVS’s Kate Sullivan Green spoke with Director/Producers David Zeiger and Bestor Cram about the film and its relevancy today.

This is Where We Take Our Stand is currently airing on public television

Your film takes place around the Winter Solider event in March of 2008. What drew you to this subject?

DAVID ZEIGER: I made a film in 2005 called Sir! No Sir! that told the story of the G.I. movement against the war in Vietnam. This was a story that had been deeply suppressed in history and in the American psyche and had been replaced with a whole mythology that said that during the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement had targeted soldiers and basically was a movement against the people who fought the war. This was of course symbolized most visibly by the myth of solders being spat on when they returned.
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Revisiting Red White Black & Blue

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On this Memorial Day, we went rummaging through the archives to find Red White Black & Blue by filmmaker Tom Putnam, which aired back in 2007 on Independent Lens. The film examines a secret World War II battle that cost thousands of lives but was never revealed to the American public.

In June 1942, less than a year after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese army invaded the remote Alaskan island of Attu, in preparation for a larger advance into Canada and the lower 48 states. Although thousands of soldiers died in the ensuing battle, the American public was not informed of the attack for fear that widespread panic would occur.
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Two New ITVS Films Added to PBS’s COVE Video Player

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Interested in watching full-length episodes of Independent Lens and other PBS series online for free? Look no further than PBS’s video player: COVE (Comprehensive Online Video Ecosystem).

Just added to the slate of Independent Lens titles on COVE is THE ATOM SMASHERS, about a group of scientists as they search for the Higgs boson: an as yet undiscovered subatomic particle that could explain how matter—and, therefore, life—can exist.

Variety writes “THE ATOM SMASHERS entertainingly brings particle physics—and the brainy geeks who’ve devoted their lives to its study—into sharp focus.”

Watch THE ATOM SMASHERS on COVE >>

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