Winter Soldier

[CarolNYC]

The film Winter Soldier will get it's first, I believe, theatrical release in the US over the next couple of months. It will play, on a very limited schedule, in NYC, Stamford CT, Chicago, Minneapolis, Hartford CT and Detroit between August 12th and November 7th.

Info and the schedule can be found here:
http://www.wintersoldierfilm.com/

Here's the info about the film posted on the Walter Reade Theater site. I'd love to make the showing with the panel discussion following...

WINTER SOLDIER
Winterfilm Collective, U.S., 1972; 96m

On the first two days of February 1971, one month after the revelations of the My Lai massacre, a public inquiry into war crimes committed by American forces in Vietnam was held in the second floor ballrooom of a Howard Johnson motel in Detroit. The event was organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War with support from Jane Fonda and Mark Lane. Over 125 veterans spoke of atrocities they had witnessed and, in some cases, committed. "The major that I worked for had a fantastic capability of staking prisoners,” goes one piece of testimony, “"utilizing a knife that was extremely sharp, and sort of fileting them like a fish. . . . Prisoners treated this way were executed at the end because there was no way that we could take them into any medical aide and say, 'This dude fell down some steps.'" Predictably, the event was picketed and ignored by news outlets, but it marked a major turning point in the anti-war movement. It was also a turning point in the life of a young vet who attended, and who can be glimpsed briefly in the film asking a fellow vet to comment on the crimes he had witnessed. "I'd almost need a book to answer that, man," was his answer. "I didn't like being an animal, and I didn't like seeing everybody else turn into animals, either." That young vet who had asked the question was John Kerry, and the Winter Soldier Investigation changed him and his comrades forever. Their courage in testifying, their desire to prevent further atrocities and to regain their own humanity, provide a dramatic intensity that makes Winter Soldier an unforgettable experience.

A collective of filmmakers —— Fred Aronow, Nancy Baker, Rhetta Barron, Robert Fiore, David Gillis, David Grubin, Barbara Jarvis, Barbara Kopple, Michael Lesser, Lee Osborne, Lucy Massie Phenix, Roger Phenix, Benay Rubenstein, and Michael Weil —— recorded the event, and produced an extraordinary documentary called Winter Soldier. Acclaimed at film festivals around the world, the film was rejected as too incendiary by U.S. television and played only on New York's local public television station, WNET. Since then, only few screenings by the filmmakers have kept the legacy alive. This is a rare chance to have another look at this searing document. A Milliarium Zero release. Followed by an 18-minute short film "A Conversation with the Filmmakers."

There will be a panel discussion following the 8pm screening on Fri August 12.
Fri Aug 12: 8; Sat Aug 13: 2 & 6; Sun Aug 14: 8; Mon Aug 15: 4:15; Wed Aug 17: 7:30; Thurs Aug 18: 2

http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/programs/8-2005/milestone.htm