New Awards from SSFF!

"War & Truth" won two awards at the Secret City Film Festival, Documentary Director's Choice and Best East Tennessee feature Film!

"War & Truth" TN Premiere

"War & Truth" is coming home this weekend with it's Tennessee Premiere at the fourth anual Secret City Film Festival. The film will be shown Saturday, Oct. 6, at 9:15 p.m. and a reception hosted by Knoxville Films will follow at 10:30 p.m.

Details on the premiere can be found at www.secretcityfilmfestival.com and www.knoxvillefilms.com.

The Making of War & Truth

Click above for the full text.

Review from The American Prospect

"The discrepancy between what journalists see on assignment and what their publishers approve for dissemination to the American public is the subject of Michael Samstag's new documentary, War & Truth, which chronicles the high-risk careers of embedded war correspondents from World War II to the present day. Supplementing archival footage rescued from a military storage depot with the commentary of retired and active war correspondents, Samstag and producer Debbie Etchison reconstruct the details of war that so often don't make it back to the American people."

Purchase War & Truth at the Cinema Libre Store

You can now purchase the War & Truth DVD directly from the Cinema Libre Store.

$24.95

CNN Gets Blitzed by Michael Moore

Mike demands an apology from CNN for Dr. Sanjay Gupta's biased reporting on 'SiCKO' and for helping the Bush administration lie us into a pointless war. More about this story on http://www.michaelmoore.com .

Happy Independence Day 2007

Six years ago on this day I was fortunate enough to be in Philadelphia for the filming of a reading of the Declaration of Independence by some of Hollywood's finest actors. It was an experience I will never forget being in Indepence Hall in the very place the document was signed 225 years earlier.

That film, which is introduced by Morgan Freeman and featured Mel Gibson, Ed Norton, Michael Douglas and many others was directed by Rob Reiner and shot by renowned cinematographer Conrad Hall shortly before his death. It was an inspired reading that was beautifully produced by Caste Rock Entertainment.

So, in the frenzy of beers, backyard barbeques and fireworks, take a moment to enjoy the words of our forefathers that started this whole crazy experiment we proudly call the United States of America.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Available on Netflix

War & Truth will be available on Netfilx starting July 3!

"War & Truth" DVD Press Release

Contact: Beth Portello, bportello@cinemalibrestudio.com, 818-349-8822

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2007

The Challenges Faced By Embedded Journalists Will Be Examined This Independence Day
"War & Truth" DVD Will Be Released July 3rd

“Reporters, we've gotta be the eyes and ears of the people. We've gotta show you what is going on out there. And if we're unable to do that, then something is lost. And we're not, we're not living in the free society that we should be.”
-Roger Peterson, ABC News

LOS ANGELES – For decades, journalists have been side by side with soldiers in combat. These reporters, armed only with cameras and notepads, have risked their lives to deliver their stories to waiting viewers and readers back home. Unfortunately, too often the whole story goes untold. War & Truth seeks to illuminate the difficulties faced by embedded journalists. The film will be released on DVD July 3, 2007.

War & Truth chronicles the history of embedded journalists from WWII to today. When the United States went to war with Iraq, more than two thousand journalists charged across the Iraqi desert to document history and send the story home. Not everything they saw made it into the newspaper or onto the television news. The film details the courage and frustrations of journalists who risk their lives on the front lines. It dares to bring to light the images you won't see on the news and explores the true story of what it really means when a nation goes to war.

Through interviews with Academy Award winning Combat Camera Officer Norman T. Hatch, renowned author and journalist Joe Galloway, former ABC correspondent Roger Peterson, Marine Corps General Drew Davis, White House Correspondent Helen Thomas and other journalists, editors, and military officials, this documentary attempts to reveal what has remained concealed from the public eye. By combining graphic footage that depicts the true nature of war and candid narrative from journalists, this documentary intends to unearth the controversial issues surrounding wartime reporting. Media self-censorship in the United States emerges as a major theme in the film. This theme is addressed by reporters candidly discussing the reality of war, why they risk their lives to get the story, and the frustration of knowing that the whole story will rarely make it to the American public.

DVD extras include extended interviews with Helen Thomas, Joe Galloway and Norman T. Hatch. This film was an official selection at the 2006 Atlanta Film Festival and winner Best Documentary at the 2005 Annapolis Film Festival.

About Cinema Libre Studio
Cinema Libre Studio is a haven for independent filmmakers with views, offering one-stop shopping for production, co-production, distribution, foreign sales, marketing, and post-production services. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the company is best known for distributing in theaters and on DVD titles that include "Outfoxed," "Uncovered," Tim Robbins' "Embedded Live" and "Through the Fire." Several Cinema Libre Studio productions have recently won festival awards including "Conventioneers,"(Winner of the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards 'John Cassavetes' Award (best feature under $500,000) and Best Feature at the Florida Film Festival), "The Empire in Africa," (Best Documentary at Slamdance 2006 and Best Documentary at the Hollywood Film Festival), and "Giuliani Time," (Best Documentary at the Silver Lake Film Festival). For more information visit www.cinemalibrestudio.com.

EDITORS AND PRODUCERS:
If you are interested in receiving a screener or to schedule an interview, please contact Beth Portello at bportello@cinemalibrestudio.com or call 818-349-8822. Michael Samstag, the director of the film and Joe Galloway, journalist and author of "We Were Soldiers Once… and Young" are both available for interview. More information on the film can be found at www.warandtruththemovie.com.

DVD will be available July 3, 2007 at www.cinemalibrestore.com and at retailers nationwide.

Also coming soon from Cinema Libre Studio:
"Caravan Prague" on DVD August 14
"Speaking Freely Vol 2: Susan George" on DVD August 21

"WAR & TRUTH" On DVD

"War & Truth" will be released on DVD July 3, by Cinema Libre Studio!

David Halberstam knew about quagmires

My opinion Joseph L. Galloway : David Halberstam knew about quagmires | www.azstarnet.com �: "He was the stuff of legend, and it is nothing less than a national tragedy that so great a voice was silenced by a car crash last Monday, just when it's needed more than ever.

David Halberstam's work and influence as reporter and author spanned half a century. He covered the most important stories of our time, from the civil rights struggle in the South during the 1950s to the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s and into a new century and a new war, one that eerily reminded him of the mistakes of the one of his youth.

Along the way, he wrote hard-hitting stories that sounded an early warning against a rush to war in Vietnam. Those stories earned him the enmity of two American presidents and a Pulitzer Prize when he was 30 years old."

War & Truth Preview

Interview with Helen Thomas

From Salon.com

By Glenn Greenwald

Last Thursday, I wrote about an acrimonious exchange at the White House press gaggle between Helen Thomas and Tony Snow regarding the number of Iraqis who have been killed during the war. Thomas relentlessly challenged the administration's tactic of labelling everyone killed in Iraq a "terrorist," and demanded to know how many Iraqi civilians had been killed during the four-year-and-counting war. Snow claimed he did not know the answer because the U.S does not "track" that information.

About that exchange, I wrote: "It is unnecessary to identify the reporter asking these questions because there is really only one White House correspondent who would." Several commenters suggested an interview with Thomas, and following up on those suggestions, I interviewed Thomas this morning regarding the state of modern journalism, the Bush administration and related issues.

Following is a verbatim transcript of that interview, edited solely for length:

GG: You have covered every President since John Kennedy. I wanted to ask if you could identify how the White House press corps has changed over time, if it has, and what differences are there in terms of how journalists cover presidents?

HT: Well, that's a big order. But I do think that in the good olden days, reporters were really straight reporters. I worked for a wire service, UPI, for 57 years, and I covered the White House for UPI from the 70s onto Bush, and then became a columnist. So I certainly know both sides.

As a wire service reporter, I played it straight, with the facts, which is absolutely required of a wire service reporter. But that doesn't mean I bowed out of the human race. I permitted myself to think, to care, to believe, but it didn't get in my copy.

Clkick here for the full interview: Salon.com

NPR : Rules Change for Photos of War Casualties

NPR : Rules Change for Photos of War Casualties: "Rules Change for Photos of War Casualties

All Things Considered, June 19, 2007: The U.S. military recently has established new rules for embedded journalists in Iraq that require the signatures of injured soldiers before their images or voices can be used by the media.

This is a shift from the previous policy, which required that media outlets wait for next-of-kin notification before broadcast.

In January, The New York Times published 'Man Down: When One Bullet Alters Everything,' an article by correspondent Damien Cave that told the story of several soldiers and what happens when one is shot in the head by a sniper during an operation. Staff Sgt. Hector Leija, the man who was shot, died."

Arts & Entertainment | Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author Halberstam killed in car crash | Seattle Times Newspaper

Arts & Entertainment | Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author Halberstam killed in car crash | Seattle Times Newspaper: "SAN FRANCISCO — David Halberstam, the journalist whose acclaimed books included a towering study of the Vietnam War and a poignant portrait of aging baseball stars, died while heading to an interview for a new work.

The 73-year-old writer was killed in a car crash Monday while working on a book about the legendary 1958 NFL championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants. He was on the way to interview Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle while researching 'the greatest game ever played.'

"