Adam J. Segal's blog

Monday, July 5, 2010

The Oath opens at Landmark E Street Cinema this Friday, July 9

The Oath, from award-winning director Laura Poitras, opens at Landmark E Street Cinema this Friday, July 9. Poitras, a Chicken & Egg Pictures grantee, will participate in a Q&A following the premiere.

According to the film's website:

THE OATH tells the story of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay Prison and the first man to face the controversial military tribunals. Filmed in Yemen and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, THE OATH is a family drama about two men whose fateful encounter in 1996 set them on a journey that would lead to Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo Bay Prison, and the U.S. Supreme Court. The film begins as Salim Hamdan is set to face war crime charges at Guantanamo, and Abu Jandal is a free man and drives a taxi in Yemen.

We enter the story in a taxicab in Yemen. Here we meet Abu Jandal, the film’s central protagonist, as he transports passengers through the chaotic streets of Yemen’s capital city, Sana’a. Salim Hamdan is the film’s “ghost” protagonist. He was arrested in Afghanistan shortly after 9/11 and taken to Guantanamo. His seven-year captivity at Guantanamo is narrated through his prison letters.

Source: Landmark Theaters

Trailer:

Source: Zeitgeist Films

Using YouTube to Support Aspiring Journalists (with a marketing plug)

If you're not aware of it already, check out YouTube Project:Report an interesting project with the Pulitzer Center that's funded by Sony and Intel. According to the site:

Through Project: Report, the Pulitzer Center is giving aspiring journalists the opportunity to work on a journalism project of global importance. The Center is awarding a $10,000 grant to each of the five winners to cover travel expenses, and will provide support in the development and distribution of their work.

There are lots of corporate projects using YouTube and short films/videos, including Volvo for Life which provides funding to support the people/projects featured in the videos.

Rose Mapendo, the subject of the powerful documentary Pushing the Elephant (which was supported by Chicken & Egg Pictures, a client) and the spokesperson for the non-profit Mapendo International, was profiled by VFL. Here's that video: