DOCS!  LA Oscar Coverage

Restrepo 93-min Documentary Feature Nominee

War – they take you there. They insert you in the experience of the soldier. Feel what it is like to be a soldier in Afghanistan. Fire fights every day, emotional and physical isolation and danger. Tim and Sebastian traveled to one of the most violent, remote and dangerous places on Earth armed with a video camera to document the story of a small group of some of the bravest soldiers in any army.

myetvmedia joins documentary film makers Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger for an interview about their remarkable and extremely dangerous war doc Restrepo. This documentary chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengan Valley on a remote 15-man outpost. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats. The only goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 90-minute deployment.

The documentary was filmed over the course of a total of 10 one month trips by Tim Hetherington who is an experienced photojournalist and Sebastian Junger, documentarian, journalist and author.

This is Tim’s directorial debut but he has received numerous awards for past work including World Press Photo of the Year 2007, the Rory Peck Award for features (2008) and the Alfred I DuPont award (2009).

Sebastian Junger is known for his best selling book “The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea”. Sebastian is also the recipient of a number awards including the DuPont-Columbia Award for broadcast journalism. He has also written a book that presents war from a soldiers view and is based on the experiences during the making of the documentary Restrepo.

Restrepo received the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for a documentary (2010).

Moira Romano

Camera and Editing: Mat Kolodziejski, Sound Recording: Mike Pukay, Interviewer: Adriana Romano