Editor

“A POLITICAL THUNDERBOLT”
UNCOVERED: THE WAR ON IRAQ
Screeners available upon request

LOS ANGELES, CA – June 8, 2004 - Demand for the feature length documentary
UNCOVERED: THE WAR ON IRAQ has grown exponentially since its highly successful world premiere at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Worldwide distributor Cinema Libre International is fielding offers throughout Europe and Asia and the film has been requested by film festivals such as; Munich, London, Deauville, Venice, Stockholm and Locarno. The film will open in New York on August 13, 2004 at several theaters including the Angelika Film Center two weeks before the Republican National Convention, and will expand throughout the east coast before opening in Los Angeles on September 3, 2004. The film will run in every state before the 2004 Presidential election.

In a VARIETY cover story titled “Fest Doc Shock; Cannes Wrestles With Slew of Hot-Potato Political Pix,” UNCOVERED: THE WAR ON IRAQ was identified as a catalyst in the “volatile, highly politicized atmosphere” which also included Michael Moore’s high-profile film FARENHEIT 9/11. UNCOVERED: THE WAR ON IRAQ premiered on May 18, 2004 to a large audience and was lauded by the international press as a “must-see for every American who cares about their country, regardless of their political persuasion” (Screen International), “a political thunderbolt” (The Daily Star), and “a burning piece…a work of public interest to be distributed in emergency” (L’Humanite). Film critic Harry Knowles, who attended the screening wrote, ”the film was riveting, and the response from the mostly U.S. audience was phenomenal.”

The film reveals the manipulation of the case for war by the Bush administration through in-depth interviews with former CIA analysts, Pentagon and Foreign Service experts, and former weapons inspectors juxtaposed against television interviews by key players in the Bush Administration including President Bush, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleeza Rice. Cinema Libre Studio, the film’s co-producer and U.S. distributor, has begun an outreach program to grassroots organizations, both online and offline, interested in associating with the film’s galvanizing themes. A shorter version of the film was co-produced with Center for American Progress and MoveOn.org, and screened at thousands of “house parties” across the nation in 2003.

The film, described as “the revolt of the professionals” by the former acting U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Joseph Wilson who participated in a Q &A discussion following the world premiere at Cannes (and is a participant in the film), is sure to be a hot topic during this election year. As already reported on BuzzFlash.com, NBC recently denied the film’s director, Robert Greenwald, access to a one-minute clip from a February 8, 2004 “Meet the Press” interview with President Bush. “Greenwald was denied permission,” said Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford Law Professor who has appealed to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection on a proposed revision to the copyright law with regards to this issue. Lessing relayed, “The agent informing Greenwald’s agent of the decision stated, ‘Unofficially, we don’t think it makes the President look good.’”
Greenwald, a veteran filmmaker, reflected, “what we witnessed at Cannes, with all the excitement around ‘documentaries of dissent’ is a tremendous evolution for film as a tool for political change. In the U.S., there is a tremendous outcry for the truth from both Democrats and Republicans.
Our intent, with this film, has been to galvanize the American people to demand the truth from our President or to vote for someone who will tell the truth.”