|
Toronto: March
31, 2004 ……………………................For
Immediate Release
North American Premiere at
HOT DOCS
April 27, 2004
Isabel Bader Theatre - 93 Charles St.
9:15pm
"Be all you can be." It's one of the most
famous ad slogans in the world, and it's essentially meaningless.
As we discover in the documentary Army Of One, in today's
army, "all you can be" is often a function of low expectations.
Army Of One is a remarkably intimate documentary
that follows the recruiting and basic training of three markedly
different young Americans in the two-year wake of September 11.
Canadian director Sarah Goodman hit a logistical home run in her
debut feature documentary, acquiring astonishing access to day-to-day
life at the "soldier factory" that fed the American military
adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq.
What she encountered were young people from often
hopeless situations, scared, resentful and in many cases even less
able to fit in as soldiers than as civilians. What she created is
a film that generates debate and is unlikely to be used as a recruiting
tool anytime soon.
In Army Of One, we meet: Nelson, a Puerto-Rican
American from the South Bronx who is entranced by the trappings
of soldiering and the prospect of joining "the world's biggest
gang." His mind rests on the respect he’ll attain upon
his return to "the hood" in a uniform bedecked in medals;
Sara, an aspiring dancer from North Carolina who hardly seems like
military material with her tongue stud, but who sees in the army
a chance to give her life direction and win over her disapproving
father; and Thaddeus, a junior stockbroker who quits his cushy life
in a fit of pumped-up patriotism, unaware of the degrading work
that awaits underachievers in this man's army.
They are all deeply troubled. But as it becomes
clear, perfect soldiers only exist in Hollywood. These three hit
a wall that is not so much about their inability to become killing
machines (notwithstanding the screaming "formation" chants,
with lyrics about disembowelment ), as it is about their struggle
to resist, or be absorbed by a rigid, unforgiving institutional
mindset.
In an exhausting two-year "tour of duty"
of her own, Goodman traveled to and from the movie's various locales
(including Fort Benning, Ga., North Carolina and Thad's family home
in Chicago), all the while retaining her "day job" at
a New York ad agency. The result is a fleshed-out portrait of three
conflicted people who've taken the recruiters' bait, and of the
various men and women they encounter in their somewhat less-than-heroic
journey. No one lives up to military stereotype or cliche.
Sarah Goodman is a graduate of Fine Arts at Montreal's
Concordia University. She was an assistant producer on playwright
Israel Horowitz's award-winning Three Weeks After Paradise, assistant
director on the feature film Acceleration and director of the short
films Concoctions and The Juice Man's Daughter. She is a Canadian/American
dual citizen and has made New York City her home for the last eight
years.
Her first feature length film, Army Of One
had its world premiere at the IDFA international documentary festival
in Amsterdam in November, and will have its North American premiere
at HOT DOCS, April 27, at the Isabel Bader Theatre, 9:15pm.
Sarah Goodman (director) and Thaddeus Ressler (film
subject)
will be in town and available in person for interviews April 21
– 28
or by phone anytime.
For more information, to set up an interview, get
GAT
|
Ingrid Hamilton
|
416-802-2079
|
|
|
Evelyn Redhead
|
416-693-6849
|
|
|
