Gigapix Studios' Feature Documentary 'BAKER BOYS: INSIDE THE SURGE' Earns Its Worldwide Festival Premiere at the 2010 Newport Beach Film Festival
Captain Rich Thompson (commanding officer of Baker Company at the time of filming) to conduct audience Q&A immediately afterward.
CHATSWORTH, Calif., April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The acclaimed feature documentary "BAKER BOYS: INSIDE THE SURGE" from independent film company Gigapix Studios and two-time Emmy Award winning producer/directors Kip and Kern Konwiser will have its worldwide festival premiere at this year's Newport Beach Film Festival with a screening on Friday, April 23rd at 2:45pm.
The Konwiser Brothers, who grew up in Newport Beach, are becoming a regular contributor to the festival, as "BAKER BOYS: INSIDE THE SURGE" marks their fourth film in five years to be accepted into the festival. As well, Gigapix Studios' feature film "CAPTAIN ABU RAED" earned two Jury Prizes at last year's festival.
Immediately following the screening, one the film's central characters, Captain Rich Thompson, will be on hand for a question and answer session with the festival audience. As the commanding officer of Baker Company, Captain Thompson was responsible not only for carrying out Baker Company's mission but also for the safe return of the 130 men under his command. He was successful on both accounts, leading one of the first operations under the counter-insurgency known as The Surge, and bringing his company home without a single casualty during that operation.
"BAKER BOYS: INSIDE THE SURGE" is an intimate, inside look at Baker Company, an elite group of Army soldiers on an extended tour in Iraq as they 'surge' into a notoriously dangerous Al Qaeda stronghold. "BAKER BOYS: INSIDE THE SURGE" was filmed over three months in 2008 by veteran combat photographer Jon Steele.
"I wanted to hook up with a combat unit to look in their eyes, hear their voices…get them to open up about their feelings and emotions," said Steele. "I made a deal with them; I'd be willing to die with them if they'd be willing to talk to me."
As the Baker Boys' three-month deployment unfolds, viewers get a gripping look into the everyday lives of our soldiers on the front. The documentary features first-person, real-time storytelling as the soldiers of Baker Company negotiate new alliances with local Iraqi militias, pay off tribal sheiks for their cooperation, and deal with the fear and uncertainty of being thrust into the middle of counter-insurgency warfare, where trust and money are their most effective weapons. This is a deep penetrating look into the life of a soldier that exposes the raw personal emotion and the honest physical experience of combat soldiers operating in Iraq.
Director Kern Konwiser explains, "The documentary bears witness to the physical and emotional cost paid by American soldiers who, after years of fighting to win the war in Iraq, are now cast into an unfamiliar and unsettling role of winning the peace with non-traditional weapons: talking, trust building, and cash. These tactics stopped the violence and saved lives; it is fascinating, and sometimes unsettling, to see our own soldiers helping and handing out weekly payments larger than what most soldiers earn in a year to the very people who were trying to kill them just weeks before."
SOURCE Gigapix Studios
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