?Army of One? to be screened at BIFF film night
An award-winning look at the lives of young Americans who joined the US Army after the 9/11 attacks brought down the World Trade Center is the Bermuda International Film Festival?s November Film Night selection.
?Army of One? will screen on Thursday, November 17 at 7.30 p.m. in the Tradewinds Auditorium at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.
Director Sarah Goodman was working at an advertising agency in New York when she noticed that a wave of young people were enlisting in the US Army.
Fascinated by the prospect of people volunteering to serve in the military during wartime, she approached the US Army?s public affairs office with the idea of following some recruits.
?She was granted astonishing access ? and the result is an intimate and heartbreaking account of their two-year wayward journeys,? a statement from BIFF said.
The film won the Best Canadian Documentary prize at the Hot Docs International Film Festival in Toronto, and screened at the Toronto and Vancouver international film festivals.
The film follows Thaddeus, 22, who gives up a stockbroker?s job after 9/11 to join the army and pursue patriotic fantasies of killing Osama Bin Laden; Sara, 22, an aspiring modern dancer from North Carolina who is pushed to enlist by her father; and Nelson, 19, a Puerto Rican high-school dropout from the South Bronx who is looking for respect and a ticket out of the ghetto.
?Army of One is a social commentary on American youth fed on television idols,? Ms Goodman says. ?They are searching for an instant identity because they don?t know who they are. The army, with its slick ad campaigns, seems like an attractive answer, but can become a devastating trap.?
Tickets are $8 for BIFF Film Club members and $10 for non-members. They can be reserved by e-mailing BIFF at , or by calling the BIFF office at 293-3456. Tickets can be picked up at the BUEI from 6.30 p.m. on the evening of the screening.