David LowBrothers Jeff and Michael Zimbalist ’02 have directed The Two Escobars, a documentary about the infiltration of drug money into professional soccer in Colombia during the 1980s and ’90s. The subjects of the film are Pablo Escobar, a founder of the Medellin cartel who poured some of his wealth from cocaine trafficking into pro soccer, and Andrés Escobar, a star of the national team who accidentally kicked a ball into his own team’s goal at the 1994 World Cup. The film was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in April as part of the World Documentary Competition.…
Missed Connections, a short documentary directed and produced by Mary Robertson ’01, will have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan in April. Once found on the back pages of local papers, Missed Connections is a forum on Craigslist where those who regret their timidity make appeals to the "Ones Who Got Away." Robertson’s documentary peers inside these popular online messages-in-a-bottle asking whether love lost can be found again. Robertson is a producer and director of nonfiction media. For television she has produced and directed long- and short-form documentary programs for major broadcasters. She recently completed work…
Cynthia RockwellNational Geographic Entertainment has picked up the rights to Restrepo, the documentary by journalists Sebastian Junger ’84 and Tim Hetherington that follows a platoon of American soldiers in Afghanistan. The film won the Sundance Film Festival grand jury documentary prize and is set for release on June 2. The National Geographic channel, which has worldwide TV rights, will broadcast the film next fall. The film was named after a 15-man outpost in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S military. “From May 2007 to July 2008, Hetherington and Junger dug in with a platoon of…
"Restrepo" filmmakers Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington. On Jan. 30, Restrepo, a documentary about the Afghanistan war co-directed by Sebastian Junger ’84 and Tim Hetherington, received the grand jury prize for a domestic documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Junger and Hetherington spent a year with part of the U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade in Korengal Valley, known as the deadliest valley in Afghanistan, and as a stronghold of al Queda and the Taliban. Indie Wire recently interviewed the two filmmakers and said that the documentary “may be one of the most experiential and visceral war…
The critically acclaimed film and television director Michael Arteta ’89 (Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl, Six Feet Under) has directed a new film, Youth in Revolt, which is based on the cult novel by C. D. Payne. The film opened nationwide to generally positive reviews on Feb. 8. The work had previously been shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and will be part of the upcoming Berlin Film Festival Generation lineup. The movie stars the popular young actor Michael Cera (Arrested Development, Superbad, Juno) who plays a frustrated 16-year-old virgin named Nick Twisp. Cera’s character takes on…