IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN VETERANS OF AMERICA (IAVA) WILL PARTNER IN RELEASE EFFORTS OF THE FILM ON ALL DIGITAL PLATFORMS UNDER THE “MORGAN SPURLOCK PRESENTS” LABEL IN CONJUNCTION WITH MEMORIAL DAY
MAY 6, 2011 Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock once again partners with Virgil Films to release the feature documentary “HOW TO FOLD A FLAG – A film by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker” under the “Morgan Spurlock Presents” brand label. The film, which chronicles the disparate homecomings of four Iraq war veterans, will be distributed on digital platforms simultaneously beginning May 23, just in time for Memorial Day Weekend.
HOW TO FOLD A FLAG will benefit from a first time ever all digital premiere and will be available to watch instantly streaming from Netflix and via Video on Demand (VOD) via iTunes, Hulu.com and the Hulu Plus subscription service, VUDU, CinemaNow, and Amazon Instant Video along with cable VOD providers iNDemand and TVN. In addition, a DVD release is scheduled for June 14, 2011.
Five years after filming the now classic Iraq War film GUNNER PALACE, directors Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein turn their focus on America in HOW TO FOLD A FLAG. They follow the same soldiers home to America, as each struggles to define their wartime experience in a country largely indifferent to their service.
In North Carolina, Javorn Drummond works at a hog processing plant at night while he finishes his college degree on a dwindling GI Bill. In New York state, Jon Powers returns to his rustbelt hometown and decides to make a run for Congress. Out in Colorado, Stuart Wilf, the unit’s class clown, tries to resume the life he had before the war, while moving between low-wage jobs and comforting his mother who is preparing to send another son to war. Down in Texas, Michael Goss, a career soldier who was unjustly discharged from the Army after two tours in Iraq due to PTSD, seeks redemption in the arena as a cage fighter. And In the Pacific Northwest, the Colgan family, whose son Ben was the first Gunner killed in Baghdad, quietly keep the memory of their son alive while the 2008 Presidential Election loudly unfurls. They went to war as a unit, but came home alone.
“HOW TO FOLD A FLAG is a film that resonated with me from the moment I first saw it,” says Morgan Spurlock. “For us to be able to release such an important and powerful movie with Virgil Films across all digital platforms is exactly what we’ve wanted to do with this label from the beginning. Distribution models for indie films and documentaries such as this one are continually changing. This film is incredibly timely, and our goal is to reach the widest audience possible with this structure. Partnering with the digital streaming output entities, the On Demand providers, the DVD retailers, and with IAVA to help with marketing will hopefully deliver this film directly to an audience that wouldn’t have seen it or otherwise been aware of it. Traditional theatrical releases don’t always work for every film, and we are using all avenues that are available to us to distribute this amazing documentary. No other films have taken this direct all digital release platform before.”
“HOW TO FOLD A FLAG not only pays tribute to our fighting soldiers, but it also is a plea for help to the very same people we pay tribute to,” says Joe Amodei, CEO and Founder of Virgil Films. “Following on the heels of our successful release of RESTREPO, we wanted to continue to bring to American audiences important stories about our soldiers that need to be told. We will forever be in their debt and HOW TO FOLD A FLAG is just one more way of paying tribute to them. When I saw this film at the premiere, I was so moved and had to be part of its release.”
Virgil Films is partnering directly with the war veterans organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) to help spread the word about the film and the problems our soldiers face when they get home.
“HOW TO FOLD A FLAG is the moving profile of a generation of veterans whose homecoming stories have yet to be told,” said Paul Rieckhoff, Founder and Executive Director of IAVA. “While Americans increasingly pay less attention to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tucker and Epperlein remind us that these conflicts are far from over. Their story shows us that the challenges facing the 2.2 million men and women who have served since 9/11 will continue playing out on the home front for decades to come. IAVA is proud to participate in the film’s release.”
“Eight years after arriving in Baghdad to film GUNNER PALACE–a time when news from Iraq was daily news–the public’s awareness of the realities of combat and its aftermath are at an all-time low,” says Michael Tucker, co-director. “We are thrilled to be working with Virgil Films and Morgan Spurlock to help bring the experiences of our veterans back to the forefront of our national dialogue this Memorial Day. America has asked much of our military; all our veterans ask is that we listen.”
For more information on MORGAN SPURLOCK’S PRESENTS “HOW TO FOLD A FLAG – A FILM BY MICHAEL TUCKER AND PETRA EPPERLEIN visit: www.virgilfilmsent.com.
Other films from the MORGAN SPURLOCK PRESENTS label include “CONFESSIONS OF A SUPER HERO”; “CLASS ACT”; and “CHALK.”
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