HollywoodOn Productions: Janet Donovan & Brendan Kownacki
Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
First Lady Michelle Obama wants you to know that she is proudly on board with Got Your 6 – the military expression for “I’ve Got Your Back” – and is the reason for participating in the launch of the 6 Certified program in association with National Geographic & The Company. Got Your 6 is a campaign that unites nonprofits, Hollywood, and government partners. The 6 Certified program recognizes film and television projects that portray veterans accurately and responsibly.
The First Lady, Michelle Obama
The First Lady joined forces with an impressive group of speakers and panelists that included American Sniper’s Bradley Cooper; Bruce Cohen, producer of Silver Linings Playbook and American Beauty; Greg Silverman, President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production, Warner Bros.Pictures; Steve Parker, Executive Director of Joining Forces; Courteney Monroe, CEO, National Geographic Channels US; Stephanie Drachkovitch, Producer & Co-Founder of 44 Blue Productions; Major General Sharon K.G. Dunbar, US Air Force; Sarah Schechter, President of Berlanti Productions; Lori McCreary, Co-President, Producers Guild of America and Charlie Ebersol, President and CEO of The Company in highlighting the need to tell veterans’ stories in ways that reflect the breadth of their actual experiences and to help Americans better understand their sacrifices and struggles.
Bruce Cohen and Bradley Cooper
Michelle Obama wants us to know that she appreciates the entertainment industry for bringing to light “ideas and perspectives into our lives that we might not be exposed to otherwise” and to let us know that we are “all are in a unique position to help us address some of the most challenging issues that we face as a nation. From women’s rights to interracial marriage to combating drunk driving, as our nation has evolved and changed for the better, the entertainment industry has not only reflected that evolution, in many cases Hollywood has inspired and accelerated it. You all have told the real, honest, true stories that for too long went untold, and that’s what brings us all here today.”
“There’s another great untold story in this country right now, one that is crying out for our attention, and that is the story of our troops, veterans, and their families,” she added.
One of those stories was portrayed in the Clint Eastwood directed “American Sniper” starring Oscar nominated actor Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, a United States Navy SEAL and, according to all reports, the most lethal sniper in US military. While the film has been breaking box office records, ($31.8 million to date), it also has it’s detractors – including controversial film-maker Michael Moore.
We would have been remiss not to address that question after the program regarding the balance in making a movie that audiences want to see and adhering to truth, just as moderator Bruce Cohen would have been remiss had he not addressed it with the panelists. Cohen put it this way: “Can you have your cake and eat it too?” Lori McCreary, Co-President of The Producers Guild, responded: “We have three C’s. We have creativity, commerce and conscience and I think the balance of all those is where we as filmmakers look because you can’t do one without the other. I think we have a big responsibility as creators of content.”
Bruce Cohen
Hollywood on the Potomac asked Cohen the same question that he posed to the panelists and also whether controversy personally affects his filmmaking: “No, it doesn’t,” he responded. “Any time you’re a film maker or an artist of any sort, you use the positive and negative. If you do something that is pushing boundaries, if you do something that’s a new subject matter, you’re always going to get a wide range of reactions. I saw some of the new negative criticism of American Sniper and I understood it. Personally from my perspective of what I know and what I have experienced in working this issue, I disagree with them all. I thought that the movie had so much more power of good, of getting the message of showing people what veterans have contributed, and also of having a strong anti-war message as well. I felt it so vividly from letting you know how horrifying war can really be, so I didn’t feel that way. The First Lady in her remarks said from the veterans she’s spoken to, it seems like it very accurately depicted their experiences in many ways.”
What the First Lady said was this: “The #1 movie in America right now is a complex, emotional depiction of a veteran and his family. I had a chance to see American Sniper this week on that long flight we took, and while I know there have been critics, I felt that, more often than not, this film touches on many of the emotions and experiences that I’ve heard firsthand from military families over these past few years. Now I’m not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but this movie reflects those wrenching stories that I’ve heard, the complex journeys that our men and women in uniform endure, the complicated moral decisions they are tasked with every day and the stresses of balancing love of family with a love of country and the challenges of transitioning back home to their next mission in life.”
“Here’s why a movie like this is important,” she pointed out. “See, the vast majority of Americans will never see these stories. They will never grasp these issues on an emotional level without portrayals like this. Like I said, I’m lucky I have had the chance to visit our wounded warriors at Walter Reed, go to base after base. I’ve been able to sit down with groups of caregivers and military spouses and hear about their struggles and their triumphs, and let me tell you, those experiences have changed me. They have changed me. They’ve made me want to do everything I can to support our troops, veterans and their families, but for all those folks in America who don’t have these kinds of opportunities, films and TV are often the best way we have to share those stories.“
“Chris Scott Kyle was just an amazing story. Talk about a charismatic individual,” Bradley Cooper told the audience. “The thing that was really beautiful was their relationship,” he said talking about Chris’s wife Taya, “and that was what made the story, I felt, different in that it really was a story about not just the soldier, but about the family. Half the movie is dedicated to what’s going on at home and also what he did after. He was honorably discharged… and he left the Seals with a very decorated career. He came home and he had a whole new path, and that path was to help vets, and he was tragically killed February 2, 2013 doing that very thing.”
Chris Marvin
Chris Marvin is the managing director of the national Got Your 6 campaign, is a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot and a disabled veteran. Hollywood on the Potomac sat down with Chris when the non-profit was in its infancy and again chatted with him after the panel discussion at NatGeo. “Got Your 6 has evolved a long way since we started about 3 years ago.,” he told us. “We were really privileged to have the leverage of a lot of major players in the entertainment industry, and now we’re actually really proud to be able to bring something back to them. We’re giving them a tool and an incentive to think about the way they’re portraying veterans on film and television, and to make sure that they are doing it reasonably and accurately.”
“We’ll give them ‘6’ certification, and we hope that will account for a lot more depictions of veterans, who are just everyday people, and help the people who are watching these films and TV to understand who veterans are in real life,” he added. “I think one of the great powers that Hollywood has is to be a conversation starter. As we see films come out that address veteran and military subject matter, it’s great to have people take both sides of an issue. The fact that we can have a conversation, whether it’s about combat, about reintegration, about military families, these are conversations that this country has been yearning for for the last 13 years that maybe we haven’t had often enough. The fact that we are now starting these conversations, through the power of entertainment, is really, really important for our country’s growth.”
Stephanie Drachkovitch
As for the six prongs of the Got Your 6 initiative, Stephanie Drachkovitch of 44 Blue Productions explained their involvement to Hollywood on the Potomac: “I think for us as 44 Blue, the two pillars that we can really support are hiring a veteran, employing them; and we are proud to be the home of several veterans on the 44 Blue staff, which I mentioned today. Our Associate Director of Business Affairs is a Captain from JAG, a veteran. Our number two in IT is a Navy veteran; and our number two in production, who kind of oversees all of our equipment, is a Navy veteran, as well. I think hiring is really important, to recognize the value that a veteran can give, especially in our industry which tends to be very specialized.”
“You have to have a lot of experience,” she emphasized, “and that is really important, but to not ignore the experience and leadership and skills that a veteran can bring over. They might have to make more of a lateral move; they might have to start at a different level for us to teach them our industry, but I think that’s the first step. The second one for us is portraying them, telling their stories, that’s really the biggest. I mean they’re both important, but I think what we do every day in my business, is to tell stories so that’s really where we can make a difference. It’s a really important step to take to welcome our returning veterans back because they need to know that they are part of [society]. We welcome them back, we value them. They’re not over there as separate group. I think the storytelling is the beginning to sorting out, getting their stories into pop culture, into peoples’ living rooms. I have to say an executive came up to me just now from a network, a network executive who we invited here today, and she said to me ‘Stephanie, thank you for inviting me; by listening to the panel today I’m going back and I am rewriting one of the characters in one of our shows, based on today.’ That to me meant so much that she walked away with that impact from the conversation today.”
Charlie Ebersol
“When Chris told me a couple of days ago that he wanted me to speak after The First Lady, I said that’s really not a great idea,” said Charlie Ebersol. “There’s only really one person who should ever speak after The First Lady, so ladies and gentlemen I’ve very excited to introduce The President of the … oh, awkward.,” he joked when the President did not make an appearance. “I did not prepare anything beyond that.” That’s a wrap!
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