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MORGAN SPURLOCK PRESENTS HOW TO FOLD A FLAG – A FILM BY MICHAEL TUCKER AND PETRA EPPERLEIN OPENS NATIONWIDE ON MAY 23

Posted Thursday, May 12th, 2011 - Comments Off on MORGAN SPURLOCK PRESENTS HOW TO FOLD A FLAG – A FILM BY MICHAEL TUCKER AND PETRA EPPERLEIN OPENS NATIONWIDE ON MAY 23
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In order to reach the widest possible audience for this amazing and moving documentary HOW TO FOLD A FLAG – A FILM BY MICHAEL TUCKER AND PETRA EPPERLEIN, Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock will release the film nationally under his brand MORGAN SPURLOCK PRESENTS through Virgil Films on May 23 on a first time ever “all-digital” platform in time for Memorial Day.

The film will be marketed as MORGAN SPURLOCK PRESENTS “HOW TO FOLD A FLAG – A FILM BY MICHAEL TUCKER AND PETRA EPPERLEIN.” It  will be available everywhere through iNDemand, TVM, Neflix, iTunes, Hulu.com , Hulu Plus, VUDU, CinemaNow and Amazon Instant Video.

HOW TO FOLD A FLAG is the third film in the Iraq War trilogy by critically acclaimed filmmakers MICHAEL TUCKER and his wife PETRA EPPERLEIN.  The first film was the gripping GUNNER PALACE (2004) where cameras followed US soldiers in IRAQ and for the first time, we were able to see the war first hand from the perspective of the soldiers.  The second film is THE PRISONER: OR HOW I PLANNED TO TONY BLAIR (2006) where we saw the effects of the war on Iraq citizens through an Iraqi journalist mistakenly accused of trying to assassinate Tony Blair and sent to Abu Ghraib Prison where he discovers the true meaning of liberation.

And now the third film HOW TO FOLD A FLAG.  Five years after filming the now classic Iraq War film GUNNER PALACE, these prolific filmmakers 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 US 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.

For Spurlock and Virgil Films, they have partnered before to create the label that would bring documentaries and independent films to the forefront that might otherwise be lost.  For them to be able to release such an important and powerful movie across all digital platforms is exactly what they have 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 the 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 the 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.

For more information on MORGAN SPURLOCK’S PRESENTS “HOW TO FOLD A FLAG – A FILM BY MICHAEL TUCKER AND PETRA EPPERLEIN, go to the website www.virgilfilmsent.com .

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

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~ David Simon