Friday, January 26th, 2007 - 7:00PM Jimmy Stewart Theater, Room 24
Sony Pictures, Culver City
The Hollywood Hill invites you to join us for a screening of Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner WHY WE FIGHT, followed by a provocative discussion and Q&A with Eugene Jarecki, Director of WHY WE FIGHT and THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER, Congressman Henry Waxman, Ranking Minority Member (since 1997) of the Committee on Government Reform, Michael Keane, Hollywood Consultant and Expert on the Economics of National Security, and Philip E. Coyle, former Assistant Secretary of Defense during the Clinton Administration and currently Senior Advisor to the President of the Center for Defense Information, a Washington D.C.-based national security study center.. Los Angeles Times Review
Eugene Jarecki is an award-winning dramatic and documentary filmmaker whose most recent film WHY WE FIGHT won the 2005 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Combining the skills of journalist and poet, Variety writes, Eugene Jarecki joins the top ranks of non-fiction filmmakers with Why We Fight, a thoroughgoing and affecting film on the nature and causes of the American military-industrial complex. The film has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. In 1992, after training at Princeton University as a stage director, Jarecki turned to film. His first short subject SEASON OF THE LIFTERBEES premiered at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival before winning both a Student Academy Award and the Time Warner Grand Prize at the Aspen Film Festival. His prior film, THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER was released theatrically to critical acclaim in 130 U.S. cities. Winner of the 2002 Amnesty International Award, the film was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and has been broadcast in over thirty countries. In 2002, TRIALS was selected to launch the Sundance Channel's DOCday venture as well BBC's prestigious digital channel BBC4. In 2001, Jarecki also wrote and directed his first dramatic feature, THE OPPONENT, which was distributed by Lions Gate Films. In addition to his work in film, Jarecki is also the Founder and Executive Director of The Eisenhower Project, an academic public policy group dedicated in the spirit of Dwight D. Eisenhower to studying the forces that shape American foreign policy.
Congressman Henry Waxman is the Ranking Minority Member (since 1997) of the Committee on Government Reform and a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. The Committee on Government Reform is the main investigative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. It has jurisdiction to investigate any federal program and any matter with federal policy implications.
Michael Keane is an expert on strategy and the economics of national security and has consulted for the World Bank, corporations and government agencies. He is also a lecturer at USC's Marshall School of Business. His popular class on Financial Strategy, which integrates financial theory with battlefield strategy, was recently profiled in Business Week magazine. He is the author of The Dictionary of Modern Strategy and Tactics, and in 1995 he spent a year in Vietnam as a fellow of the US Department of Defense's National Security Education Program. In 2003 Michael was embedded with the US Army's 101st Airborne Division in Iraq where he went on patrols with the troops and advised the commanding general on integrating an economic program into the American military strategy. His commentaries on the Iraq war have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, CNN, NPR and CNBC. He is currently working on a book on the decisive role that business has played in warfare throughout history.
Philip E. Coyle, III is a Senior Advisor to the President of the Center for Defense Information, a Washington D.C.-based national security study center. He is a recognized expert on U.S. and worldwide military research, development and testing, on operational military matters, and on national security policy and defense spending.In 2005, Phiiip Coyle served on the nine-member Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission, appointed by President George W. Bush and nominated by House Democratic Leader, Nancy Pelosi. The Commission was responsible to determine those U.S. military bases and facilities to be closed or realigned beginning in late 2005. Beginning in late 2004, Mr. Coyle served on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Base Support and Retention Council, from which he resigned to serve on the President's Commission. From September 29, 1994, through January 20, 2001, Mr. Coyle was Assistant Secretary of Defense and Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, in the Department of Defense, and is the longest serving Director in the 20-year history of the Office. In this capacity, he was the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense on test and evaluation in the DOD. At the DOD, Mr. Coyle's responsibilities included stewardship of the Major Range and Test Facility Bases of the DOD, including the large test ranges and test centers which the DOD operates from Maryland and Florida to California and Hawaii. As Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, Mr. Coyle had responsibility for overseeing the test and evaluation of over 200 major defense acquisition systems. This included reporting to the Secretary of Defense, and to Congress, on the adequacy of the DOD testing programs, and on the results from those testing programs. Mr. Coyle was called upon regularly to testify before Congress and to brief Congressional staff on the status of major defense acquisition programs. Mr. Coyle has 40 years experience in research, development, and testing matters. From 1959 to 1979, and again from 1981 to 1993, Mr. Coyle worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. From 1987 to 1993, he served as Laboratory Associate Director and Deputy to the Laboratory Director. In recognition of his 33 years service to the Laboratory and to the University of California, the University named Mr. Coyle Laboratory Associate Director Emeritus. During the Carter Administration, Mr. Coyle served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs in the Department of Energy (DOE). In this capacity he had oversight responsibility for the nuclear weapons testing programs of the Department. Aviation Week Magazine named Mr. Coyle as one of its Laurels honorees for the year 2000, a select group of people recognized for outstanding contributions in aerospace. In September, 2000, the International Test and Evaluation Association awarded Mr. Coyle the Allan R. Matthews Award, its highest award, for his contributions to the management and technology of test and evaluation. In March, 2001, Mr. Coyle received the Hollis Award from the National Defense Industrial Association for his lifelong achievement in defense test and evaluation. Mr. Coyle was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal by Secretary Perry, and the Bronze Palm of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal by Secretary Cohen.