Director: Robert Rippberger Producers: Robert Rippberger, Scott Rosenfelt, Janine di Giovanni, Matthew
VanDyke, Nicole Tung
Description:
Janine di Giovanni, Newsweek Middle East editor, submitted a
proposal to cover the war in Syria. The newspapers rejected her
request, deeming the situation too dangerous. She decided to go
anyway. The conditions are extreme with constant shelling and
bombardment, threat of sniper fire, and kidnappings. Only two weeks
before the trip her friend, James Foley, was taken by three armed men
and later executed. A few weeks after the trip, Steven Sotloff, who
Janine speaks with while in Aleppo, is also captured and killed.
Journalists are targets, and that much Janine knows. Yet, she and her
crew put themselves in harm’s way to bear witness and make sure the
world knows about the suffering of the Syrian people. She videos
injuries and deaths of soldiers and civilians, a very important task
for posterity and war tribunals.
Biography: Robert
Rippberger is a director/producer of documentaries and feature
films that look to make a positive impact in the world through
entertainment. He has made over four dozen documentaries, music
videos, short films and features that have reached millions of
viewers worldwide. Robert has studied under directing teacher Judith
Weston, at UCLA Film School, and he received a BA in philosophy from
UC Berkeley where he was awarded the Eisner Prize. It is the “highest
award for creativity given on the UC Berkeley campus.” In 2005 at
age sixteen, Robert made his first feature film, The Hoodwink.
Robert is the recipient of the Dan Eldon Activist Award. He writes
periodically for the Huffington Post, published a novel in 2014
called Escape To Anywhere Else, with a foreword by Mariel
Hemingway, and co-founded and is acting editor of the magazine, Cinema of Change.
