“Bards of War” a “military documentary like nothing I have ever seen before” (GUEST： Scott Kesterson)
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Summary
An American filmmaker had unprecedented access to Canadian soldiers over 10 days in Afghanistan. Now, I m able to see the resulting movie, and today I m talking to the man behind the camera, Scott Kesterson. He joined me for an interview we recorded yesterday morning. And our interview covers what compelled him to make this movie, the mainstream media treatment of the military, and why Canadians should be proud of our men and women in uniform.
Transcript
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Hello Rebels, you're listening to a free audio-only recording of my show, The Gun Show.
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My guest tonight is American filmmaker and citizen journalist Scott Kesterson to talk about his new
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movie, Bards of War. It's about the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and it was
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filmed over the course of 10 days in Afghanistan. If you like listening to this podcast then you
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Just go to therebel.media slash shows to become a member. And please leave a five-star review on
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this podcast and subscribe in iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Those reviews are a
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great way to support The Rebel without ever having to spend a dime. And now, please enjoy this free
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audio-only version of my show. An American filmmaker had unprecedented access to Canadian soldiers
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over 10 days in Afghanistan. Now, I was able to see the resulting movie and today I'm talking to
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the man behind the camera. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
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Ten days in the theatre of war. That's how long my guest tonight, American filmmaker Scott
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Kesterson, spent embedded with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Afghanistan.
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The resulting film, Bards of War, depicts our soldiers in a way Canadians don't often get
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to see. They're unfiltered, uncensored, and completely honest. But don't take my word for
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it. Here's a clip of the trailer for the movie. Nobody wants to watch the game. You want to be
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in the game. But at the same time, we know in this area, our turn is just around the corner.
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I was a citizen journalist. I embedded for a year. The story I had come to tell was in the legacy of
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Ernie Pyle. It was never about the Taliban, nor to make some moral judgment on war. My story was
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about the soldiers, their experience, and what that looked like through their lens on events.
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Now, what kind of filmmaker has the guts of steel to go to the theatre of war, but also has the kind
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of character, rapport, and also skill set that our soldiers would feel like they could trust him
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to be there and tell their stories without getting everyone killed? Well, he's a Trump-loving former
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military man himself. He joined me for an interview we recorded yesterday morning. Oregon-based
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filmmaker Scott Kesterson is the man behind Bards of War, and our interview covers what compelled him
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to make this movie, the mainstream media treatment of the military, Omar Khadr, and why Canadians should
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So joining me now is the filmmaker behind Bards of War, Scott Kesterson. Scott, you are new,
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a new person, I think, to a lot of our Rebel viewers and Rebel followers. And, you know, right behind
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you, you have an American flag and a Canadian flag. You're a filmmaker from Oregon, but somehow you ended
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up embedded with the Princess Pats. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? Because you're a pretty
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Well, I guess within a certain circle. Let me just give you a quick little background. I have a pretty
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crazy background. I served in the military from 83 to 91 in the Oregon Army National Guard. And then,
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which was really interesting, just how this all comes about, on 9-11, 2001, I was actually in
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Victoria, British Columbia. Woke up to a dream of three rockets hitting a building, only to discover that
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from my country is under attack. And it's where I really built such a deep love for Canada because
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of the graciousness that was extended to all of us that were there. I mean, to be on the outside of
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your country being attacked, and yet the unity of North and South, meaning two countries, was just
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phenomenal. Very few people have experienced that. And it was a life-changing moment, to be very honest.
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Fast forward, I had my own company. I had been doing freelance photography and videography.
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Fast forward, 2005, I always wanted to be an embedded combat photographer. So, I reached out
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to my old unit. An absolute surprise was basically this, not if I could go, but when would you like
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to go? Would you like to go to Afghanistan? And that decision was made in about 30 seconds. So,
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I launched. So, that took me, I was in Afghanistan as the first embedded citizen journalist in the
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Department of Defense in 2006 and 2007, won an Emmy for my work that's in this film in 2007.
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Then, starting in 2008 to about 2011, I was back in Afghanistan. My total time, it was three and a
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half years on the ground. And I did, I started working in the area of information warfare and narrative
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warfare and film for special operations teams. So, I was doing everything from informational
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warfare to literally building training products for them so they would be better able to operate
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on the ground. And then, from 2011 to approximately 2016, I worked in, I did continue to work in the
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special operations area, working both in technologies area, working with the Five Eyes countries. I worked
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with narrative warfare again and a lot of information warfare concepts. And then, 2016, I ran a super PAC
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for President Trump. And then, I'm kind of a long way around. I'm now back into filmmaking and I'm doing,
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where I really probably should have been all along, but I have my small company, just myself,
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Expedition Cafe. And the first film out is Bards of War, Fighting is Everything, which is based on
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Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. So, there's a quick.
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Wow. I mean, that's quick. I feel like you glossed over some pretty serious accomplishments there.
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Now, I guess what prompted you, this is a two-part question, because as I was watching the video,
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I mean, first of all, what prompted you to end up being embedded with the Princess Pats? And secondarily,
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how did you get such unprecedented access to them? Because really, we haven't seen this kind of access
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to Canadian soldiers in theater since the Korean War, really. How did you, an American, end up with
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that? So, a couple of things on that. One, I was with a very unique element that was in Afghanistan
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from the very beginning. The National Guard's role were combat advisors. They didn't call them that.
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They call them embedded trainers. Later, the Canadian version of that were called omelets.
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So, the combat advisors were attached to the Afghans. And so, when this mission was coming up,
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and it was called Operation Mountain Thrust, the American lieutenant colonel did the liaison with
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Lieutenant Colonel Ian Hope's command to ask and to get the permissions to have me be there,
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which would also put me there alongside of the Canadians. So, that's kind of how that all got
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started out. And that negotiation took about a month or so. And it was all worked out. So,
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then once the, we got into the, you never know what you're going to get when you go into a war zone,
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to be honest with you. And it just so happened that the group that I was with, which was ACOI,
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Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, PPCLI, ended up seeing the majority of the action.
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The unprecedented access was really, that was Colonel Ian Hope's vision, was really to be able to get
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close to the soldiers. And my whole intent over there was to take what Ernie Pyle had done with
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the storytelling of World War II and do that in film. And so, really personalize, when I say
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personalize war, let the soldier really tell the story and experience through the optics of the
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soldier. And I'm, that's, so that was my constant push. The other part of that too,
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was just building the relationships. Like all soldiers, when you come in with a camera,
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they're very suspicious. And rightfully so, because I think that soldiers are very unjustly treated by
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the majority of media. And having worked with media too much, I can, I will say personally,
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they are. So, we'll leave it at that. But the, once we, once they started to see that,
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and they'll learn a little bit about me because I had been a soldier. Then they started to see how
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I was operated. I understood a lot about how their movements were. So, I was able to
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work with them instead of against them. I didn't have to be coached.
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We built very quickly and combat tends to do that in a very short amount of time. You can build tight
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relationships. And really after day one, I think that we had a pretty good understanding that
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we were going to work together here really well. And I was willing to take the same risks they were.
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And I saw that as my job as much as anything. And from there, we just had kind of an amazing ride.
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I will tell you, it was an amazing 10 days that I think tells an incredible story. And I know this
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is going to sound a little bit biased coming from a filmmaker, but that's okay. I think it tells an
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incredible story, not just about soldiers, but I think it tells an incredible story about Canada
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Canada and what it is to be proud of a nation, fighting for a nation, and yet uphold the Canadian
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values that much of the world doesn't really appreciate. I mean, they do this so well in their
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interviews and in their experience. And they are, and we'll get to this a little bit more, but I mean,
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they just really demonstrate to me, they personify the proud Canadian aspect in this film.
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Uh, yeah, you were embedded with the PPCLI. Were you with the one in the three, like the Edmonton
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based guys? Yeah, there was Edmonton based guys. So, and, and, um, they were all, they were a really
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good group. Um, just, and we've stayed in touch. In fact, um, one in particular, very, he is really my
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closest friend. I mean, he and I have, uh, stayed in touch, right? We laughed the other day. I don't think
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we've gone a week without texting or talking or something since 2006. That says a lot.
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Yeah. I mean, the PPCLI, they really are, um, sort of Canada's flagship, um, fighting machine. I,
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I mean, they were the, um, first, um, and, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, the only, um, Canadian,
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uh, forces that were honored by the United States president for their, um, bravery and expertise
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in Korea. So, I, I mean, you, when you were, uh, embedded with them, you really were embedded with
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the best. Now, going back to the movie, how did you choose the name of the movie?
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Okay. This is interesting. That's a great question. Um, so struggled a lot with, so there
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was some variations of this film that we tried early on and, and, uh, some struggles with an
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early producer. And so finally, I took it all over and, um, decided to make this a pure Canadian
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film. That's not how the footage was originally used. And, um, the, actually the title goes back
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to 2012, uh, 2011, actually in the fall, I had gone to Scotland on a trip and I went to the Scottish
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National Gallery Museum in, in Edinburgh. And, um, downstairs, there is a terracotta sculpture,
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which I can't remember the name of the artist right now, but it is, it was, I don't remember
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the name, but it's what came to mind when I saw it. And it was a bard at the foot of Odin with two,
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two ravens on his shoulder. And suddenly it hit me. It's like, he's a storyteller of war.
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So really, literally, bards are the old poet class that told the stories of war and also
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would, would, uh, chastise the elite if they didn't like what they were saying or didn't feel
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the truth was. So really in a certain sense, the bards were also our first really early story,
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um, citizen journalists, right? So I, bards of war became very, uh, apropos for me because it was
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literally soldiers become the storytellers of war. So that's the, that's the essence of the name.
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You know, you were able to get, and I think this will probably take us into the next part
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of the interview where we end up talking about, um, political and cultural things. Um, but you
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were really able to get, uh, without giving too much away about the movie, uh, some very candid,
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um, comments from the soldiers that back then a few years ago, um, I guess nearly a decade ago,
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that I don't think you would be able to get from them now. And not that they wouldn't want to say
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those things, but because I don't think the military brass would let them say it.
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Well, that's an interesting thing you said. So Colonel Hope wanted complete access to his guys,
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and you have to really give credit to who I think is one of the greatest Canadian commanders in modern
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time. And he's been through his political rungs for doing sort of great things that he did.
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Um, and this is a good segue. Colonel Hope put absolute trust in his squad leaders. He believed
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in decentralized command. He learned from the histories of the Americans. And by comparison
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to the history of the more, the British, more regimental model, but he was neither one. He
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defined a Canadian style of fighting insurgency, which it was, it truly was Canadian. And it was so,
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uh, impressive to see. I have, I, I speak highly of him and I will say this, if I've worked with some
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of the greatest U S commanders in our modern history, and I've had that privilege on that list
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of great commanders, I put Colonel Ian Hope. He is just one of those amazing strategic and tactical
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leaders that understands the soldier and understands how to lead brilliantly. And I think you will find that
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that's said by almost every single person. This is my own opinions. And I think you'll find that
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resonated with almost any, every single person that worked with him. And I say all this because
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ultimately his idea was, if you're going to tell the story, get it's the squad leaders access. You
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have to worry about not mine. And that was there for when I was there at heart. I'm a soldier. I always
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have been. And so once you establish that rapport and that trust, they don't have to feel in a
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conflict situation. I think what is missed so many times is I'm, I'm as a sole cameraman, me, I,
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everything I did. So literally backpack documentary, backpack journalism, you have to be as independent
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and mobile as a soldier when you're on the ground as they are. And you have to know how they move and
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you have to respect how they move. And you have to be willing to take the same risks without being
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crazy to cause them to have to worry about you as a liability. Once those parameters are established,
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pretty much the doorways are wide open because you, you integrate rather than having to be outside of.
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And what my observation has been is too often the types of coverage that are given to soldiers is
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journalists tried to go from the outside as if observers, rather than realizing the intent of the
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embed program was always to embed, to get in, to tell that inner story. And so I hope that that's
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been achieved. Well, and I think you came, just your military background, it comes with a certain
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level of understanding. I think, and I'm highly critical of the mainstream media. I think they come
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with their own certain set of biases about what soldiers in the battlefield are doing, how they are
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treating the locals, how they are behaving, the rules of engagement. I think the assumption is that
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no, the, um, Western forces are, um, you hear it all the time. They're an occupying force that they
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aren't a moral army. Um, and I think you come from a place where you understand the rules of engagement
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government and, and how I suppose hamstrung, uh, the military can be in theater. Um, and I think
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that comes through where, um, there's a sense of camaraderie, um, between yourself as a filmmaker
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and the soldiers who are being, like I said, very, very candid with you about their experience and
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their feelings. And, um, you really do humanize them. They aren't just a war machine. They aren't just
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this, um, uh, this, uh, finely tuned machine of death as the mainstream media might paint them.
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They are dads, they are brothers, they are fathers, they are husbands. And that comes across.
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I think one of the most powerful, so let me back up just a second. Sure. When I looked at doing this
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as an exclusive film on Princess Patricia's, well, PPC LA,
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the film was a great action film until I dug into the interviews, which I hadn't looked at for a
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couple of years. And then I realized the gold because what was there was a very rich fabric of
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real, a very rich personality of who soldiers really were. And I was very privileged to have
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that relationship where they would speak candidly. Um, I agree with your comments that there is a,
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there is a persistent betrayal. I won't say who, but I will tell you that in, in that in 2007,
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there was a Canadian media agency that asked me to do a set of, do a story on the soldiers that were
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deployed out in similar area. And I did it and I had it reviewed by two top one Pulitzer prize winning
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journalists in the U S first before I sent it. And they wrote back to me and said,
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this is top notch work. Send it. The response I got from the Canadian agency was this can't be real
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because soldiers don't talk this way. You need to find how they hate war, how they hate being deployed.
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And I, frankly, I walked away from a fairly sizable commission on the piece because I just told them
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I'm not doing it for you then because I'm not going to lie. This is who they are. These are real
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people. Um, I may, I, I think that what has happened in this film, it's interesting because
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there's a little backstory that's relevant here. When these products, when these three videos that
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are in the film, there are the three fighting scenes and they've been integrated into a much
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bigger piece were first released. They were released in August of 2006 and they were released
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on an American site out of Portland, Oregon, KGW, who was hosting my blog. Uh, they, YouTube was a
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year old at that point. And the, the, uh, videos were then copied over by a couple of soldiers and
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one in particular that I told him he could have them on his site to show. Now, considering YouTube
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was a year old, these things garnished over a million hits each early on. And what transpired
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there was a political maelstrom. I, the only way I could say it is it was literally, I, I was called
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into national command in Condor. I was berate, you know, chewed out for affecting Canadian popularity
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of the war. Uh, the Canadian national command actually went through a process of trying to
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have me expelled from country. And all while all this nonsense is happening, Colonel Ian Hope is
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calling me over to his compound, awarding me with the Orion coin, which is the highest award he could
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give. I was, it's unbelievable honor. And, you know, just giving me personal interviews and telling,
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you know, we're talking about the war and what was going on and really expressing some of his
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deeper philosophies on conflict, which was, it was impressive. So the military and the regiment
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continue to stand with this film the whole time, but the national command has that one went on to
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getting into your liberal party. They actually debated and had wanted to blacklist my passport for ever
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coming into country. I mean, this is some, some crazy stuff. And it really was kind of a foreshadowing
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to where you are today. You know, that's an excellent point. Um, you know, if you do watch,
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um, a lot of our state broadcaster, you would think that Canadians as a rule are okay with the payout,
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um, that Justin Trudeau made to Omar Cotter, the $10.5 million, but the overwhelming majority of
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Canadian sentiment thinks that it's appalling. It's an insult to our soldiers who've
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been told by the liberal government that they're just asking for more than Justin Trudeau was
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willing to give them. So the bias plays into everything that this, you know, our soldiers
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are just, you know, they're greedy. They're, they're, um, you know, involved in this long drawn
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out, um, legal proceeding for their pensions. Then we can easily give out $10.5 million to someone who,
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that we know killed, uh, one of our allies blinded another and helped build IEDs to harm
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quite likely Canadian soldiers. Um, and if Americans, God forbid, ever watched our state
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broadcaster, they would get entirely the wrong impression about Canadians because, you know,
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how our current government treats our military, um, is not in line with the affection normal Canadians
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have for them. So a couple of things on that. First of all, Omar is a straight up terrorist.
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And that part is, um, he was responsible for the death of one of my close friends, teammates. So
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let's just, I'll leave it at that. But it was, there's no question where he sits on a lot of our
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books. So the next thing is, is that, um, what we see, if you take what's happened with Vice Admiral
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Norman and, and that whole scandal is very much what they did. It's a mirror for us because I
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think this is where Americans can really find a good bridge is that's what they had tried to do
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with Lieutenant General Flynn. And it's the same sort of railroading of taking a great name in the
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military. The, the sad part is what I don't think a lot of Canadians realize is though it was not
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to the scandalous level, that sort of political pressure. And I, and this, I'm going to speak
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from my optic, this is not coming in any way from the person I'm going to speak about. I want to be
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clear about this, but from what I observed, that same type of pressure was, was put upon Colonel Ian
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Hope. And he should have been your director, your head of military, but instead now is he, he is still
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a Colonel. And the irony is that the person involved with the Norman process was the architect who claimed
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he was part of Colonel Hope's team, which I think he was, but he sure as heck didn't design the
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strategies. I'll tell you that much. Right. So you have this kind of incestuous, scandalous
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environment, which reminds us so much of what we're trying to undo in our own country. And you're right
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in the middle of it. The, the, the problem, I think it goes further though, because when we get into this
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and I mentioned national command earlier, I want to be very clear about this. I am a, I support the
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regiment and all that they stand for a hundred percent. And at some point, uh, I'm actually
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going to be working to give a copy of the film to the regiment for the regimental museum. That's
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down the road. But in the process right now, we've still had to deal with a bit of the national
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command stuff. And the national command is from the outside, from my observance as an American is
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still doing the same type of nonsense. I mean, it's, you had that scandal of the, the, the parade in,
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in Toronto, and instead of just outrightly condemning it, they're backpedaling and trying to
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excuse it. And then at the same time, you're taking your Canadian Afghan memorial and you're
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making it a private affair rather than making it public. So the question from, from the way I see
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it is it's almost like you want to whitewash, not you, but that there's an element to try to
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whitewash the Canadian history here in Afghanistan, when it is one of the richest experiences for your
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military on so many levels. There are so many heroes that come out of that. So many great stories,
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so many great experiences of what Canada stands for, both the good and the ugly, because war is
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not, is neither. It's not one or the other, it's both. And then I, so I, I kind of segue back to the
00:25:31.180
film. This film to me becomes even more important for Canada because it's one of your few documents
00:25:36.500
that if someone isn't trying to bury right now, to be honest with you. You know, that's a great point
00:25:41.560
about whitewashing, um, the time Canadians spent in Afghanistan. Um, so often the war is painted as
00:25:50.500
this illegal war and again, as an occupation. Um, but really we did some incredible things there. Um,
00:25:59.560
some ordinary people did some extraordinary things. And those people, while we're losing our World War II
00:26:07.160
veterans every single day, the men and women who served in Afghanistan, they're in our communities
00:26:13.520
with these rich stories. Um, but I think a lot of times sort of, uh, not unwilling, but maybe they don't
00:26:21.900
feel like they can tell them, um, or that we want to hear them. And I think we do.
00:26:28.540
I, I think you do too. I think that, so there kind of is a metric to this. Um, and I'm not going to
00:26:34.080
take, I'm not trying to take in any way credit. I'm going to kind of look at cause effect prior to
00:26:39.020
those three videos that came out in August of 2006, very few people were, were, uh, coming out
00:26:46.780
on the highway of heroes. Yeah. Post that it was hundreds of people, which is an indicator to me
00:26:53.380
that Canada wants to know about its military and it's very proud of its military. And I've never run
00:26:58.080
into anybody, uh, well, at least in my circles, it doesn't think Canadians, the Canadian military is a
00:27:03.520
great thing to be proud of. The, I think the bigger challenges over all of this is making sure that
00:27:10.900
that history doesn't get buried. Um, Afghanistan is, you said it, I mean, you did some amazing
00:27:16.100
things. You also had, and I go back to Colonel Ian Hope, you had a commander that literally rewrote
00:27:21.160
the future of Canadian type of fighting. Canada's approach to war was different than the Americans.
00:27:27.660
It was different than the Brits. It was uniquely Canadian. And in my perspective, it is also very
00:27:32.420
value-based in that sense. But the one thing that I will, I have so much respect for, for the Canadians
00:27:37.820
is there's a difference of, and it's really, if you look, the film has three hashtags. It's, it's
00:27:45.220
conviction, righteousness, and ruthlessness. And it's, there is a point there that everything that
00:27:51.280
you learn about being with Canadians has a center point of conviction. There is a, there's a
00:27:56.040
righteousness position on that, which is both values and Canadian, what it is to be a Canadian,
00:28:01.420
Canadian out there in the world, which is also you're part of a world community, but your nation
00:28:05.820
is always there. There's a massive amount of respect for diversity. But at the end of the day,
00:28:10.860
that ruthlessness is the purpose of war. And what is most missed in the media across the board is this
00:28:17.660
was never about a fight with Islam. This was a fight, the people that we were going after in this,
00:28:24.120
in the South, were straight up criminal drug networks hiding under the title of Taliban
00:28:28.980
and claiming to be Muslim. These people were using that as a shield, when in fact,
00:28:34.100
they were a little more than drug runners and human traffickers. And that is so seldom ever said
00:28:39.060
in the media. And it's a huge difference. There is a righteous point of being there. And who wants
00:28:44.740
Now, Scott, you're being so generous with your time, I could probably talk to you all day.
00:28:48.740
Um, uh, you've had some challenges trying to show the movie here in Canada.
00:28:54.980
Yes. Um, well, it's, it kind of goes, it goes to the regiment, the national command again. And I,
00:29:02.980
this has been a bit challenging. Um, when I first got the film finished, which was December, January
00:29:08.980
of this year, I approached the museum just to offer the military museum in Calgary. I want to be very
00:29:15.940
clear about this. And before that was the regimental museum about getting them a copy.
00:29:20.820
They loved the film and it was a huge compliment to me. And so we began a kind of a process, which
00:29:27.780
I was a little bit surprised at, that they were going to screen the film in Calgary at the military
00:29:33.140
museum. And it was a huge compliment to me and this, their, their strength in the work. Um, about
00:29:39.700
three days before that screening national, a, some level of the national level command swooped in and said,
00:29:45.940
no, we can't do this. And I think this is where it really got disturbing for me was because I
00:29:50.660
started to hear the same story that I heard in 2006, which was, we can't endorse these comments
00:29:56.260
of the soldiers. Um, there's another comment they made that there's a scene in the film where
00:30:01.460
an Afghan military guy slaps a civilian. And one of the Patricia's kind of snickers and he says,
00:30:08.980
you know, they have a different way of doing things. Well, literally the comment to me was,
00:30:14.100
we can't endorse that because the Canadians should have intervened. And I laugh at that
00:30:17.940
because I even, this is the other part is that wasn't even the Patricia's authority,
00:30:22.740
all that authority, they had to go through the Americans. That was the way it was. So
00:30:26.580
that whole reaction is very transparent and very real, but here you have these other issues going
00:30:31.940
on, like your crazy parade in Toronto. Again, you're, you know, whitewashing of your memorial
00:30:37.700
by sticking it behind closed walls and a film here that is so upholding of Canadian values.
00:30:46.580
Now, let me just segue this and why this gets even a little crazier when the national command
00:30:50.100
says they can't endorse it or back it, et cetera. If you go to the website, there's a second review down
00:30:57.540
is about a four or five paragraph review. This review is from a Marine Colonel. Now, just to kind of
00:31:05.220
put this in context for those that don't know us Marines, us Marines seldom give compliments about
00:31:10.580
anybody other than us Marines. They also have one of the most difficult, um, systems to earn rank,
00:31:17.620
very much like the Canadian army. So it's very difficult to get ranked. So he writes about a
00:31:23.620
four or five paragraph review that sums up with these words that these guys get it. And I,
00:31:30.580
as a Marine will stand shoulder to shoulder with them and fight any day with them.
00:31:36.100
That's level of compliment doesn't come any higher than that. And so I find it just ironic
00:31:42.340
when you have a can't endorse this film from Canada, which is, and that's fine. That's politics.
00:31:47.700
But I want Canada to hear that this thing has legitimately been reviewed. And if you go into
00:31:52.340
the reviews, I've had it reviewed by my special operations friends. I've had it reviewed by Marines
00:31:56.660
well before we ever got it to the Canadian market and everybody says the same thing. Soldiers get
00:32:01.540
it. They're great for fighters. They're doing a great job. That's a thing to be proud of. And I
00:32:06.100
think what's that's at the core right now, what, in my opinion, as I look kind of the politics from
00:32:11.460
the optics outside, Canada needs that you need to start realizing just how much values that are held
00:32:17.540
in the, in the Patricia's and how much, what the regiment represents in terms of that richness of being
00:32:22.340
Canadian. It's this nonsense of like, you know, war is bad. War is real. Let's just put it like
00:32:29.220
that. I mean, it's, it's one of those unfortunate conflicts that whether you are, you want to read
00:32:34.180
the Bible and see about conflict, it's all the way through there. You want to, you know, we are just a,
00:32:39.140
a, by nature, but it's the process of how you are in war. And I would say that everybody I've worked
00:32:48.260
with the Patricia's rank as some of the best war fighters I've ever been with. Scott, how do people
00:32:56.020
see your movie? I mean, the first, my first, uh, reflex when the government tells me I shouldn't
00:33:02.420
watch it is I want to run out and watch it twice. So this is what I, it's a good question. And it's,
00:33:10.340
so this is kind of what we're doing right now. So two things, I think this is a great forum.
00:33:13.780
Um, when I set this up, I anticipated a little bit of pushback. I didn't know where it was going
00:33:18.660
to come from. So the film is first and foremost available as a digital download purchase from the
00:33:24.340
web website. And if you don't get it through an app, so you actually have to buy it and download
00:33:29.540
it to your app on your laptop or your desktop. That's just the virtue of the tech tyrannical nature
00:33:35.300
of all the distribution things now. But all that said, it isn't going through some sort of
00:33:40.980
distribution house. This is a filmmaker direct to market model because I want to preserve the
00:33:46.100
access to people. That's important to me. The second part, there's something we're starting
00:33:50.580
now and it's just beginning the groundwork, but I figured that this is a, this is a movie
00:33:56.340
buying for people for, I mean, this is a movie for Canadian people to see. So, and I don't have
00:34:01.140
any announcements on this yet, but where I'm starting to speak to local pubs and bar owners across Canada,
00:34:06.180
we're going to do some announcements on where people can go and see the film for an evening,
00:34:10.100
buy some beer, have some food there. It's not going to be a charge event. And like everything
00:34:14.500
else, if you like the film and you want to support the work, you can buy a copy. Right. But it's,
00:34:18.580
I'm trying to keep out of the, the, any sort of that constructed distribution networks. It's,
00:34:26.260
it doesn't do a service to the filmmakers and it, it really, this is a true independent film from,
00:34:32.100
from creation to delivery to market. And so first and foremost, you can get it on the website,
00:34:37.540
download a copy. It's an MP4 file plays on any device, or as we, as you watch the website and
00:34:43.620
we evolve this, there'll be some, we'll start to look for ways to get it out into the public
00:34:47.460
in different ways. I'm very much, I'm a gorilla marketer by nature. So I enjoy this sort of thing.
00:34:51.460
It's fun. And I think it's a great way to kind of break the paradigms of what usually constricts us
00:34:56.660
from, from our controls of people saying what you can and can't watch. Right. Yeah. I think that's
00:35:01.940
great. I gorilla marketed a book all the way to a bestseller for the last few weeks. So yeah,
00:35:08.580
no, I, I think that's great. This sounds like the kind of thing that should be airing at legions,
00:35:15.300
Royal Canadian legions all over the country. They serve liquor and there's a lot of veterans
00:35:21.460
kicking around those places. I think it would be a hit to show in some of the legion halls across
00:35:28.420
the country. Um, Scott, what's the website again, just for people? Sure. It's bards of war film. So
00:35:34.900
it's B A R D S film, bards of war film.com. Um, and that's, uh, it's real easy access. The website's
00:35:43.140
made to be fairly simple. It's not real complex. You'll find some reviews there and, uh, there's
00:35:48.020
the film download. It's a, just a digital purchase. Uh, once you get it, then you get a little notice in
00:35:52.900
your email, click on that and download the film. It's pretty easy. Any other projects you're working on?
00:35:58.260
Yeah, actually the second film will be out in, uh, in the fall. Um, and that will be,
00:36:03.700
that title is combat advisor. It'll be the other part of the story, not specifically to the Canadians,
00:36:08.820
but the advisor role that I was there to watch. And then I've got a number of films planned out
00:36:13.940
over the next few years. I mean, this is pretty much now my, this year we'll roll out two films
00:36:18.020
and then going forward, it'll be about a film a year is what my push is to get these out and just,
00:36:23.060
and really the, the theme that I have that has come out of this, it kind of goes back to the pillars of
00:36:27.700
what this was about, which is, I go back to this conviction, righteousness, and ruthlessness.
00:36:32.580
And I think there's a, it defines a lot of the type of stories that I seek and a lot of the type
00:36:37.300
of stories that I like to tell. It's, um, it, it really gets into those deeper parts of who we are
00:36:42.340
and what it takes us to be, uh, essentially a warrior in life. Right. Well, Scott, I want to thank
00:36:49.140
you for your time. And I also want to pencil you in when, when the new movie comes out. Um,
00:36:55.460
but I also want to thank you for taking, um, such care, um, to show our soldiers, um, in,
00:37:04.420
I guess, in the truest light, which is also the best light because they really are some of the best
00:37:09.620
in the business. Uh, Scott, thanks for coming on the show today. Thank you very much.
00:37:26.020
You know, I think it's pathetic that the distribution of Scott's film is being hampered
00:37:30.980
by the politically correct bureaucrats in the upper echelons of the Canadian military.
00:37:36.020
His film depicts a moral Canadian military, but remember, this is the same politically correct
00:37:43.300
Canadian military bureaucracy that hampered our efforts here at the rebel to help military families
00:37:48.900
in need and stepped in to block your donations to them. This is the same politically correct
00:37:55.060
military bureaucracy as Scott rightly pointed out that left families of dead soldiers out of the
00:38:01.220
the commemoration of the Kandahar battlefield cenotaph in Ottawa. In the end, all the politics
00:38:08.340
just hurts our soldiers and stops us from honoring them the way that they deserve. Well, everybody,
00:38:14.580
that's the show for tonight. Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you do take the time to see
00:38:19.620
Scott's movie, Bards of War, if only because some bureaucrat doesn't want you to. I'll see everybody
00:38:27.540
back here in the same time in the same place next week. And remember, don't let the government tell