Oliver Stone
© AFP/File Francois Guillot
Washington, April 23 (ANI): Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone is all set to direct an anti-war commercial for the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org.
‘VideoVets: Bring Our Troops Home’ will depict an Iraq war veteran disputing US President George W. Bush’s justification of the conflict in the country.
Video interviews with soldiers and their families, collected by the group on its website and via YouTube, are expected to form an important ingredient of the 30-second spot.
The group has so far uploaded more than 20 such interviews, each of which lasts less than two minutes.
It is from these videos that members of MoveOn will choose their favorite ones, and which will in turn be incorporated into the veteran’s story.
"We have leaders in Washington who say they're 'supporting our troops'—but the people who suffer most from their policies are the troops themselves," E!Online quoted Stone, a veteran of the Vietnam War, as saying in a statement.
"I decided to participate in this project because as a veteran, I know that America needs to listen to our servicemen and women. They've been there, and they know what's really going on. They need to be part of this debate," he added.
VoteVets.org, a left-leaning political action committee that is run by Iraq war veterans, is a co-sponsor of the project, the aim of which is to "hold public officials accountable for their words and actions that adversely affect the troops and veterans."
"We knew we wanted to do something to tell the personal stories that we were hearing," said MoveOn's creative director, Laura Dawn.
"MoveOn has sponsored quite a few vigils over the years and we kept hearing reports of military members standing up and giving personal testimony. We felt the voices of the vets were missing in the public debate about the war," she added.
Members of the group will be asked to choose their favorite interviews, and once the selection gets finalized, Stone will re-shoot and edit them for the purpose of spot. The commercial may be aired from 3 May.
"It seemed like a natural fit to have a 30-second spot which he would direct," said Dawn. (ANI)