About Flag Day – Mountain Tea Studios

Flag Day

Category/Genre: Short Documentary
Date completed: 01/01/05
Running Time: 06:40 Minutes
Film’s country of origin: United States

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Flag Day receives awards:

Filmmaker, Kristy Higby, was invited to screen her short documentary, Flag Day, at the third annual SILVERDOCS:AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival. The festival takes place June 14-19, 2005. All films are screened at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center and the Round House Theare in Silver Spring Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC. Last year’s Festival screened 79 films, which were selected from a competitive field of more than 1,200 entries submitted from 71 countries around the world. SILVERDOCS attracted over 12,000 people to its six-day run of screenings and Symposia. Kristy was awarded an Honorable Mention for her short documentary.

More recognition for Flag Day:

Jury’s Citation Award, Black Maria Film and Video Festival, Jersey City, NJ

Best Documentary Award, Dam Short Film Festival, Boulder City, NV

Best Activist Film San Francisco WIFF

Jury Prize Best Film Women in Film Dallas Chick Flicks 5

W.W. Norton will include a short clip from Flag Day on the Norton Sociology DVD created in spring 2007 as a resource for instructors using the textbooks Introduction to Sociology and Essentials of Sociology by Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier and Richard Appelbaum and the upcoming 1st editions of The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology by Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein and You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Sociology by Dalton Conley, both due to publish in 2008. The DVD and the Introduction to Sociology text will publish in March 2007. The Norton Sociology DVD will contain approximately 22 short clips on important sociology concepts. “The purpose our sociology textbooks is to provide college students with a sociological awareness with which to analyze situations in our modern world. We have selected your film because it addresses an important current issue from an intelligent and sociological point of view.”

Synopsis of Film

This year, in Rockport, Maine, a man got tired of hiding the death this war is bringing us…he planted flags, one for each dead soldier, in his yard…and now the flags are moving one yard to the next, a visible reminder of the number, rising daily, of the dead.

Key Considerations in Making the Film

Tom Sadowski, the Flag Memorial originator, wanted to see what the abstract symbol (represented as a number) of current deaths of US soldiers in Iraq actually looked like. I wanted to build on his vision by adding more visuals, text and audio…to present that statistic to as many senses as possible and to as many people as possible.

Filmmaker’s Statement

I share Tom Sadowski’s concern that our country needs to keep a public focus on lives lost in this war. We need to ‘say that number out loud’ and we need to acknowledge each sacrifice. “It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” William Carlos William

Cast and Crew

Director • Kristy Higby • 37 Mountain Tea Lane, Alexander, NC 28701
Producer • Maureen Carrigg • mocat27@yahoo.com
Cinematographer • Eric Stevenson • olegsgb@hotmail.com
Editor • Kristy Higby • 37 Mountain Tea Lane, Alexander, NC 28701
Artwork • Kristy Higby • 37 Mountain Tea Lane, Alexander, NC 28701

Thank you to: Tom Sadowski (Flag Memorial Originator), Mair and Paul Lipman (Readers), Paul Barrows (Flag Memorial host), Paralee Dawson (sister)

Additional Notes: Special thanks to Bart Weiss for his laid-back intensity and can-do guidance; and to the International Film and Television Workshops in Rockport, Maine; the Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University, Durham, NC
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Official selection screenings to date:

Home Grown Documentary Happening
Center for Documentary Studies
Duke University
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Amazon Theater/Tribeca Film Festival Short Film Competition
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SILVERDOCS AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Filmfest
Silver Spring, MD
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International Documentary Film Festival
Auckland, New Zealand, Australia
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11th Annual Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films
Palm Springs, California
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Asheville Film Festival
Asheville, NC
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The Eureka! International Film Festival
New York City, New York
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Peace and Justice Film Series
University of Montana
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Three Rivers Film Festival
Sponsored by Pittsburgh Filmmakers
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University of South Carolina
Invitational Alumni Exhibition
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Dam Short Film Festival
Boulder City, NV
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Black Maria Film & Video Festival
Jersey City, NJ 07305
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Tiburon International Film Festival
Tiburon, California
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Montclair Women’s Film Marathom
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Ashland Independent Film Festival
Ashland, Oregon
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Kansas City Filmmaker’s Jubilee Film Festival
Kansas City, Kansas
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Black Maria Film Festival Sponsored
New York Public Library
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Webster Film Series, Webster University
Maplewood, Mo
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Seattle International Film Festival
Seattle, WA
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Sequences and Events. Burroughs-Chapin Art Museum
Myrtle Beach, SC
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Dallas Video Festival
Dallas, Texas
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Northhamptonshire International Film Festival
Northhampton, UK
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Dallas Women in Film, Chick Flicks 5
Dallas, Texas
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Sequences and Events, Burroughs Chapin Museum of Art
Myrtle Beach, SC
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Somewhat North of Boston
Concord, New Hampshire
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Kun.Kortfilm (Only Shortfilms)
Copenhagen, Denmark
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All American Film Festival
Durham, NC
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DC Independent Film Festival
Washington DC
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The Int’l Fest of Cinema and Technology
Schedule pending
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DC Independent Film Festival
Washington, DC
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SF Women’s Film Festival
San Francisco, Ca
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Videobot TV Show
Asheville, NC