Film Annex and War Veterans, they deserve our respect...
War is a tough matter to talk about, but the bottom line is that veterans come back from war and rarely get paid back for their sacrifices. Years ago, Ken Kelsch, special forces in Vietnam and renowned Director of Photography, mentioned that he spent years in war and didn't make the millions that actors like Tom Hanks and Matt Damon made in the movies.
Most people look at what the Government is doing for the veterans, while others listen to what private companies can offer. For example, Chase is hiring 100,000 veterans, but what is the film industry doing for them? Just imagine the money made with war films and think of how much was shared with the veterans.
A few months ago, NATO contacted us and allowed us to use their original footage to produce a series called Stories About NATO. Following this, we started looking for Afghanistan veterans, and finally last week, we shot the first interview with Jonathan Weinkiper, the fiancee of my son's pre-school teacher. He recently came back to the US after a 7 month tour in Afghanistan.
Here at Film Annex the concept is simple: We edit the NATO content and interview the veterans. We pay the veterans an interview fee and ask them to create a profile on Film Annex where they can tell their stories and showcase their videos to generate advertising revenues. In addition we cast them for acting parts in our documentaries or narrative productions.
If a Veteran is located too far, has no time, or doesn't want to be on camera, he can still create a channel and curate it with videos from our Open Film Library, where we have hundreds of war related clips and documentaries.
-- Francesco Rulli
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