Stand-Up Documentary
Comedy Warriors: Healing Through Humor John Wager INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Five disabled American veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan talk about getting wounded and the periods of sorrow, depression and recovery that followed. All five are now working as stand-up comics. Director and producer John Wager and his co-producer Ray Reo are co-founders of Comedy Warriors, a project that helps disabled veterans become stand-ups. All five veterans already had the habit of making jokes about their problems, and now they get coaching from well-known stand-up comics like Zach Galifianakis, Lewis Black and Bob Saget. They have plenty of questions for them: how should you stand onstage? What role do you assign to visible wounds (a missing limb or a scarred face)? How can you make a joke hit home even harder? All of the participants affirm that humor can heal – and this goes for all comedians. In the words of Bob Nickman, screenwriter-producer of the TV series Freaks and Geeks, ‘Very happy, well-adjusted people don’t go into stand-up. It’s a way of dealing with pain.’ The documentary builds up to the five budding stand-ups’ first big show, the L.A. Improv in Hollywood, and features excerpts from their acts.
USA, 2013 DCP, color/black-and-white, 74 min Director: John Wager Photography: Alex Kenyon, Shawn Schaffer Editing: Ken Schretzmann, Arielle Amsalem Sound: Steve Nealey, Andy Theiss Music: Jim Papoulis Production: John Wager & Ray Reo for Galileo Media Arts Co-Production: Bernadette Luckett Executive Production: Steven Beer Screening Copy: Galileo Media Arts Website: www.comedywarriors.com
John Wager:
Bicycle Lessons (2010)
Awards: Golden Palm Award Best Documentary & Golden Palm Award for Veterans’ Service and Sacrifice Palm Beach International Film Festival, Audience Award for Best Documentary San Antonio Film Festival
The Happy Sad Route (and a Comedian) Linda Hakeboom WORLD PREMIERE In this personal road movie, Dutch stand-up comedian Jan Jaap van der Wal travels through former Yugoslavia. Over the past few years, a small group of comedians have been trying to set up a comedy scene in the region, but it has proven to be quite a challenge: audiences are hard to find, and money seems to be even more scarce. But most importantly, the comedians and their audience all share a pretty tough history to be making fun of. Choosing “differences are funny” as their motto, the up-and-coming comedians in this fledgling comedy scene attempt to get past the taboos and traumas of history. Van der Wal travels to Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to meet with fellow comedians and to perform there himself. The battles fought by the Balkan comedians urge him to reflect on his own future as a stand-up comedian in the Netherlands.
238
The Netherlands, 2013 DCP, color, 50 min Director: Linda Hakeboom Photography: Jeffrey Slaa Screenplay: Linda Hakeboom Editing: Tim Roza Sound: Jaim Sahuleka Music: Eefje de Visser Production: Martijn Mosk, Linda Hakeboom & Jan Jaap van der Wal for Het Station World Sales: Het Station Screening Copy: Het Station Involved TV Channels: Human, NTR
Linda Hakeboom:
Whatever Forever: Douwe Bob (2013)