Queercore is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifically society's disapproval of the LGBT community. Queercore expresses itself in a DIY style through magazines, music, writing and film.
Sebastian Junger is an American journalist, author and filmmaker who has reported in-the-field on dirty, dangerous and demanding occupations and the experience of infantry combat. He is the author of The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea (1997) which was adapted into a major motion picture and led to a resurgence in adventure creative nonfiction writing. He covered the War in Afghanistan for more than a decade, often embedded in dangerous and remote military outposts. The book War (2010) was drawn from his field reporting for Vanity Fair, that also served as the background for the documentary film Restrepo (2010) which received the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Junger's works explore themes such as brotherhood, trauma, and the relationship of the individual to society as told from the far reaches of human experience.
Marc Levin is an American independent film producer and director. He is best known for his Brick City TV series, which won the 2010 Peabody award and was nominated for an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking and his dramatic feature film, Slam, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Caméra d'Or at Cannes in 1998. He also has received three Emmy Awards and the 1997 DuPont-Columbia Award.
Korangal Valley, also nicknamed "The Valley of Death" is a valley in the Dara-I-Pech District of Kunar Province, eastern Afghanistan.
Timothy Alistair Telemachus Hetherington was a British photojournalist. He produced books, films and other work that "ranged from multi-screen installations, to fly-poster exhibitions, to handheld device downloads" and was a regular contributor to Vanity Fair.
Restrepo is a 2010 American documentary film about the Afghanistan war, directed by American journalist Sebastian Junger and British photojournalist Tim Hetherington.
Havana Marking is a British producer and director of documentary films. She is well known for her first feature doc in 2009 Afghan Star. This film won Best Director and the Audience Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The film follows a season of the Afghan TV phenomenon, based on the X-Factor / American Idol. Marking lived in Kabul for five months and focused on four main contestants in the series. The film changed pitch at the moment that Setara Hussainzada danced during her final performance. This led to death threats, condemnation and the possibility that the show itself might be stopped. The film also won The Grierson award for ‘best doc on a contemporary issue’, the Prix Italia and the Golden Tomato - meaning it had was best reviewed documentary of 2009.
The Korangal Valley campaign was a series of military operations conducted by ISAF forces against Taliban and other local insurgents in the Korangal Valley in Kunar province, Afghanistan, from October 2004 to April 2010. The campaign ended with a US withdrawal from the valley, after suffering heavy casualties, and a Taliban takeover of the area.
Operation Rock Avalanche was a six-day, US-led offensive from 19 to 25 October 2007, with the purpose of hunting Taliban fighters in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan. The mission also aimed to establish a peace with the local populace so that a road could be safely built through the area by the Afghan government. Over the course of the operation, a series of running battles occurred with members of the Taliban, as well as with local tribesmen. U.S. Army Paratrooper Salvatore Giunta would be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during combat between U.S. forces and local Afghans.
Mike Lerner is a documentary film maker.
Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist protest and performance art group based in Moscow that became popular for its provocative punk rock music which later turned into a more accessible style. Founded in August 2011, it has had a membership of approximately 11 women. The group staged unauthorized, provocative guerrilla gigs in public places. These performances were filmed as music videos and posted on the internet. The group's lyrical themes included feminism, LGBT rights, opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his policies, and Putin's links to the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Nadezhda Andreyevna Tolokonnikova, is a Russian conceptual artist, political activist and convicted felon. She was a member of the anarchist feminist group Pussy Riot, and has a history of political activism with the controversial street art group Voina. On August 17, 2012, she was convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after a performance in Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. On December 23, 2013, she was released early with another Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina under a newly passed amnesty bill dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Russian constitution.
Yekaterina Stanislavovna Samutsevich is a Russian political activist. She was a member of the anti-Putinist punk rock group Pussy Riot.
Maria Vladimirovna "Masha" Alyokhina is a Russian political activist. She is a member of the anti-Putinist punk rock group Pussy Riot.
Simon Russell is a British composer for TV and film.
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer is a 2013 documentary film by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin. The film follows the court cases on the Russian feminist/anti-Putinist punk-rock protest group Pussy Riot. Directed by Lerner and Pozdorovkin, the film featured publicly available footage of the court proceedings and interviews with the families of the band members, but no interviews with the band members themselves.
Juan Sebastián Restrepo was a Colombian American soldier and medic. Restrepo was killed in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, of neck wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small-arms fire. He was honored in Restrepo, nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 83rd Academy Awards.
Maxim Pozdorovkin is a Russian-American filmmaker based in New York. He is the director of The Truth About Killer Robots, an HBO documentary that premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. The Truth About Killer Robots was described by The Guardian as "the year's most terrifying documentary". His film Our New President premiered at Sundance 2018 where it won a Special Jury Award. Variety also listed it as one of the ten best films from the festival. Pozdorovkin's other films include: Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, The Notorious Mr. Bout, Clinica de Migrantes (HBO). Upcoming feature documentary How to Rob Banks For Dummies is currently in post-production.
Korengal is a 2014 documentary that picks up where the film Restrepo left off, taking the viewer deeper into soldiers' experiences of war in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan. The film consists of closeup interviews with soldiers in a platoon stationed at outpost Restrepo, during and after their deployment. Most of the reviews of the documentary have been favorable.
Pussy versus Putin is a 2013 Russian documentary film by the film collective Gogol's Wives chronicling the history of the group Pussy Riot and their struggle with the political regime in Russia. The film received the NTR IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary at the 2013 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
