Media Advisory: UB to Host Screening of Afghan War Documentary

WHAT: Public invited to attend a showing of the independently produced documentary "At War" and meet the videographer and director Scott Kesterson.

WHO: The University at Buffalo Department of Media Studies will host the event and is a co-sponsor with the New York National Guard, the Military Association of New York (MANY) and the independent military blog http://www.bouhammer.com

WHEN: Monday March 9, 2009. Seating opens at 7 p.m. Film begins at 7:30 p.m. and is 113 minutes long.

WHERE: Center for the Arts, UB North (Amherst) Campus

Scott Kesterson is an Emmy-award winning freelance journalist who has been documenting the ongoing war in Afghanistan with a special focus on the effort to train the Afghan National Army. His film "At War" is based on his time as an embedded reporter in 2006-07 with U.S. and Canadian forces. The New York National Guard's First Sergeant Troy Steward from Buffalo served as the non-commissioned officer in charge of an embedded training team with the Afghan National Army and hosted Kesterson during that time frame.

This will be the sixth public screening of the film, with previous screenings held in Dallas, Texas; Portland, Ore.; the University of California -- Berkley; Edmonton, Canada, and Ft. Bragg N.C. Kesterson will soon return to Afghanistan to begin a new project and is coming through Buffalo to meet with New York National Guard troops he met while in Afghanistan. The screening is by special arrangement.

Kesterson will also present a short trailer filmed last year that features members of the New York National Guard's 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. Nearly 350 Western New Yorkers were among 1,700 from the state who served in Afghanistan in 2008 as part of Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix VII.

To view samples of "At War" and for additional information about Kesterson, go to:

http://www.atwarfilm.com

http://www.youtube.com/AtWarFilm

http://www.myspace.com/atwarfilm

http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/militaryafghanistan/kesterson_at_war.html

For additional information on the New York National Guard's 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, contact Lt. Col. Paul Fanning of the Division of Military and Naval Affairs, Public Affairs Office at (518) 786-4581, (518) 441-4106 cell. Fanning hosted Kesterson in Afghanistan as the public affairs officer in charge last year and will attend the screening on Monday evening.