view all: fallujah
films
VIEWING 1 - 28 of 33
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00:02:29
The First Opera on the Iraq War - A trailer for the new opera Fallujah, by Tobin Stokes and Heather Raffo, based on the life and work of Christian Ellis. Presented by the Annenberg Foundation, explore.org and City Opera Vancouver.
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00:23:58
The Making of FALLUJAH - A New Chamber Opera - FALLUJAH - inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis - is the first opera about the Iraq War and PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). This exclusive documentary tells the story of the making of FALLUJAH, as told by Christian; friend and philanthropist Charles Annenberg Weingarten; librettist Heather Raffo; composer Tobin Stokes; and Charles Barber, conductor and artistic director of City Opera Vancouver.
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00:03:36
Webisode 1 - "First Mother Duet (1)" - FALLUJAH - inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis – is the first opera about the Iraq War and PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this exclusive webisode, Christian and librettist Heather Raffo talk about “First Mother Duet”, as performed by Ken Lavigne, Megan Morrison and Arianna Sovernigo.
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00:03:12
Webisode 2 – “What Is One?” - FALLUJAH - inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis – is the first opera about the Iraq War and PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this exclusive webisode, librettist Heather Raffo talks about “What Is One”, as performed by Christopher Mayell.
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00:06:11
Webisode 3 - “How Can I? (Second Mother Duet)” - FALLUJAH - inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis – is the first opera about the Iraq War and PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this exclusive webisode, composer Tobin Stokes and conductor / artistic director Charles Barber talk about “How Can I? (Second Mother Duet)”, as performed by Megan Morrison and Arianna Sovernigo.
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00:03:56
Webisode 4 – “Ending It” - FALLUJAH – inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis – is the first opera about the Iraq War and PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this exclusive webisode, Charlie Annenberg Weingarten and Christian talk about the origins of the project.
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00:04:35
Webisode 5 – “Brooklyn Bridge (1)" - FALLUJAH – inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis – is the first opera about the Iraq War and PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this exclusive webisode, Charlie Annenberg Weingarten talks about meeting Dr. Charles Barber and introducing him to Christian.
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00:05:01
Webisode 6 – "First Mother Duet (2)" - FALLUJAH – inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis – is the first opera about the Iraq War and PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this exclusive webisode, Dr. Charles Barber and Christian talk about working with librettist Heather Raffo.
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00:03:35
Webisode 7 – “I Did My Job” - FALLUJAH – inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis – is the first opera about the Iraq War and PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this exclusive webisode, Dr. Charles Barber and Christian talk about working with composer Tobin Stokes.
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00:03:38
Webisode 8 – “What Is One?” - FALLUJAH – inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis – is the first opera about the Iraq War and PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this exclusive webisode, librettist Heather Raffo and composer Tobin Stokes talk about working together.
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00:04:17
Webisode 9 – “Yumma Wleedli” - FALLUJAH – inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis – is the first opera about the Iraq War and PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this exclusive webisode, composer Tobin Stokes talks about the music.
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00:05:50
Webisode 10 – “Listen” - FALLUJAH – inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis – is the first opera about the Iraq War and PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this exclusive webisode, Christian, Charles Annenberg Weingarten, librettist Heather Raffo and composer Tobin Stokes reflect on their hopes for the opera.
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00:05:20
Webisode 11 – "Brooklyn Bridge (2)" - FALLUJAH – inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis – is the first opera about the Iraq War and PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this exclusive webisode, Christian and Charles Annenberg Weingarten talk about the first ever performance in front of an audience.
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00:05:53
What Is One? & Sniper! - Performances of “What Is One?” and “Sniper!”
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00:02:22
First Mother Duet - Performance of “First Mother Duet”
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00:04:48
How Can I? (Second Mother Duet) -
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00:05:35
Listen - Performance of “Listen”
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00:18:48
FESTIVAL WINNER
Fish Out of Water - Combat Vets suffering from PTSD participate in a fly fishing workshop hosted by non-profit Sun Valley Adaptive Sports. Explore the connection between nature and healing.
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00:22:40
Life After Wartime - explore went on a philanthropic fact-finding mission to Idaho to learn about soldiers dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Over a year later, Charlie met with Christian Ellis and Joe Gracia to talk about the challenges of life after wartime.
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00:02:41
Brothers - Meet Bravell Smith and Joe Gracia, brothers with a newfound bond since Joe returned home from military service with a debilitating injury.
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00:00:23
Christian Ellis talks about his life being turned into an opera - “I never thought my life was that interesting, to be on public display, of any sort. Especially an opera, because when I think of opera, I just think of incredible stories, incredible adventures, and I never really saw my life as something … Of being incredible, or an adventure, that people would want to hear about.”
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00:00:11
Christian Ellis talks about creating music for a living - “To see all this hard work and be a part of something where you're creating music for hopefully generations to come and that the fact that they do that for a living is badass.”
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00:01:28
Christian Ellis talks about the effect that the opera has had on him - “Music has always had an amazing effect on me, in ways that medicine, pills, talking to a doctor in an office will never achieve. This opera has taken a lot of--or taken some of the issues and put it right in front of me to face. I can't deny it. And that alone – in a musical way – has helped me confront some of my guilt, my shame. And that alone – being confronted – has really helped put to ease all of that--that this opera has brought up with regard to some of that guilt. And it's giving me hope, which is the hardest thing for veterans. Just to find hope, to find purpose, that after combat there is life out there if you look hard and you try to find it. That it may not take … It may not be right away, but it's really given me hope. And that is – as clichéd as it sounds – is the greatest gift, is really feeling that there's hope somewhere. Because for a great part of my life, I just … There was no hope. I had no hope in any way.”
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00:00:49
Christian Ellis talks about feeling scared and excited - “Honestly, I'm scared. Excited. It's not easy being that vulnerable to the world. It's not easy at all, it's … Everyone to know some of my secrets, some of my pains, my guilts, some of the things I've done … It's hard. Hard to digest. But at the same time, I hear people's reactions, when they … I hear and I see their reactions when they watch the performances through some of the workshops and they're just … There's tears, there's laughter, there's every great and bad emotion combined, and it touched these people. So to see that again, knowing that hopefully it will help people, on top of how I feel, is the most incredible thing ever.”
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00:00:57
Christian Ellis talks about his hopes for the opera - “I want people to understand that when they see a newsline on TV, and they see underneath ‘two marines were killed’, or 'two soldiers were killed’, and above it it's Britney Spears, all this and all that, and I want them to understand that … That may be great, but two lives and their families were just destroyed, and you don't know their lives. What about these two people? What did they accomplish in their life? What did this veteran who's on the street, homeless, accomplish? What has he gone through to get to there? And what can people do to help them, and really understand that being a combat veteran isn't over when they leave the service. I want people to really understand, and walk away – “wow, I never realized that this is what people go through.” That's what I want. The understanding, the compassion, and the drive to help.”
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00:01:00
Heather Raffo talks about meeting Christian Ellis - “My first impressions of Christian was of a really gentle spirit, and of a profoundly open and honest spirit. He continues to amaze me over and over again through this entire process, but particularly that week, about how open and honest he can be at exposing what is the hardest material of his life, both his emotional life, his physical life, his upbringing, his past, his future, everything. He is so actually able to articulate, with incredible emotional intelligence, the things he has lived, and they are some really, really difficult things. And what I thought was amazing about Christian um was that he trusted me entirely, and he trusted me instantly. And I felt similarly.”
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00:00:59
Heather Raffo talks about working with Christian Ellis - “What I got from Christian that week was a lot about his desire for redemption, a lot about his desire for connection with family, a lot about his thought about serving in Iraq – the cost of serving in Iraq, emotionally. And I think that is the most unique thing about Christian. I've talked to a lot of marines since coming onto this project, I've spent my life talking to Iraqis in a warzone, and what Christian is so amazing at is able to articulate the emotional costs to him personally. They're things that a lot of people aren't really willing to look at, aren't willing to share, and don't really even necessarily have words for, even if they wanna look at it and share it.”
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00:00:35
Heather Raffo talks about her Iraqi-American background - “My background is Iraqi and American. My father's from Iraq and my mother's American and although my dad has been living in America for almost 40 years, all his brothers and sisters are still in Baghdad so I have about fifty family members living in Baghdad, and it's not just this war that my family has … It's Saddam's time, and multiple wars, and the sanctions period, so the amount of torture stories, horror stories, that we know of on a daily basis, is really something that does influence your psyche.”
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