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June 14
12:00 PM - 1:45 PM

US Navy Memorial, Burke Theater

701 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004
Tickets and Passes

War Game

Directors

Jesse Moss, Tony Gerber

Executive Producers

Warren Littlefield, Jonathan E. Steinberg, Dan Shotz, Eric Schmeltzer, David Fortier, Ivan Schneeberg, Jay Peterson, Seth Brodie, David Levine

Producers

Todd Lubin, Jesse Moss, Jack Turner, Mark DiCristofaro, Jessica Grimshaw, Nick Shumaker

Editor

Jeff Gilbert

Cinematographers

Thorsten Thielow, Wolfgang Held, Daniel Carter, Tim Grucza, Brett Wiley, Keri Oberly

War Game sweeps audiences into an elaborate future-set simulation that dramatically escalates the threat posed by the January 6, 2021 insurrection. The film follows a bipartisan group of US defense, intelligence, and elected policymakers spanning five presidential administrations as they participate in an unscripted role-play exercise.

With the grip of a thriller, War Game posits active-duty military breaking ranks to join an insurrection that soon spreads to other state capitals, yielding a chilling moment when it’s unclear whether the president fully commands the armed forces. The simulation’s outcome hinges on several inflection points, from the government’s capacity to counter the disinformation that’s effectively spread by the insurgent side to the potential invocation of the Insurrection Act (i.e., the last resort). While the exercise served to stress test our institutions, the film is a critical wake-up call, underscoring the urgent need for bipartisanship in safeguarding American democracy.

Portraying a fictional President of the United States and his advisors, they confront a political coup backed by rogue members of the US military in the wake of a contested 2024 presidential election. Like actors in a thriller, but with profound real-world stakes, the players have only six hours to save American democracy.

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Tony Gerber

Co-director, War Game

Tony Gerber is an Emmy and PGA award-winning writer, producer, and director. He has written and directed over a dozen documentaries for National Geographic, filmed in some of the world’s most remote and dangerous regions. In 2018 Gerber wrote, directed, and produced Kingdom of the White Wolf, a 3-part series (for Disney+) filmed in the High Arctic. His other directing credits include Full Battle Rattle, with Jesse Moss (Berlinale premiere and SXSW Special Jury Prize), The Notorious Mr. Bout about the Russian arms dealer (Sundance 2014), and CNN Films’ We Will Rise: Michelle Obama’s Mission to Educate Girls Around the World (Television Academy Honors, CINE Golden Eagle). Gerber has collaborated with artists Matthew Barney, Allora & Calzadilla, Blane De St Croix, and Ann-Sofi Sidén on various film and installation projects. He recently produced the Emmy-nominated, Oscar-shortlisted short documentary Takeover (Tribeca, 2021) about a group of Puerto Rican activists, the Young Lords, who take over a decrepit hospital in the South Bronx. This award-winning documentary will be adapted into a feature film for the independent studio, Sister, produced by Gerber and adapted by Oscar-nominated screenwriter José Rivera. In 2005, he co-founded the New York-based production company Market Road Films with two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage. He has been a board member of UnionDocs since 2020.

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Jesse Moss

Co-director, War Game

Jesse Moss co-directed Girls State and Boys State with Amanda McBaine. Boys State won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and the 2021 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary and was shortlisted for the Academy Award. It was released by Apple and A24. Barack Obama included Boys State on his list of favorite movies of 2020. Moss’s film The Mission, also co-directed with Amanda McBaine, premiered at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival and is currently in theaters in the United States and the UK, via National Geographic Documentary Films. He also directed The Overnighters, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, was shortlisted for the Academy Award, and released by Drafthouse Films and Netflix. He has twice been nominated by the DGA for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary. His past work with Netflix includes The Family, a 5-part series, and Payday, an episode of the Dirty Money series. In 2008, he co-directed Full Battle Rattle with Tony Gerber, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize at SXSW.