Liberty film fest sets a conservative slate

The United Nations, illegal immigration, the perilous mission of soldiers in Iraq, and the role of the Republican Party in the fight for civil rights are just a few of the topics that will get what organizers see as a long overdue airing Oct. 21-23 at the 2nd annual Liberty Film Festival.

Highlights of this year’s showcase for conservative and libertarian film include Ron Silver’s “Broken Promises: The United Nations at 60”; “365 Boots on the Ground,” Sgt. KC Wayland’s first-person account of Marines in Iraq; “Cochise County, USA: Cries From the Border”; “Emancipation, Revelation, Revolution”; and “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.”

In “Dead Meat,” which has an opening night preview and is due out next year, documentarians Stuart Browning and Blaine Greenburg examine nationalized health care as practiced in Canada to rebut the premises of Michael Moore’s upcoming “Sicko,” which takes aim at the U.S. system. The same night, David Horowitz will introduce a preview of Evan Maloney’s skewering of political correctness, “Brainwashing 201: The Second Semester.”

Making its U.S. premiere, “Voices of Iraqi Freedom” is composed of shorts from the First Iraqi Film Festival, part of a program created by noted Kurdish/Iraqi filmmaker Jano Rosebiani’s Evini Films to train young Iraqis to express themselves artistically through cinema.

On the same program, Rosebiani’s 2002 narrative feature “Jiyan” is the story of an orphan who becomes friends with a Kurdish/American man helping rebuild her home town in the wake of Saddam Hussein’s chemical attacks in the late 1980s.

The festival was started last year to counter concerns that the entertainment industry catered to a left-leaning point of view. About 3,000 attended the three-day event.

Among the panel discussions scheduled for this year’s gathering are: “What Stories Is Hollywood Not Telling?,” featuring screenwriters Roger L. Simon (“Prague Duet”), Andrew Klavan (“True Crime”), Paul Guay (“Liar, Liar”), Craig Titley (“Cheaper by the Dozen”), Burt Prelutsky (“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “MASH”), and Charlie Carner (“Vanishing Point”). A session on film and TV production, “Rebels With a Cause: How Conservatives Can Lead Hollywood’s Next Paradigm Shift,” will be moderated by Michael Medved. Scheduled panelists include Frank Price, former head of Columbia Pictures and of Universal Pictures; Joel Surnow (“24” executive producer); and Cyrus Nowrasteh (a writer and producer for ABC’s upcoming miniseries about 9/11).

John Wayne gets another tribute this year with “The Searchers.” Meanwhile, “We the Living,” directed by Goffredo Alessandrini, will screen during the festival’s “100th Birthday Tribute to Ayn Rand.”

All films screen at the SilverScreen Theatre, Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood. Tickets are available online only at www.libertyfilmfestival.com.