day one Trailer
ABOUT THE FILM
Story
Inspired by a true story, DAY ONE depicts a new translator’s first day accompanying a US Army unit as it searches for a local terrorist. As she quickly discovers, her job will bring up brutal complexities as gender and religious barriers emerge with lives hanging in the balance.
Director's Statement
In boots, my interpreter stood just over five feet tall. Her father had given her a man's name, but her story is a classic woman's saga of finding herself after divorce. She just happened to do all this soul searching with a group of forty infantrymen, getting shot at on a remote mountaintop in Afghanistan. On patrol, she held a dog's leash connected to my body armor. She had fallen during one particularly frightening firefight that ended with us running hand in hand toward the safety of a large hole in the ground. We had landed in a farmer's cache of fertilizer--a literal pile of shit. As we laughed together, I realized that, as the platoon leader, I needed both the use of my hands and her proximity at all times to communicate. So from that point on, the leash connected us.
In 2009, the director served with US forces fighting in Afghanistan. This story was inspired by his interpreter.
This woman, my interpreter, is a fighter. My family fights. It's what we do; we've served continuously since the Revolutionary War. Fighting beside her changed me. It changed the way I understood universal love. I left the army after my tour with her in order to pursue filmmaking and when the time came to make a film about the war, I knew I would start with her story. I had found this one woman in a masculine world both bridging and challenging gender and culture norms. Her strength provided a light strong enough to cut through the fog of war. She is so many things: American, Muslim, female, combat veteran. She is also my muse.
AWARDS & PRESS
Entertainment WeEkly Interview - Print - Radio
'DAY ONE' SHORT: HOW GEORGE LUCAS HELPED A SOLDIER ACHIEVE HIS FILMMAKING DREAM
Oscar's Shortlist
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that DAY ONE is 1 of 10 live action short films advancing in the voting process for the 88th Academy Awards®.
STUDENT ACADEMY AWARD
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded DAY ONE Narrative Gold Medal at the 42nd Student Academy Awards ceremony, held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Emmy - TELEVISION ACADEMY FOUNDATION
The Television Academy Foundation awarded DAY ONE 1st place in the Drama category and the Directing Award at the 36th College Television Awards.
Michael Steiner accepts 1st place in Drama.
BAFTA US STUDENT AWARD
DAY ONE took home the 2015 BAFTA US Student Award!
Jameson Dublin International Film Festival
FirstGlance Film Festival Los Angeles
Ivy Film Festival
Little Rock Film Festival
Cinegear Expo Film Series
Independent Filmmaker's Showcase
San Luis Obispo Film Festival // BEST STUDENT SHORT & AUDIENCE AWARD
Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival // BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
USA Film Festival // JURY PRIZE
FESTIVALS
Cannes Emerging Filmmaker Showcase
Telluride Film Festival
Mill Valley Film Festival
LA Shorts
Seattle International Film Festival
Nashville Film Festival
Calgary Film Festival
Catalina Film Festival
Stony Brook Film Festival // BEST SHORT
Oxford Film Festival // BEST SHORT
About the AFI Conservatory
At the world-renowned AFI Conservatory, a dedicated group of working professionals from the film and television communities serve as mentors in a hands-on, production-based environment nurturing the talents of tomorrow's storytellers. The Conservatory is consistently recognized as one of the world’s top film schools.
With an emphasis on narrative visual storytelling and personal expression, each class breaks into teams that mirror a real production environment. Those teams collaborate on and produce more films than any other graduate level film program.
Established in 1969, the two-year Master of Fine Arts program provides training in six filmmaking disciplines: Cinematography, Directing, Editing, Producing, Production Design and Screenwriting. Admission to AFI Conservatory is highly selective, with a maximum of only 140 graduates per year.
Among the many notable alumni
DAVID LYNCH (Dir.) Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Dune
AMY HECKERLING (Dir.) Clueless, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
TERRENCE MALICK (Dir.) Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, Tree of Life
DARREN ARONOFSKY (Dir.) Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, Black Swan
STEVE GOLIN (Pro.) Babel, Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine
DANA LUSTIG (Pro.) Brick, Dancing at the Blue Iguana, Kill Me Later
WALLY PFISTER (Cin.) Inception, The Prestige, Memento, Batman Begins
ROBERT RICHARDSON (Cin.) Kill Bill, The Aviator, Inglorious Basterds
JANUSZ KAMINSKI (Cin.) Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Munich
MATTHEW LIBATIQUE (Cin.) Cowboys and Aliens, Black Swan, Iron Man
STEVEN ROSENBLUM (Edit.) Braveheart, X-Men, Blood Diamond, Defiance
VICTOR DU BOIS (Edit.) The Last Samurai, Profiler, Roswell
SUSANNAH GRANT (Scr.) Erin Brockovich, Unfaithful, Everafter, 28 Days
PAUL SCHRADER (Scr.) Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Bringing Out The Dead
TODD CHERNIAWSKY (Des.)Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, Armageddon
JOE GARRITY (Des.) Sunshine Cleaning, Waiting for Guffman, My Girl