Films on recent conflicts draw critical attention and two wily rogues hoodwink the media while tweaking Sarah Palin.

By Janet Donovan

Woody Harrelson and Jonathan Capehert. Photo by Tony Powell

DANGEROUS MAN VS THE MESSENGER

It was a Sophie’s Choice moment at the finale of the Impact Film Festival, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit event created as a platform for documentary and narrative filmmaking. Having to choose between simultaneous screenings of The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers and The Messenger starring Woody Harrelson was a challenging call. The Messenger won.

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Smile for the Cameras. Meet some of the metro region’s leading film, television, and video professionals.

Abby Greensfelder and Sean Gallagher. (Photo by Anchyi Wei)

AMERICAN GOTHIC REALITY: Meet the co-owners and executive producers of the Bethesda-based Half Yard Productions: Abby Greensfelder and Sean Gallagher. Before they headed out on their own, the two ex-Discovery Channelers were some of the brains behind “Deadliest Catch,” “Dirty Jobs,” and “Miami Ink” (TLC), to name only a few of their projects. “We felt like the time was right to be on the other side of the table,” Gallagher says. Why are they relevant? Half Yard was tapped by Bravo to bring “The Real Housewives of D.C.” to life. We like to think politicians have all the control in Washington, but in reality TV, the editors and producers have ultimate authority. Currently, no production team has more power to mold the image of both housewives and our city than Abby and Sean. That is the reality of today’s American Gothic.

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The second annual IMPACT Film Festival lives up to its name with a hard hitting round table and Woody Harrelson’s new movie “The Messenger“

By John Arundel

Woody Harrelson and David Vennett (Toyota Motors North America) at the Impact Film Festival Post Party at Posh Restaurant and Supper Club for the screening of "The Messenger". Photo by Tony Powell

Actor Woody Harrelson made a crowd-pleasing impact Oct. 29 when he stopped into the Landmark E Street Cinema for a screening of his new film “The Messenger” on the final night of Washington DC’s second annual IMPACT Film Festival, co-sponsored by the USO and Washington Life magazine.

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