Film News: 2024 Doc10 Closing Night Film is ‘War Game’ on May 5th

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CHICAGO – Doc10, the annual Chicago documentary film festival, highlights a cautionary note for its 2024 Closing Night film on Sunday May 5th, at Chicago’s Davis Theater. ‘War Game’ is a look into a consequence exercise with expert participants playing roles, regarding a “what-if” the insurrection that occurred on January 6th, 2021 would escalate into a more coordinated attack … including the use of extremists within the military for the potential coup. Click WAR GAME for information and tickets.

The participants who took roles in the exercise … and all will appear at a Q&A on Doc10’s Closing Night … include former Montana Governor Steve Bullock, former North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp, retired Major General Linda Singh and National Security Expert Elizabeth Neumann. Also appearing will be CEO Janessa Goldbeck of the VetVoice Foundation, the organization that expedited the war game, and the filmmakers of the “War Game” documentary, Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber.

‘War Game’ is the Closing Night Film for Doc10
Photo credit: Doc10.org

What if the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol spiraled further out of control? And U.S. military personnel and paramilitary groups joined forces to overthrow the government? That’s the scenario of “War Game,” a vivid and compelling docu-thriller that follows a future simulation exercise set on January 6, 2025, with prominent government experts portraying roles in the hypothetical crisis as a kind of “stress-test for our National Security System.”

CAPSULE REVIEW: When my late father, in his final year, watched the 2021 insurrection, the sadness on his face was palpable. “War Game” is so chilling because it is so real. We as a nation witnessed January 6th, and we also realize that the divisions have not cooled down three years later. The exercise shown in the documentary is not political fiction, it is an unfortunate likely scenario. Will I sit in front of a TV in 2025 and watch the democracy crumbling down? I can only hope not, in the name of my father. (7pm).

The Doc10 festival is facilitated by CMP (formerly the Chicago Media Project), founded in 2014 to support media that sparks people to action, connects people through engaging experiences, shares great media content and innovates to find new ways to support media-makers. For more information, click CMP.

By PATRICK McDONALD Editor and Film Critic/Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com