NEW YORK, NY (November 3, 2017) – Ahead of Veterans Day on November 11, and in conjunction with IAVA’s newly launched Veterans Month activation, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) is proud to announce a groundbreaking partnership with Last Flag Flying, a new film from Amazon Studios starring Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne, and directed by Richard Linklater. Last Flag Flying premieres today, a week before Veterans Day and just days after Gold Star families were spread across front page news. IAVA is partnering with Last Flag Flying to educate and engage the public on the most important issues regarding veterans and military families, caring for the families of survivors, and bridging the intergenerational and civilian military gaps that define our nation today.

Specifically, IAVA and Last Flag Flying will bring attention to IAVA’s Veterans Month campaign to connect and empower veterans to unite all Americans, and digital “I March For” parade activation.

IAVA Founder and CEO Paul Rieckhoff will hold a Facebook Live event on November 3 at 2:30pm with J. Quinton Johnson, star of the Last Flag Flying to share more about the film and encourage viewers to support IAVA’s critical best-in-class advocacy and support programs for veterans. The Live stream of the Facebook Live will air on IAVA’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/IAVA.org/.

“IAVA is excited to partner with Last Flag Flying to bring attention to our critical work to support Post-9/11 veterans. Veteran experiences, and experiences of families of the fallen, are critically important for raising awareness for our issues. Last Flag Flying is a touching, thoughtful film that conveys the lasting impacts of our wars, from Vietnam to Iraq, and illuminates the sacrifice that men and women in uniform, and their families, make every day. Especially before Veterans Day, IAVA appreciates the opportunity to connect more civilians with our important work through this film. Like the wars many of our members fought in and continue to fight in today, Last Flag Flying will inspire conversations, questions, and reflection. In particular, the film explores the painful process that grieving families of the fallen must go through. It will also engage millions of Americans at an important time, leading up to Veterans Day, when all Americans ought to be thinking about veterans,” said Paul Rieckhoff, Founder and CEO of IAVA. “Films like Last Flag Flying are a critical way for our veteran community to educate and engage the public that is too often disconnected from our experiences. Alongside IAVA, Amazon Studios will help the public at large remember all who serve and sacrifice this Veterans Day.”

IAVA and Last Flag Flying invite all who watch the film to join IAVA’s #IMarchFor Veterans Day virtual parade with Americans worldwide in order to honor those who serve our country.

Last Flag Flying: In 2003, 30 years after they served together in the Vietnam War, former Navy Corps medic Larry “Doc” Shepherd (Steve Carell) reunites with Former Marines Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston) and Reverend Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) on a different type of mission: to bury Doc’s son, a young Marine killed in the Iraq War. Doc decides to forgo burial at Arlington Cemetery and, with the help of his old buddies, takes the casket on a bittersweet trip up the East Coast to his home in suburban New Hampshire. Along the way, Doc, Sal and Mueller reminisce and come to terms with shared memories of the war that continues to shape their lives. Amazon Studios presents, a Detour film production, a Zenzero Pictures/Cinetic Media production, a Richard Linklater film.

IAVA Films: After founding IAVA, our leadership recognized that film and entertainment projects had a unique power to define our experience and activate millions. Films connected to our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the broader military experience, for better or worse, would tell our story to the world forever. As the voice of the Post-9/11 veterans community, with a massive and deeply-engaged membership nationwide, IAVA has the opportunity to support and validate the best–and serve as a watchdog for the worst. IAVA can also provide historical, technical, cultural, social, technological and programmatic support that can ensure a project maximizes its impact, generates thoughtful conversation, and does no harm–by supporting the veterans and supporters long after the film is over.

For more than a decade, Academy Award-nominated and critically-acclaimed IAVA-supported films have ranged from independent documentaries to box office blockbusters. Films include DUNKIRK, War Machine, Charlie Wilson’s War, Restrepo, American Sniper, Max, and many more.

Veterans Month: In response to unprecedented national division and the politicization of veterans and the military, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) launched a campaign to connect and empower veterans to unite all Americans this Veterans Month. The leading voice of the Post-9/11 generation of veterans announced “I March For”, a digital campaign to bring all Americans together to march for veterans and to highlight the bonds between all Americans through their connections to our nation’s veterans. “I March For” invites veterans, active duty service members, as well as all civilians, to march on the ground or virtually in honor of someone, or an issue personal to them. Reminding all Americans of the sacrifices made by service members of all generations, and the potential they represent as leaders in times of adversity, IAVA will bridge difficult divides in America and create a shared bond around our nation’s veterans.

###