With the opening ceremony just a few days away, we would like to introduce you to some of the filmmakers and guests who will be presenting their films at this year's festival. Director John Laurence is first up in our TCFF Filmmaker Spotlight series. John took a few moments out from his busy schedule to talk to us about filming “I Am an American Soldier: One Year in Iraq with the 101st Airborne,” how he came to be embedded with American troops in both the Vietnam and Iraq Wars, and what he’s looking forward to most at this year’s festival.

TCFF: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your film background.

JL: I was a foreign correspondent for CBS and ABC News and made documentaries and long-form stories for Nightline, 20/20 and other TV programs for many years. [TCFF Note: John's work has won every major award in broadcast journalism in the United States, including ten Emmys.] “I am an American Soldier” is my first feature film.

TCFF: How did you come to be involved with this particular project?

JL: Leaders of the 101st Airborne regiment invited me to come along on their second tour in Iraq after I wrote a long piece for Esquire Magazine about their adventures during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. They promised not to censor us in any way and not to look over our shoulders while we were working. Since the film came out, scenes we shot have been forbidden for other journalists and filmmakers to take. You won't see them again, because the Pentagon has banned them from being filmed.

TCFF: In what ways was this a departure from other work you've done? In what ways was it similar?

JL: The 14 months we were embedded with the regiment represent the longest and most intimate of any journalists or filmmakers in this war. The experience was similar to the making of a film with an American unit during the Vietnam War called "The World of Charlie Company" when my camera crews and I lived with a squad of American soldiers in the jungle for four months.

TCFF: What do you hope viewers will take away from this film?

JL: Our goal was to present an inside look at the war entirely from the soldiers' point of view, rather than that of the spokesmen, other journalists or public relations people. From this, we hope viewers will discover a particular truth about the conflict that they have not seen in other media.

TCFF: In terms of the festival, what do you hope to experience while you're here?

JL: I hope to see some films that won't make it to Britain, meet members of the filmmaking community, talk to film lovers and get a little sunshine. All it does where I live is rain.