The Battle for Bunker Hill

The Battle for Bunker Hill story line

The Battle for Bunker Hill, the new independent feature film from director Kevin Willmott (CSA: Confederate States of America, The Only Good Indian) stars Emmy and Peabody Award winner James McDaniel (NYPD Blue); Laura Kirk, star and co-writer of the acclaimed feature film Lisa Picard is Famous, which premiered at The Cannes Film Festival; and Saeed Jaffrey the legendary actor from India who has starred in more than 150 films.

What would happen if 9/11 happened again?  The Battle for Bunker Hill is the story of a former Wall Street executive who leaves prison and heads for the small town of Bunker Hill, Kansas, where his ex-wife and their children have started a new life.  Soon after he arrives, an apparent massive terrorist attack against America darkens the town.  Cut off from the world, the town’s militant past is reawakened and forces coalesce to protect citizens from an unseen enemy.  The town’s fear leads to the creation of a posse of gunmen, resulting in torture, illegal searches and eventually, murder. Civil liberties and justice itself hang in the balance as the town must decide whether to embrace freedom or fear.

The Battle for Bunker Hill was the opening night film at the 2008 Williamstown Film Festival, and was an official selection of The El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Global Human Rights Film Festival in New York City and The Kent Film Festival in Connecticut.  The film has had advance screenings at The Tribeca Film Center in New York; The Santa Fe Film Center; at an event in Washington, DC hosted by the ACLU; at New York University at an event hosted by the Council on American Islamic Relations and other Islamic civil rights groups;  Vassar College; the Brown v. Board National Historic Site, and the University of Massachusetts.

“The America we live in today is very different from the America we lived in on September 11, 2001,” said Johnny Barnes, executive director of the ACLU of the National Capital Area.  “Democracy and freedom must not become casualties in the War on Terror.  This great film reminds us of that.”

“When writing fiction, you always hope that you’re on to something that reflects what is actually going on in the world,” said Willmott.  “The Battle for Bunker Hill tells a pretty wild story that is amazingly close to what has really happened to us since 9/11, right up to the current presidential election campaign.”