TAKING CHANCE

HBO Films
Ross Katz
Fred Berger

Emmy Nominated main title

Director Ross Katz said, “I had no idea, at the very last stop on the post production calendar, I would discover some of the most innovative artists around, who would not only get under the skin of my film, but elevate it. Watching Shine take on my film as a personal mission was inspiring. Seeing them create a sequence that would take the film to a whole other level, was beyond my wildest dreams. They are elegant, innovative artists. They love what they do. I cannot imagine, now, doing a film without them.”

In April 2004, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl, USMC, came across the name of 19-year-old Lance Corporal Chance Phelps, a young Marine who had been killed by hostile fire in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Strobl, a Desert Storm veteran with 17 years of military service, requested that he be assigned for military escort duty to accompany Chance’s remains to his family in Dubois, Wyo.

Witnessing the spontaneous outpouring of support and respect for the fallen Marine – from the groundskeepers he passed along the road to the cargo handlers at the airport – Strobl was moved to capture the experience in his personal journal. His first-person account, which began as an official trip report, gives an insight into the military’s policy of providing a uniformed escort for all casualties. The story became an Internet phenomenon when it was widely circulated throughout the military community and eventually reached the mainstream media.

Taking Chance chronicles one of the silent, virtually unseen journeys that takes place every day across the country, bearing witness to the fallen and all those who, literally and figuratively, carry them home. A uniquely non-political film about the war in Iraq, the film pays tribute to all of the men and women who have given their lives in military service as well as their families.

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