Das kuize leban des José Antonio Gutierrez | The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez Heidi Specogna Germany/Switzerland, Documentary, 2006 89 min., 35mm, Color Spanish/English/German with English Subtitles Metropolitan 12 Sunday, April 22, 2 PM All Audiences

José Antonio Gutierrez was one of the 300,000 soldiers the U.S. military sent to war in Iraq in March 2003. A few hours after the war began, his picture was broadcast all over the world: he was the first American soldier to be killed in this war. He was a so-called green-card soldier—one of approximately 32,000 non-U.S. citizens fighting in the ranks of the U.S. military. The film tells the moving and nearly unbelievable story of a one-time street kid from Guatemala, who headed north along the Pan-American Highway full of hopes and desires for a better future, ultimately to die an American hero far from home.

Heidi Specogna was born in Switzerland in 1959. She focused on Directing studies at the DFFB (Filmschool in Berlin) from 1982-88. She is a lecturer in documentary filmmaking at the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany

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Producer: Peter Spoerri, Gerd Haag

Production Company: Tag/Traum aud PS Film

Screenwriter: Erika Harter, Heidi Specogna

Cinematographer: Rainer Hoffmann

Editing: Ulhela Hof

Music: Hans Koch