Vets at Sundance, Day Three: Paris Hilton and MTV

Day three of our Veterans' trip to the Sundance Film Festival has been a flurry of interviews and photo-ops, scatterd with the occasional random celebrity sighting.

The best news is that "The Ground Truth," was shown before an audience of film critics and industry insiders this morning, generating even more buzz, including this rave review from the Hollywood Reporter:

"We have all seen dehumanizing scenes of Marine boot camp in feature films like "Full Metal Jacket" and more recently "Jarhead," but nothing can compare to the visceral impact of the real deal in Patricia Foulkrod's masterful documentary "The Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends." Chronicling the odyssey of soldiers from the time they enlist and learn to kill to their return home, doc is a stunning statement on how we mistreat our best and bravest young men. A savvy distributor or cable network could make this into a must-see film for concerned citizens in both red and blue states."

I couldn't have put it better myself. Click Here to read the rest of the review. Hopefully this will help to convince the film industry that this movie needs to be seen on as many screens as possible.

After the screening this morning, our group of Vets and the film crew got the star treatment in an official festival photo shoot -- a funny sight for a group of guys not accustomed to the hair-and-makeup routine. While it's all a good time, this is also work for us. Getting our pictures taken and talking to reporters is all part of raising the profile of our organization, IAVA, and the work we do. We're a small, under-funded nonprofit group that needs all the exposure we can get.

After photos, we all headed to a downtown rooftop, where MTV interviewed us all against a backdrop of mountains and ski slopes. Amidst the glitz and glamour we couldn't help but comment on the public's fascination with celebrities and gossip, compared with the relative disinterest in the stories that really matter. We are, after all, a country at war. Especially out here, it's easy to forget that.

After those comments, we should have predicted what would happen next. As we leave the elevator after the interview, who should walk past with a bevy of bodygaurds? None other than Paris Hilton. She's taller in real life.