Press release

Montreal - Thursday, August 30, 2007 - After its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006, Heidi Specogna’s The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez went on to win Best Documentary at the Swiss Film Awards, the Fox Azteca Borders on Film Award at the San Diego Latino Film Festival, and most recently, Best Feature Documentary Award at the Toronto Hispano American Film Festival, Xican Indie Film Fest, Denver, and Atlanta Underground Film Festival.

Since it’s successful international festival tour, this unsettling and timely documentary has been released in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle, Toronto and Montreal, and praised by critics across North America.

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 in a deadly quest for US citizenship. A so-called ‘green-card soldier’ José Antonio Gutierrez was one of approximately 32,000, fighting in the ranks of the US Armed Forces. 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 the war. Chilling, thought-provoking, and profound, José Antonio’ s story is no adventurer’s tale. It is the story of a young man’s attempt to survive — on both sides of the world.

The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez will be available in the US as of September 25 on DVD, with dual Spanish or English packaging options, at the retail price of $24.98 USD. For further information and to view the trailer, please visit the film’s official website at www.theshortlife-film.com contact us for a screener at info@atopia.com. For information on other Atopia titles, please visit www.atopia.com or our MySpace page at www.myspace.com/atopiaspace.

Atopia Distribution releases its in-house productions as well as a selection of equally insightful films to audiences across the US and Canada. Daring and original, our films are critically-acclaimed features, which, in order to give the richest tour, are screened at major festivals around the world, then released in art-house and commercial theatres to garner wide media exposure prior to launching them on DVD and via the internet and via download innovator, Jaman.Com, a leader in Indie world cinema on the web.

News posted Thursday, August 30, 2007.