TRAVERSE CITY — Northern Michigan will get a preview of a new documentary, Is America in Retreat? at a benefit premiere screening set for 6 p.m. March 6 at the State Theatre. Admission to the film and filmmaker Q & A to follow is free but donations will accepted to help send Petoskey high school students to the national Academic WorldQuest competition in Washington DC in April.
The International Affairs Forum, sponsor of AWQ, is presenting the film, based on the book, America in Retreat by Bret Stephens, a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Wall Street Journal, as an opportunity to discuss the U.S. role in the world from a non-partisan perspective. It will air on PBS stations March 24.
“This film goes beyond politics to look at U.S. foreign policy strategy in the world. American action or inaction abroad – it all has huge ramifications,” notes IAF Co-Chair Karen Segal.
Since WWII, the United States has been at the forefront of a Pax Americana – a period of relative peace guaranteed by U.S. military might. According to the film producers, including Leland-based Executive Producer Tom Skinner, today that peace is threatened from multiple directions: Ambitious and aggressive foreign policy by China in Asia, Russian territorial claims and occupations in Eastern Europe, and deteriorating conditions in the Middle East. More than half of Americans polled today believe we should “mind our own business.”
“Our documentary explores those questions with Bret, other foreign policy scholars and political and military leaders,” Skinner said.
“Whether or not you agree with every aspect of the film, it does an outstanding job of laying out the issues which the audience can then discuss after the film,” Segal said.
Petoskey won the regional AWQ competition Feb. 3. Made up of four Juniors, the team has been competing in AWQ since they were freshmen. They won this year with the highest point score ever awarded in the competition organized by the IAF and NMC.
Release date: february 13, 2017
For more information:
Karen Segal
International Affairs Forum co-chair
(231) 715-6064
jsegal_kpuschel@yahoo.com