BULLETPROOF SALESMAN

WORLD THEATRICAL PREMIERE!
19 Feb. - 4 March
Fri 19: 4:00, 5:30, 7:00, 8:30, 10:00
Sat 20: 1:00, 2:30, 4:00, 5:30, 7:00, 8:30, 10:00
Sun 21: 1:00, 2:30, 4:00, 5:30, 9:15
Mon 22: 5:30
Tue 23: 5:30, 7:00
Wed 24: 5:30, 7:00
Fri 26: 5:30
Sat 27: 1:00, 4:20
Sun 28: 1:00, 4:20
Mon 3/1: 4:20
Wed 3: 4:20
Thur 4: 4:20

dir. Petra Epperlein & Michael Tucker
2008, digital, 70 min

“Bulletproof Salesman is a great example of how a well-crafted film can sneakily convey information and wisdom in a such a way that it will appeal to 19-year-olds as well as 90 year-olds.” - Marc Mauceri, First Run Features Vice President

"Cloer’s Euro cool and sly charisma make it easy to forget that he’s the epitome of a war profiteer" - Karina Longworth, LA Weekly
A self-confessed war profiteer, Fidelis Cloer always had an on eye on growth opportunities and found the perfect war when the US invaded Iraq. But as the war evolved, Fidelis quickly found himself engaged in a pathological arms race.

Always with an on eye on growth opportunities, Fidelis found The Perfect War when the US invaded Iraq: it wasn’t about selling a dozen cars, or even a hundred, it was a thousand car war where security would become the ultimate product. Driving into Baghdad after it fell to American troops, he remarked, "This is the end of the beginning of the war," and so began his darkly comedic drive down the road to opportunity.

Before the war, when clients were concerned with bullets and not bombs, his sales mantra was "I sell a good feeling": a sense of safety, security and confidence in superior German engineering that came across like a VW commercial gone wrong. But come 2004, and the threat of armor defeating Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), survivability became his sales pitch and he quickly found himself engaged in a pathological arms race with insurgents who upped their explosive ante to defeat his increasingly higher (and more expensive) levels of armor. In war, as in life, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.