The Newburgh Sting 2014
Previous FilmsThrough a dramatic, insider look at the case of the “Newburgh Four,” THE NEWBURGH STING exposes the FBI’s nationwide practice of targeting Muslim communities by luring unsuspecting citizens into traps where they agree to commit acts of terrorism, and then selling their arrests to the public as major law enforcement coups. As told by the defendants, lawyers, local Imams and a former career FBI agent, the film depicts how four men living at the margins of society were entrapped by an FBI informant and lured into a wild plot involving bombing a wealthy Riverdale synagogue and shooting Stinger Missiles to take down a US supply plane. Their arrest was pawned off on the public as a counter-terror victory. A deeply sobering examination of post 9-11 Islamophobia and how the War on Terror is really fought in our own communities.
The Filmmakers
Kate Davis, Director + Producer
Davis taught and studied documentary filmaking at Harvard University, where she worked with verite documentary filmmakers Ross McElwee, Ricky Leacock and Fred Wiseman. She directed SOUTHERN COMFORT (2001), which portrayed the life of a male transsexual. The Emmy-nominated film won over 25 awards, including the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival (2001), Special Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and the Grierson Award for Best International Documentary.
David Heilbroner, Director + Producer + Writer
David Heilbroner, Harvard University (B.A. cum laude, 1979), Northeastern Law School (J.D. 1984. For A & E Television Networks, he wrote and produced “Untying the Straitjacket,” “Anti-Gay Hate Crimes,” and “The Dark Side of Parole.” He was Senior Producer on CRIME STORIES, a series for Court TV, as well as on AMERICAN BABYLON (2003) a feature Court TV documentary. A former prosecutor at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, and Federal District Court law clerk, David wrote the critically acclaimed non-fiction books Rough Justice (Pantheon 1990) and Death Benefit (Crown/Harmony 1993).