The Diplomat
Description
Richard Holbrooke—American diplomat, UN Ambassador, Assistant Secretary of State, Peace Corps official, professor, investment banker and author—died of heart failure on December 13, 2010. At the time of his death he was President Barack Obama’s point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and his career as a diplomat spanned 50 years of American foreign policy. For his son, director David Holbrooke, he left behind an enigma. “As I dealt with the sudden loss I decided the only way for me to grieve was to get to know him better in death than I did in life—so I set out into his world.” These words establish the tone of The Diplomat, an amalgam of historical portrait, journalistic investigation and love letter to a parent. Holbrooke traces his father’s life and legacy through interviews with friends, family, journalists and colleagues, including Diane Sawyer (Richard Holbrooke’s former girlfriend), General Wesley Clark, President Bill Clinton and several secretaries of state, including Hillary Clinton. The documentary highlights Holbrooke’s greatest foreign policy success: the brokering of a peace agreement among the warring factions in Bosnia that led to the historic signing of the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords. The Diplomat is not only a telling and forceful reminder of the singular political achievements of a complicated man, once dubbed the diplomatic hope of a generation, but also a unique and moving story of a son’s love for—and personal coming-to-terms with—an all-too-imperfect father whose work and exceptional career achievements more often than not took precedence over his family. —Tim Sika
David Holbrooke (director) is a filmmaker and Festival Director of Mountainfilm in Telluride, CO, since 2008. His last film, Hard as Nails, aired on HBO in December 2007. Other documentaries include Freaks Like Me, Time for a New God and A Redwood Grows in Brooklyn, featuring acclaimed nature photographer James Balog. All are part of an ongoing series he created called “Original Thinkers.” Other notable projects include The Soul of Healing with Deepak Chopra and co-producing The Trials of Henry Kissinger. Before he became a filmmaker, David spent a year in the dotcom world and previously, worked extensively in television news, producing long-form pieces for The Today Show, CBS News and CNN. David has been a contributing editor at GQ and written for the Huffington Post. His production company, Giraffe Partners, is developing narrative features and several documentaries. He lives in Telluride, Colorado, with his wife and three kids.
Trailer
//player.vimeo.com/video/125078835?autoplay=1Film Details
LanguageEnglish
Year2015
Runtime104
CountryUSA
DirectorDavid Holbrooke
ProducerStacey Reiss
EditorSeth Bomse
CinematographerAdam Vardy, Bao Nguyen, Jim Hurst, Richard Dallett
MusicGraham Reynolds