Anthony Giacchino Camden 28 [Motion Picture] Collection

Anthony Giacchino, was born in 1969, and grew up in Edgewater Park, New Jersey. After graduating from Villanova University with a B.A. in History and German in 1992, he received a Fulbright grant to study history at the University of Freiburg, Germany. In 1993 he moved to Leipzig, Germany where he worked for a year as an English instructor for the Amerikanisches Sprachinstitut. Giacchino later moved to New York City, where he began his television/documentary career.

"The Camden 28" was the first feature-length documentary Giacchino directed. The film told the story of group of activists who broke into a Camden (New Jersey) draft board office and destroyed draft records on August 21, 1971 and their ensuing trial. The story also includes the reflections of those involved in the case, from the perspective of 30+ years later. In 1971 twenty-eight activists, including four Catholic priests and a Lutheran minister, were arrested by the FBI in a planned sting. In a landmark trial, all 28 defendants were acquitted, establishing the first complete legal victory for the anti-war movement in five years of such draft board actions. In an interview for Catholic Digest Giacchino said: "Most people’s conception of the anti-war movement during Vietnam is what I call the 'Forrest Gump version,' where it’s people doing drugs, with long hair, burning draft cards. Certainly, there were elements of that. But when you look at the Camden 28, these were priests, an auto factory worker, social workers, regular people who took action against the war. I wanted to give people a sense that the antiwar movement was much deeper and more serious..."

"The Camden 28" won both the Audience Award and Jury Award for Best Documentary at the 2006 Philadelphia Film Festival. The film also aired on the critically acclaimed Public Television series POV (Point of View). In 2007 "The Camden 28" was also nominated for Best Documentary Feature Screenplay for the Writers Guild of America Awards.Giacchino has also produced nearly 200 hours of programming for The History Channel, and won for the network a 2008 Primetime Emmy Award with his short VOD Series “Great Moments From the Campaign Trail.” You can find a selection of Giachinno's work at: http://www.vimeo.com/user2686410.