About the Filmmakers

Jeff Plunkett and Jigar Mehta produced PLAYING THE NEWS at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where it won the Currie Documentary Prize. Previously, they collaborated on Homeland Insecurity, which examined the militarization of Washington D.C. after 9/11.

Jeff Plunkett is a producer at Current TV in San Francisco. He's written for Time Asia, San Francisco Chronicle, South China Morning Post, East Bay Express, Planet magazine and others. Before journalism school he taught English in China and then at a high school in San Francisco. He attended Princeton University.

Jigar Mehta is a seasoned cameraman and editor. He has reported from Kashmir, Mauritania, and Sri Lanka and his work has aired on NBC, ABC, HBO, and PBS. Before journalism school, Mehta was a cameraman on the Emmy award winning documentary, My Flesh and Blood.

Filmmakers' Statement

In the fall of 2004, news broke about a video game based on John Kerry's disputed service in Vietnam. This was only weeks before the presidential election when the swift boat controversy was at its all-consuming peak, the issue on talk shows and editorial pages all over the country. It was the first time that a video game had attempted to enter this political dialogue. The more we researched, the more we realized that -- for better or worse -- this was the beginning of something. Kuma Reality Games, a video game company, was claiming to be a news organization. Not only had it "covered" the John Kerry controversy, it's focus was the ongoing War on Terror. We were hooked: this was a story about how video games might play a role in connecting young people to current events, and specifically the war in Iraq. But it was also a story about the blurring of news and entertainment and how technology numbs us to the horrors of war.