Movie Director throws spotlight on terrorist training camps in Target Practice

The military compounds training terrorists on American and Canadian soil, that everyone talks about but no one seems to do much about, has made it to the silver screen. There is no doubt that director Richmond Riedel’s realistic film, Target Practice takes you there. Starring in a timely topic, Target Practice gives new meaning to the description of art imitating real life. Fast-paced and intense, the film has the distinction of premiering in two high-profile film festivals in the Los Angeles area on the same night. On Friday, July 25, Target Practice premiers at the 11th Annual Dances With Films Independent Film Festival (DWF). Ditto for the 4th Annual Action On Film International Film Festival (AOF).

---

The writer, producer, director and editor of Target Practice, Riedel is the author of another dozen screenplays, having also written the original screen play for the Indie film Charades, starring C. Thomas Howell, Karen Black, Erika Eleniak, James Rosso, Jack Scalia and James Wilder. The timely Target Practice will have theatregoers sitting on the edges of their seats. Gooseflesh is no stranger to those who know that compounds training “homegrown” terrorists are springing up on isolated terrain across North America. Trailers show that Target Practice drags terrorist training camps out of isolation and throws them up on the big screen. “Regular guys” running into terrorists-in-training is a worry of the times we live in. Target Practice is being described as “an intelligent but raw, visceral, extremely tense outdoors thriller with an emphasis on character as much as action”. The story line centers on 5 blue-collar friends on a weekend fishing trip—and the hell that’s unleashed upon these regular guys when they almost run into a car that’s been abandoned in the middle of an isolated mountain road. Doing the right thing by stopping to see if anyone needs their help, they inadvertently stumble into the middle of an undercover operation involving a CIA agent and a hidden training camp for homegrown terrorists. If this sounds familiar, it’s meant to. The story is molded after “real-life, recent discoveries in both the U.S. and Canada,” says Riedel. “It’s an independent film that I put together with my own financing, but it was a project that I felt very strongly about, as did all of the actors and others involved,” he told Canada Free Press (CFP) from L.A. last night. “First and foremost, I wanted to make an intense, entertaining thriller, and I’ve always been a big fan of films like Deliverance and I wanted to do a film in a similar vein, that sort of man-versus-man-in-the-woods genre,” he said. This is one writer/producer/director rooted in the reality of contemporary times: “At the same time, there’s been a cascade of news about evidence of terrorist camps being found in isolated areas in the U.S. and Canada, or evidence of people trying to form such camps. The cell with their camp outside Toronto. The school bus with the bullet holes outside Marion, Alabama. The aborted attempt outside Blythe, Oregon, etc., etc.” (One can almost hear the rah-rahs! from Northeast Intelligence Network director Doug Hagmann and Day of Islam author Paul L. Williams, both of whom traipsed through suspected military training compounds such as Islamburg and got only threats from radical Imams for their trouble.) “I don’t pretend to be an expert,” says Riedel, “but this topic of concern certainly lent itself well to the man-versus-man-in-the-woods genre that I was looking to write my script in. “And it’s not just the conventional image of the “Islamic jihadist” that is a cause for concern, Timothy McVeigh wasn’t an Islamic jihadist. As I read somewhere, an FBI spokesman said that one of our greatest challenges from this point forward is simply going to be BOGS, “Bunch of Guys”, or GOGS, “Group of Guys”. Anyone with a chip on his shoulder or a grudge, put him together with a couple of other guys getting organized…they don’t even have to be on the same page ideologically, but it’s a case of `The enemy of my enemy is my friend’. And right now, we’re that enemy.” Target Practice cast and crew includes Joey Lanai as Paul; Eltony Williams as Albedeen; Bill Elverman as Dave; Sean Christopher, stunt coordinator; Solomon Hoilett as Ron; Eric Dean as Mark; Aaron Hawk as Steve and Richard DeGuilio as Jeff. Riedel, who plays one of the homegrown militants, makes chills run down the spine. Target Practice has been nominated for 3 AOF Awards: Action Film of the Year, Best Action Sequence Feature and best Special Effects. The film website, including trailers, production stills, and cast and crew information, can be found at Target Practice. Target Practice the movie is an idea whose time has come!