Having lived with the making of the film, with considerable exuberance of over 3,000 of you who gave freely of your funds to assure that the issue of war profiteering is front and center right now, seeing the openings in DC and Philadelphia proved the point: a film lifts up a story as can no other medium.

I took the red eye for the second time in five days to be in DC for film-related work. I was there last Thursday to show a clip to the Democratic Policy Committee and for a quick meeting with Senators Reid and Dorgan. The Senators, led by Senator Dorgan, really understand that informing the public of the need for accountability by the Bush Administration is key. And only the Senate Democrats (with their House colleagues leading where the odious House rules allow) have held hearings and raised the issue. The film tells the general public not about the policy issues associated with single party rule in Washington, but about the human stories, the tragedies and the undermining of national security that come with lack of oversight and transparency. In short, the film is the human side of the terrific work Senator Dorgan and others have been conducting in the dry, isolated environment of Washington, D.C.

Monday was a reward for all of us, that means all of you. The press conference with Robert and Senator Dorgan on Monday morning had the Senator, standing in front of one of the movie posters, saying that the film really tells the story of the contractors and the lack of oversight, the human tragedy that is the Bush Administration policy.

The hearing in the ornate room at the Dirksen Building (see HufPost blog for more detail) was dramatic and engrossing: Senators Reid, Durbin, Bingaman and Leahy joined Chairman Dorgan to learn from four witnesses who were in the film about how badly Halliburton had acted. The story about the medals for silence is well-known already. Halliburton, of course, denied that the letter from their own employee on their own stationery was their own policy. Oh well.

Again, you should all be proud of what you did. Your film helped focus an entire day of activities, including official hearings, on the subject of war profiteering and the need for oversight. That's the power of film and organizing and broad, grassroots support.

That night, we opened in DC at the Wooly Mammoth Theater in downtown D.C. The Campaign for America's Future organized a terrific turn out. Jim Webb, the candidate for Senate in Virginia, stopped by after the most grueling 48 hours of his campaign, to introduce the film that he had seen when he was in LA in August. Jim was fresh off of two debates: one on Meet the Press and the other in Alexandria that afternoon. He won both handily. As he stood confidently on stage, we could all see why this war hero is beating the crap of George Allen with literally one twelfth of Allen's money. Jim said he had lived through the policies that have brought us to this mess in Iraq as a soldier in Viet Nam and then in the Reagan Administration as Navy Secretary. He compared what Bush is doing to what happened in those times and made clear that Bush is destroying this country's armed forces thorugh his policies.

The reception before and after saw about six or eight of the "stars" of the film meeting for the first time. We had all known them as friends, even though we had never met them, either. So we knew them, but they did not know us or each other. The physical reunion was exciting and touching.

Tuesday was Philadelphia and a very different, in some ways even more energizing experience. Eileen Connelly, the state director for SEIU in Pennsylvania, took on the task of organizing the screening there. We had a full house, about 400 people, at least half of whom were union members. This was the first time we'd shown the film to "real Amercians," to people whose lives have been most affected by the flood of money that has made David Lesar a centimillionaire. These folks clean office buildings, nurse people back to health, make the government run. They are America. A few of them left the film mid-way, in tears and disbelief that all of this could be happening. They were sick about the way these contractors were rewarded for bad behavior. That raw emotion is what ties a policy effort (Dorgan and DC) to voters and that is what we knew would happen if we could get your film out into both worlds.

The questions and answers afterward were terrific. Our panel consisted of Robert, Marie De Young (the Halliburton whistle blower in the film who is now running for Pennsylvania state house), Marwan Mawiri, an SEIU organizer from Philadelphia who is also in the film, Susan Burke, a lawyer who is organizing a class action suit on behalf of Iraqis who were mistreated by contractors at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere and Eileen Connelly from SEIU. Robert was warmly applauded with deep gratitude for his work. People "got it" that they alone can change the way America does its business by changing the power balance in DC.

This tour is an exciting prelude to the thousands of screenings that will be held the week of 8 October. If the LA, San Francisco, DC and Philadelphia screenings are any indication, this film in your hands can change the way people think for the fall election.