New Documentary Short Film, SHOT DOWN: Howard Snyder and the B-17 Susan Ruth, Takes Four Film Industry Awards

Based on Steve Snyder's highly acclaimed book, Shot Down, the film received awards at IndieFEST Film Awards, Best Shorts Competition, Cinema New York and the Houston International Film Festival.

Award winning author Steve Snyder has announced that his new documentary short film, SHOT DOWN: Howard Snyder and the B-17 Susan Ruth, has taken four new industry awards:

IndieFEST Film Awards - Award of Merit
Best Shorts Competition - Award of Merit
Cinema New York - Best Documentary Short
Houston International Film Festival - Platinum Remi Award Short Subject Documentary

Currently the film has been accepted in a total of 11 film industry award events and film festivals, including the Garden State Film Festival, the ReelHeART International Film and Screenplay Festival, the Rochester International Film Festival, the Impact DOCS Awards, the West Chester International Short Film Festival, the Hero Film Festival & Awards and the Lake Arrowhead Film Festival.

The new documentary short film is based on Snyders multi-award winning book SHOT DOWN: The true story of pilot Howard Snyder and the crew of the B-17 Susan Ruth. Snyder’s father, pilot of the 'Susan Ruth', was shot down over Europe during WWII. The book is a dramatic retelling of the stories surrounding that event.

The new film is likewise a stunning presentation of the life of Snyder's father, filmed on location in Europe. One of the high points of the film occurs when Snyder manages to track down Hans Berger, the German pilot who shot down his father's plane. In the ensuing conversation, Snyder and Berger develop a close personal relationship that transcends the events that occurred so many decades ago.

Snyder's book is utterly unique in that it details the varied, detailed, and amazing stories of what happened to each crew member. Snyder's father, Howard, was missing in action for seven months. Readers are given the opportunity to read the letters and documents that were exchanged before and after the Susan Ruth was shot down.

'Shot Down' is filled with photos that enhance the presentation of these extraordinary WW II events that must never be forgotten. Steve Snyder has gone to the extreme to capture the details that make 'Shot Down' a one-of-a-kind dramatic presentation, told by a writer who was in the very middle of the story as it happened.

'Shot Down' has received numerous high profile industry awards. These include:

2018 TopShelf Magazine Indie Book Awards - 1st Place winner
2017 TopShelf Magazine Editor's Choice Award
2017 Independent Press Awards - Winner Military Nonfiction
2017 John E Weaver Excellent Reads Award - Winner Non-Fiction Military
2017 Book Excellence Awards - Finalist Military
2017 New York City Big Book Awards - Winner Military Nonfiction
2016 Online Book Club Book of the Year Contest - Winner
2016 The Author's Show 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading Contest - Winner
2016 National Indie Excellence Awards - Winner - History - US
2016 National Indie Excellence Awards - Winner - Military Non-Fiction
2016 Beverly Hills Book Awards - Winner Non-Fiction Military
2016 Global Ebook Awards - Silver Medal Winner Non-Fiction Military
2016 Shelf Unbound Best Indie/Self-Published Book Competition - Notable Book
2015 Books and Authors Book of the Year - Winner Non-Fiction Military
2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards - Winner Military
2015 International Book Awards - Winner History: General
2015 Readers' Favorite Book Awards - Gold Medal Winner Non-Fiction Historical
2015 Kindle Book Awards - Finalist Non-Fiction
2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards - Finalist Historical Non-fiction
2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards - Silver Medalist History (U.S.)
2015 Independent Author Network (IAN) Book of the Year Awards - Outstanding Non-Fiction (General)
2015 Independent Author Network (IAN) Book of the Year Awards - Second Place Winner
2015 NABE Spring Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards - Best Books Military
2015 Nonfiction Book Awards - Bronze Medal
2015 eLit Awards - Gold Medal History
2014 Foreword Reviews' INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards - Finalist War & Military
2014 USA Best Book Awards - Finalist History: General
2014 USA Best Book Awards - Finalist History: Military
2014 Southern California Book Festival - Honorable Mention General Non-Fiction

Reviewers have praised 'Shot Down'. Publishers Weekly stated, "This is a great introduction to the history of the U.S. air war in Europe, humanized by the experience of a single bomber crew." The European Center of Military History said, "Steve Snyder has reached a level of scholarship few amateur historians achieve." Foreword Reviews called it a "masterful book." Midwest Book Review called it "An inherently fascinating and deftly written account."

Steve Snyder is available for media interviews and speaking engagements and can be reached using the information below or by email at steve@stevesnyderauthor.com. 'Shot Down' is available at Amazon and other book retailers. An in-depth interview with Snyder can be accessed at The Authors Show site. More information is available at his website at http://www.stevesnyderauthor.com.

Profile:

Steve Snyder retired from VSP in 2009 after 36 years in national sales and sales management, He began his quest to know everything possible about the World War II experiences of his father, pilot Howard Snyder, and his crew of the B-17 Susan Ruth. Gradually, it became his passion and resulted in 'Shot Down'. He belongs to numerous World War II associations and is Immediate Past President of the 306th Bomb Group Historical Association.

Contact:

Steve Snyder
http://www.stevesnyderauthor.com
steve@stevesnyderauthor.com

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Video By Shark Expert Ila France Porcher, Author Of 'The Shark Sessions', Available For Shark Week 2015

“The Shark Sessions” relates the story of sharks who were Porcher's companions for many years in Tahiti. When they were finned and massacred by a company from Singapore, she wrote down their story so that the world would find out : what they were like, and what had happened to them. Her powerful mini-documentary is now available

Shark expert Ila France Porcher has announced the release of a new video mini-documentary to coincide with Shark Week 2015. Porcher is the author of 'The Shark Sessions: My Sunset Rendezvous'. The book presents the story of her long-term ethological study of reef sharks in Tahiti, and the resulting findings, against the background of the uneasy society surrounding it. Intelligence in wild animals in general, and sharks in particular, is the major theme.

"In 2004, I was interviewed by the BBC for Discovery's 'Shark Week' regarding the evidence for thinking in sharks that I had found during my underwater study of their behaviour," Porcher stated. "For years, I had been keeping track of more than 600 sharks who passed through the area, and could recognize 300 on sight.

“With the certainty that comes with repeatedly verified, first hand knowledge of their behaviour, I had learned that individual sharks could be easily distinguished, not only by their appearance, but because they each had distinctive ways of behaving. I was able to report that:

•    each shark is a unique individual.
•    behaviour patterns that had been considered automatic and purely instinctive, such as roaming, reactions to sudden events, and their responses to other sharks and to me, were actually flexible and varied at different times.
•    they showed a range of emotional states including fear, rage, curiosity, excitement, and happiness.
•    they treated people, and other sharks, as individuals.

"From my long association with with the resident sharks who accompanied me during my observation sessions, I learned that sharks can develop companionships with people if the person approaches them with patience and calmness so that they can let go of their fear.

But Shark Week  left out my urgent message that those sharks were actually being finned and were in need of protection, and omitted my findings. The presenter stated, 'Ila claims that these sharks have personalities, but the jury's still out on that.'

"But the jury was not out. Cognitive thought in fish was beginning to be recognized, and my findings that sharks were capable of it too, had already been presented at a scientific conference by then. Since that time, more and more discoveries have been made about the sentience of a wide variety of oceanic life.

“The discovery that sharks are intelligently aware, and are pursuing lives of meaning to themselves, has startling implications. It changes our perception of them, and of their place in  nature, as well as ours. Yet, these scientific facts are being ignored, and many to continue to present sharks as brutal  man-eating killers.”

So she created a mini-documentary to complement the Shark Week entertainment this year, which shows actual footage of the sharks she studied, and some surprising shark behaviour.

Ila France Porcher is available for media interviews and can be reached by email at ilafranceporcher@gmail.com. Her mini documentary is available on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hryPvS5cmqM. More information is available at her website at http://ilafranceporcher.wix.com/author.

About  Ila France Porcher:

Ila France Porcher is a self-taught, published ethologist. She grew up in British Columbia, Canada, and at an early age became fascinated by watching and drawing wild animals. As a result, she naturally became a wildlife artist, and in time began documenting the behaviour of the animals she painted, being especially intrigued by actions suggesting intelligence and cognition.

In Tahiti she found sharks to be the first wild animals who came to her instead of fleeing. They were so intriguing that she launched an intensive study of them, systematically observing and recording their behaviour. Following the precepts of the field of cognitive ethology, and later with the guidance of world class marine ethologist Dr. Arthur A. Myrberg Jr., University of Miami, she learned to interpret their behaviour. Part of her study was subsequently published in the peer-reviewed journal Marine Biology, and some of her observations are considered to be the first documented cases of cognition in sharks. She is credited with the discovery of a way to study these much maligned predators that does not involve killing them, and was dubbed “the Jane Goodall of Sharks,” for her investigation of their intelligent behaviour in the wild, while giving a presentation about them at the University of Miami.

Contact:

Ila France Porcher
ilafranceporcher@gmail.com
http://www.ilafranceporcher.wix.com/author

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