Showtime(R) Documentary Films Announces Premiere Date and Debuts Trailer for “Ready for War” [Video]

SHOWTIME Documentary Films has announced that the acclaimed documentary feature Ready for War, which explores the phenomenon of deported United States military veterans, will premiere on the network on Sunday, November 22 at 9PM ET/PT.

The documentary follows three green card holding soldiers at various stages in this process: one in Tijuana fighting to come home to American soil and reunite with his family; another in ICE detention in the U.S. fighting deportation; and a third, lost in the clutches of a drug cartel in Ciudad Juarez, waging a war that was never meant to be his own. Andrew Renzi (Fishtail, They Fight) directs the film, with multi-platinum selling artist Drake (Euphoria, Top Boy) and David Ayer (Fury, End Of Watch) serving as executive producers. Embedding with the dangerous cartels for two years, Renzi and producer Nick Boak envelop viewers in a world of life-or-death stakes from beginning to end. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and will have its U.S. premiere at AFI Fest in Los Angeles on Tuesday, November 19.

Set amid the bloody war of two cartels in Juarez, Mexico just south of El Paso, Texas, Ready for War offers a visceral window into how a cross-section of U.S. veterans find themselves in the thick of the fight, immediately targeted and recruited by the cartels into training local soldiers – or becoming highly lethal sicarios themselves. With more than two years of footage already shot and unprecedented access for the filmmakers to a diverse collection of personal narratives, the action-first film unfolds like a thriller.

Ready for War will screen at AFI Fest on Tuesday, November 19 at 5:15 PM at the TCL Chinese Theater, and on Wednesday, November 20 at 12:30 PM at TCL Chinese Theater. Tickets for AFI Fest will go on-sale to the general public on October 30 at https://fest.afi.com/tickets/.

Ready for War is a joint production from Cedar Park, Prettybird, North of Now, Dreamcrew and Entertainment One (eOne). Ayer, Chris Long, Tara Long, Drake and Adel “Future” Nur serve as executive producers. Boak, Kerstin Emhoff, Renzi, Anthony Gonzales and Jason Shrier serve as producers.