NASHVILLE, Tenn. (April 15, 2008) — Documentary Channel™ (DOC) pays tribute to war documentaries and Oscar®-winning director John Huston with a special night of primetime programming Monday, April 21, beginning at 7 p.m. ET/PT. The network’s special evening will feature the television premiere of two of Huston’s rarely seen war documentaries that have been transferred from new prints made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archive — “Let There Be Light” and “The Battle of San Pietro.”

The first evening under the “Primetime Premieres” banner begins with a 30-minute original “DocTalk” special at 7 p.m. ET/PT which examines three new war documentaries showcasing the current war crisis in Iraq including “The War Tapes,” “No End in Sight,” and “Body of War.”

Immediately following “DocTalk” are the exclusive primetime telecasts of the Huston documentaries, “The Battle of San Pietro” and “Let There Be Light,” at 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., ET/PT, respectively. These two Huston films represent two of the three documentaries originally commissioned by the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II. Both films have been subject to controversy, and were banned by the U.S. government for many decades. Even today, the two films raise debate as to their intention, meaning and validity.

Finally, DOC will present an epilogue of Huston entitled “John Huston: War Stories” at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Directed in 1988 by maverick documentarian Midge Mackenzie, the one-on-one epilogue features Huston speaking candidly and in great detail about the three documentaries, “Let There Be Light,” “The Battle of San Pietro” and “Report from the Aleutians,” the latter also currently being restored.

“My father risked his life to make these films, which were confiscated by the War Department in 1946 and banned from exhibition for 35 years,” reflects Anjelica Huston, the Academy Award®-winning daughter of John Huston. “It is with the utmost gratitude to the Documentary Channel and to the Academy, on behalf of my father’s legacy, that audiences will finally be exposed to these deeply important works. This is truly a posthumous victory for my father.”

“These documentary films of John Huston are a great testament to his artistry with their strong visual style; to his humanity with their ability to focus on a single human being from within a tapestry of global struggles; and to his relevancy with the fact that the subject matter of his films, such as post-traumatic stress disorder as exposed in ‘Let There Be Light,’ is still in today’s news,” says Documentary Channel Founder and CEO Tom Neff.

“Let There Be Light,” shot in 1946, takes place over three months at an intensive therapeutic treatment program at a New York hospital where U.S. soldiers from World War II were treated for a condition then described as “psychoneurotic” illness, (commonly known today as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD). The film chronicles the soldiers’ entry into the psychiatric facility, the treatment methods used and their eventual recoveries. The film demystifies the romanticism of World War II by capturing rare footage of the aftermaths of war specifically the long-term effects on war veterans.

“The Battle of San Pietro,” shot in 1943, records the 143rd infantry regiment of the 36th Division in 1943 in Italy’s Liri Valley. The film is a terrifying fly-on-the-wall depiction of experiences suffered by World War II soldiers in the midst of battle.

“Film preservation and restoration, such as the work done by the Academy Film Archive, supports an important aspect of the DOC mission: to bring great documentaries to the public,” adds Neff, who also is a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as well as the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences®. “The Academy has been incredibly supportive of DOC’s efforts in this arena, and I can’t thank them enough. We are attempting to create a vibrant, ongoing restoration schedule for DOC to contribute to and complement the ongoing, aggressive restoration program the Academy has as a matter of course.”

About Documentary Channel™: Documentary Channel (DOC) is the USA’s first 24-hour television network exclusively devoted to documentary films and is the Voice of the Independent Documentary Filmmaker. DOC seeks out and showcases independent, cutting-edge and international non-fiction programming rarely seen in the U.S., and often then only in film festivals or other special venues. Many of DOC’s programs are U.S. or world premieres on television. DOC is the television viewer’s round-the-clock opportunity to see fascinating, eclectic and award-winning documentary films of all lengths and genres, from classics to cutting-edge.

DOC has created partnerships and relationships with world-renowned organizations and festivals to bring the world’s greatest documentaries to television, often for the first time. These organizations include The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, The International Documentary Association, The National Film Board of Canada, Los Angeles Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Hot Springs, HotDocs, Durango Film Festival, Reel Women, and many others. In addition, DOC has teamed up with distinguished educational institutions including USC School of Cinema and the Academy of Art in San Francisco, among others, to introduce young, future documentary filmmakers to the viewing public.

Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., with offices in New York and Los Angeles, Documentary Channel was founded by CEO and Oscar®-nominated documentary filmmaker Tom Neff. DOC launched on DISH Network DISH Network (Channel 197) in January 2006, and now reaches over 21 million homes nationwide. DOC is carried by several broadcast stations in major television markets including NYC TV (Channel 25) throughout the greater New York metropolitan area. DOC’s Web site is located at www.documentarychannel.com. DOC was recognized after its first year as co-winner of the Emmy for Best Feature Documentary at the 28th Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards for the film, “Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire.”