We’re excited to share an announcement of the films in the first Good Pitch North America.
Held on May 7, 2009, in Toronto at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, the Good Pitch North America is a partnership between Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, generously supported by the Fledgling Fund. Working Films is acting as an outreach consultant on the Good Pitch. Specifically, we have invited NGO’s and non-profit partners to participate in the event and we are training filmmakers accepted into the program for their individual “good pitch”.
From 150 applications, five filmmaking teams have been selected to pitch their films and associated outreach campaigns to an invited audience, comprised of leading human rights organizations, foundations, NGOs, campaigners and media, in order to maximize the impact of their social-issue documentary projects. Participating organizations include: the MacArthur Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Impact Partners, International Center for Transitional Justice, Journalists for Human Rights, Open Society Institute, Save the Children, and several others.
The selected projects are:
Resilient dirs. Sean & Andrea Fine Executive produced by Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie
Resilient is a quest to answer Mariane Pearl’s question: “Can we spread hope as others spread fear?” It is a search for signs of hope in personal stories of individual women that, despite extraordinary odds, are finding ways to make a real difference.
The Promise of Freedom dir. Beth Murphy
The Promise of Freedom is a modern-day Oskar Schindler story that focuses on Kirk Johnson, a 27-year-old American aid worker fighting to save tens of thousands of Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they worked for the U.S. to help rebuild Iraq.
Our School dir. Mona Nicoara
A vérité documentary following three Roma children struggling to break the barriers of discrimination and segregation in a small Transylvanian town. Rejected by teachers, they find strength in the friendship of Romanian classmates. Our School documents one of Romania’s first school integration efforts, the result of a European Court of Human Rights judgment similar to Brown v. Board of Education in 1950s America.
Burma Soldier dir. Nic Dunlop
The powerful story of a former junta member and Burmese soldier who risks everything to become a pro-democracy activist. Told by photojournalist Nic Dunlop, this film offers a rare understanding of a brutal regime and the political and psychological power of the junta over this country.
Untitled Immigration Project dir. Marco Williams In a nation of immigrants, the debate about ‘illegal immigrants,’ has become a barometer of American morality, the civil rights struggle of the twenty-first century. Focusing on the impact of one law, this project documents the trauma that the immigration causes, neighbor against neighbor, tearing a peaceful community apart.
Be sure to look for our announcement of the SILVERDOCS participants and the call for entries for the Good Pitch at IFP.
