Thursday August 13, 2009
The Good Pitch in North America is a partnership between the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP), generously supported by the Fledgling Fund, Working Films, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Tides Foundation and anonymous donors.
From nearly 200 applications, eight filmmaking teams have been selected to pitch their films and outreach campaigns to an invited audience, in order to amplify the impact of their social-issue documentary projects.
The Good Pitch at IFP’s Independent Film Week builds on their collaborative program with the UN’s Department of Public Information which is entitled ‘Envision – Addressing Global Issues through Documentaries.’ Each of the selected film projects intersects with one or more of the UN’s eight Millennium Development Goals.
“The high number of applications we received shows just how engaged the documentary filmmaking community is with the spirit and ambition of the UN Millennium Development Goals,” says Good Pitch Director Katie Bradford. “We are excited to bring this themed Good Pitch to New York as part of Independent Film Week.”
“Through Independent Film Week, IFP has facilitated connections between social issue filmmakers and the film industry for the past 31 years,” says IFP Executive Director Michelle Byrd. “We’re pleased to welcome the Good Pitch and its embrace of a wider audience of concerned parties in support of these types of films, as well as the pressing issues upon which they seek to bring awareness.”
The projects for this edition of the Good Pitch were chosen by the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and Independent Filmmaker Project. The selected filmmakers are Michael L. Brown (25 to Life), Glenn Baker (Easy Like Water), Mai Iskander(Garbage Dreams), Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel (Rose & Nangabire), Gayle Ferraro (To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America), Beth Murphy (What Tomorrow Brings), Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern (Youthbuild) and Mary Ann Smothers Bruni (Zhinan).
“Good Pitch North America has already opened doors for films pitched in Toronto and Silver Spring. This final 2009 session in New York ends on a set of outstanding projects which are strong character-driven stories, addressing issues from HIV / AIDS to poverty, and from children’s health to the health of the planet,” says Cara Mertes, Director of the Sundance Documentary Film Program. “We anticipate that this forum will engage funders and activists alike in meeting the challenges of this millennium.”
Organisations and individuals already confirmed for the September 24 event include TED, McKinsey & Co, Wallace Global Fund, Microcredit Summit, Abigail Disney, Whole Planet Foundation (Whole Foods), The Calvert Foundation, The Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, POV, Impact Partners, The Katahdin Foundation, BAVC Producers Institute for New Media Technologies, Sundance Channel, LINKTV, Wide Angle and Human Rights Watch.
The Good Pitch at IFP’s Independent Film Week builds upon past Good Pitch successes. During the Good Pitch at SILVERDOCS, Art Stevens of the Calvert Foundation made an on-the-spot pledge of $10,000 towards the outreach campaign for Green Shall Overcome. Since then he has begun work on organising a fundraiser for the project in Berkeley, California. The same event introduced Split Estate director Debra Anderson to Planet Green which has now made a broadcast offer, and Hungry in America’s Kristy Jacobson said she and co-director Lori Silverbush experienced NGO partnerships that progressed “from first-date to marriage.” According to Executive Producer Ryan Harrington, the anti-hunger NGOs assembled at Silver Spring raised $600K in funds for the film since the June 16th event.
More on the 8 projects:
25 to Life
Dir. Michael L. Brown
William Brawner was infected with HIV before he turned two and kept it a secret for over twenty years. Now he seeks redemption from the women of his promiscuous past and embarks on a new phase of life with his pregnant wife, who is HIV-negative.
Easy Like Water
Dir. Glenn Baker
In Bangladesh, solar-powered floating schools are turning the front lines of climate change into a community of learning. As the water steals the land, one man’s vision is re-casting the rising rivers as channels of communication, and transforming people’s lives.
Garbage Dreams
Dir. Mai Iskander
Garbage Dreams follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. When their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of their trade, each boy is forced to make choices that will impact the survival of his community.
Rose & Nangabire
Dirs. Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel
In the late 1990s, Rose Mapendo lost her family and home to the ethnic violence that engulfed the Democratic Republic of Congo, yet she emerged from the suffering advocating peace and reconciliation. But after helping numerous victims to recover and rebuild their lives, there is one person Rose must still teach to forgive – her daughter Nangabire.
To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America
Dir. Gayle Ferraro
To Catch a Dollar weaves two stories as they intersect in a common goal: Muhammad Yunus as he builds upon the millennium development goals through micro credit and while opening the Grameen Bank in Queens, NY giving 500 immigrant women unsecured loans of up to $3000 to invest in money-making projects.
What Tomorrow Brings
Dir. Beth Murphy
What Tomorrow Brings follows a year at the Zabuli Afghan girls’ school, where the battle to educate girls mirrors the battle to save Afghanistan from again becoming a failed state. Intertwining the stories of students and teachers, it is a portrait of innocence and idealism in the midst of war.
Youthbuild
Dirs. Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern
The film follows a year in the life of young people selected for a high stakes community rebuilding project in Newark, one of the toughest cities in America. The film interweaves dramatic stories of poverty and opportunity, exploring the personal struggles to reclaim cities and to reinvent fragile lives.
Zhinan
Dir. Mary Ann Smothers Bruni
Americans are poised to leave Iraq, and the national election that may change the status of Iraqi Kurdistan looms. Three Kurdish women activists – an architect, a surgeon, and a refugee turned entrepreneur – must use the talents they honed rebuilding their Kurdish homeland to bring it effectively into the new Iraq.
For more information about the Good Pitch, contact Katie Bradford at the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation: katie@britdoc.org or on +44 20 7033 2562
EDITORS’ NOTES
Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation is a UK-based not-for-profit organisation backed by Channel 4 TV. It is dedicated to reinventing funding and distribution models for British documentary filmmakers. As well as funding ground breaking social-issue films (such as double Sundance winner Afghan Star, Berlin winner The Yes Men Fix the World, Sundance 09 feature doc The End of the Line and Tribeca winner We Are Together), the Foundation brokers relationships between filmmakers and the NGO and brand sectors in the UK to create better, more effective films. The Good Pitch is a key part of the Foundation’s important work in this area.
Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP) supports contemporary nonfiction filmmakers globally with year-round activities, including the Sundance Documentary Fund, Creative Labs focusing on the art of documentary, the DocSource website (www.sundance.org/docsource) and the Stories of Change partnership with the Skoll Foundation. The DFP has supported over 400 films since 1996, including Nerakoon: Betrayal, Trouble the Water, Iraq in Fragments, My Country, My Country, Why We Fight, and Long Night’s Journey Into Day. The DFP is a core program of the Los Angeles-based non-profit Sundance Institute. Founded by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences.
After debuting with a program in the 1979 New York Film Festival, the nonprofit Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) has evolved into the nation’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers. Since its start, IFP has supported the production of 7,000 films and provided resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers’ voices that otherwise might not have been heard. Currently, IFP represents a network of 10,000 filmmakers in New York City and around the world. Annually, IFP fosters the development of 350 feature and documentary films through its Project Forum of Independent Film Week, Independent Filmmaker Labs and fiscal sponsorship program.
The Fledgling Fund seeks to improve the lives of vulnerable individuals, families, and communities by supporting innovative media projects that target entrenched social problems. It believes that film and other creative media coupled with well-structured and creative community engagement initiatives can ignite social change. To that end it supports projects that are timely, tell compelling and important stories, represent a unique perspective or an intriguing solution to an entrenched social problem, and lend themselves to innovative community engagement campaigns that have strong potential to raise awareness about complex social issues, encourage dialogue, share possible solutions, and move people to action.
Working Films advances social, economic, environmental and racial justice by linking independent non-fiction media to activism. Working Films has current projects ranging from high profile efforts – including HBO and PBS broadcasts – to regional and local grassroots initiatives. Now in its ninth year, Working Films has partnered or collaborated on the audience and community engagement and non-traditional distribution efforts of over 400 films.
Chicken & Egg Pictures supports women filmmakers, emergent and veteran, non-fiction and fictions, who have made a commitment to use their storytelling skills to address the social justice and human rights issues of our time, l;ocally, nationally and globally. Chicken & Egg is committed to reaching out to a diverse and dynamic representation of women’s voices, particularly those who are traditionally under-represented in the media.
Tides partners with philanthropists, foundations, activists, and organizations across the country and around the globe to promote economic justice, robust democratic processes, and the opportunity to live in a healthy and sustainable environment. Tides is a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 that provides an array of services to amplify the efforts of forward-thinking individuals and organizations to make the world a better place. With offices in San Francisco and New York City, Tides provides fiscal sponsorship for over 200 groups across the country, operates and supports green nonprofit centers, and granted more than $500 million since 2000 alone.
