Margaret Blair Young: Margaret Blair Young has published eight books—six novels and two short story collections. She is considered an expert on black history in the western U.S., and publishes frequently in online encyclopedias focused on African American history. With Darius Gray, she has made three documentaries. Heart of Africa is her first feature.
Heart of Africa: is a feature film set in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country consistently misrepresented. We will show it in its dignity and beauty. The film is based on experiences of missionaries there, both African and Anglo. One of the missionaries is a Congolese former revolutionary and another a young man from Idaho who has heretofore not seen black people. Aime Mbuyi, who was a revolutionary before he became a missionary, has provided the screenwriter with full descriptions of the revolutionary meetings, including the songs sung at the boarding school where the revolutionaries lived.
Link to Heart of Africa KickStarter Page
Brad Barber: After receiving an MFA from USC, Brad Barber worked on documentaries in Los Angeles, with credits on PBS, Showtime, and ESPN, among others. In 2009 he was nominated for an Emmy for his work as an editor on the HBO documentary Resolved, on which he also served as an associate producer and cinematographer.
Peace Officer: is a feature documentary about the increasingly militarized state of American police as told through the story of William “Dub” Lawrence, a former sheriff who established and trained his rural state’s first SWAT team only to see that same unit kill his son-in-law in a controversial standoff 30 years later. Driven by an obsessed sense of mission, Dub uses his own investigative skills to uncover the truth in this and other recent officer-involved shootings in his community while tackling larger questions about the changing face of peace officers nationwide. Disturbing trends grown out of the war on drugs and the federal program that supplies military surplus to police in cities and small towns alike ultimately lead Peace Officer to ask the question: what force is necessary to protect the lives of both officers and citizens?
Link to Peace Officer Kickstarter Page
Garrett Batty:is a graduate of Brigham Young University’s film program. Batty got his start in the film industry as a DVD producer, working on such titles as The R.M., The Work and the Glory, and Saints and Soldiers. He has also produced work for Disney and Bonneville Communications. He directed the 2009 feature film Scout Camp starring Kirby Heyborne. Batty’s second feature, the award-winning The Saratov Approach, was made for $125,000 and opened in limited releaseOctober 2013. The film went on to play on over 200 screens in the US and Canada, grossing $2.1 million. FREETOWN is Batty’s third feature film.
FREETOWN: is a religious thriller based on actual events starring Henry Adofo, Michael Attram, Phillip Michael, Bright Dodoo, Clement Amegayie, Alphonse Menyo, Great Ejiro, Nuong Faalong Bill Myers and Godwin Namboh. The screenplay is written by Melissa Leilani Larson and Garrett Batty. FREETOWNis directed by Garrett Batty (The Saratov Approach) and produced by Adam Abel (Saints and Soldiers, Forever Strong) and Batty.
Monrovia, Liberia, 1990: A rebel army has taken over the city. Six missionaries, determined to maintain their proselyting efforts, continue to share their message of hope despite the conflict
that surrounds them. But after months of escalating violence, the missionaries—led by Elder Menti (Michael Attram), turn to local church member Phillip Abubakar (Henry Adofo) to help
them flee the country. Their destination: Freetown, Sierra Leone.
But reaching Freetown will not be easy. The airport has shut down, power and water have been shut off, and food and fuel are scarce. Menti, together with the other missionaries in the district,
convince Abubakar to pack the missionaries into an old Toyota Corolla, and get as far as they can. A few of the obstacles facing the fleeing missionaries include a 30-plus hour trip over muddy,
uneven dirt roads, hardly any food and limited fuel. Additionally, they must make their way through seemingly endless rebel checkpoints where the unpredictable rebels are determined to
find and eliminate members of the Krahn tribe, one of which is travelling with the missionaries..
Link to Freetwown Movie Facebook Page
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