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Lineup for the Good Pitch at SILVERDOCS announced

The Good Pitch North America tour is a partnership between the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP), generously supported by the Fledgling Fund and Working Films. See www.britdoc.org/goodpitch

From over 300 applications, eight filmmaking teams have been selected to pitch their films and outreach campaigns to an invited audience, comprising leading national and international NGOs, foundations, broadcasters, campaigners and media in order to maximise the impact of their social-issue documentary projects. Those already confirmed to attend include: Cinereach, IMPACT Partners, Fledgling Fund, Moveon.org, Katahdin Foundation, Avaaz.org, Amnesty International, ITVS, Tribeca Film Institute, Wide Angle, Indiepix, BAVC Producers Institute for New Media Technologies, POV, Incite Productions, 1% for the Planet, The Impact Arts + Film Fund, Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media and the Phoebe Haas Charitable Trust.

"SILVERDOCS has long been a convening site for foundations, filmmakers, and a range of stakeholders in the independent documentary field," said Cara Mertes, Director of Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program. "This edition of Good Pitch North America builds on that history to draw together a range of new financial and knowledge-based resources focusing on both content and impact in contemporary independent documentary."

The selected filmmakers are Julia Bacha (Budrus has a Hammer), Robbie Gemmel (Cape Wind: The Fight for the Future of Power in America), Hugo Berkeley (The Exchange), Megan Gelstein (Green Shall Overcome), Stephen T Maing (High Tech, Low Life), Kristi Jacobson & Lori Silverbush (Hungry in America), Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer (Out In The Silence) and Debra Anderson (Split Estate). They will present their projects in a live pitching event on June 16th 2009 in Washington D.C.

Sky Sitney, SILVERDOCS Artistic Director, says ˜We are delighted to welcome the Good Pitch to SILVERDOCS this year. It is a perfect fit with our ethos of celebrating excellence in cinema, supporting a diverse range of voices and storytelling, and fostering the power of documentary to enhance our understanding of the world.”

“It’s very exciting to be taking the Good Pitch format to the US’s political epicentre,” says Good Pitch Director Katie Bradford. “It is the perfect place to create powerful, strategic partnerships between filmmakers, funders and campaigners around these 8 fantastic projects.”

More on the 8 films:

Budrus has a Hammer
Dir. Julia Bacha
A Palestinian community organizer unites Fatah, Hamas and Israelis in a Gandhian struggle to save his village, unleashing a non-violent movement - with women on the front lines - that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary by the makers of Encounter Point and Control Room, featuring exclusive footage of this movement from its infancy, Budrus has a Hammer will inspire, charm and challenge audiences worldwide.

Cape Wind: The Fight for the Future of Power in America
Dir. Robbie Gemmel
Cape Wind illuminates the divisive controversy surrounding the Cape Wind Project – a proposal to build 130 wind turbines off the coast of Cape Cod – translating the furor which exploded on the Cape Cod community into a story of transcendent national importance for the future of sustainability in America.

Ethiopia’s Exchange
Dir. Hugo Berkeley
Ethiopia’s Exchange tells the story of a woman on a mission - and a world of trouble standing in her way. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, a charismatic Ethiopian economist, wants to end hunger in her famine-plagued country. She designed the nation's first commodities exchange, which she hopes will revolutionize an age-old market system.

Green Shall Overcome
Dir. Megan Gelstein
Green Shall Overcome takes an in-depth look at the green-collar job movement through the lens of Van Jones, an African-American civil-rights lawyer. Jones envisions the new green economy as a pathway out of poverty for low-income Americans while simultaneously solving challenges of environmental destruction. After years of advocating for change, Jones is recruited by the Obama Administration and appointed Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation by the White House Council on Environment Quality.

High Tech, Low Life
Dir. Stephen T. Maing
High Tech, Low Life is about one of China's first citizen reporters and the achievements of a fearless new digital youth generation. The film follows the evolution of a young vegetable seller from blogger to internet celebrity as he reports on sensitive news stories in China.

Hungry In America
Dirs. Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush
Hungry in America will investigate why nearly 38 million Americans - including 14 million children - go hungry here, in one of the richest nations on earth. The film will explore the causes of this crisis and reveal that hunger in the U.S. is not only man-made, but solvable.

Out in the Silence
Dir. Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer
Out in the Silence uses the story of a small American town confronting the firestorm of controversy ignited by a same-sex wedding announcement to illustrate the challenge of being an outsider in a conservative environment and catalyze new ways of making resources and support available for those working for change.

Split Estate
Dir. Debra Anderson
Split Estate follows an unfolding conflict in the Rocky Mountains. With cries from Washington for more domestic gas and oil production, the citizens of Colorado and New Mexico find themselves in the path of an unstoppable rush to drill that is destroying their health, their homes, and their communities.

For more information contact Katie Bradford 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, and 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.
www.britdoc.org

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 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. www.sundance.org/docsource

An internationally recognised documentary film festival started in 2003, AFI-Discovery Channel SILVERDOCS Festival celebrates independent thinking, supports the diverse voices and free expression of independent storytellers and fosters the power of documentary to enhance our understanding of the world. Anchored in the National Capital Region, where important global and national issues are the daily business, SILVERDOCS is marked by its relevance, broad intellectual range, and wide public appeal.
www.silverdocs.com

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.
www.thefledglingfund.org

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.
www.workingfilms.org