Get Carter! The Global Film Initiative Announces Hiring of Holly Ornstein Carter as Executive Director NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 13, 2004

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1 NEWS RELEASE Get Carter! The Global Film Initiative Announces Hiring of Holly Ornstein Carter as Executive Director Co-Founder of the Full Frame Festival, Former PBS Media Matters Producer & New York Times Editor Brings Wealth of Journalism, Fundraising, and Filmmaking Experience to the Task NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 13, 2004 The Global Film Initiative, an organization created to promote cross-cultural understanding through cinema, today announced the hiring of Holly Ornstein Carter as Executive Director. The announcement was made by Susan Weeks Coulter, Chair of The Global Film Initiative. Following the tremendous success of our first-year, 14-city, major cultural institutional tour, it is a pivotal time in our history as we look to expand and increase the impact of this innovative, educational, and cultural program, says Coulter. Holly is a uniquely well-credentialed, highly respected individual who brings a complement of skills to this task. The mission of The Global Film Initiative is to bridge the world between Americans and the outside world, and that has been the focus of my professional life, says Carter. I look forward to bringing my experience in journalism, fundraising, education and filmmaking to The Global Film Initiative as we move forward. Prior to her new role with The Global Film Initiative, since 1999 Carter served as a producer on Media Matters, a thrice-yearly PBS magazine show about journalism. Concurrently, from , Carter worked as a consultant for The After-School Corporation, a non-profit initiative founded by George Soros that brings quality after-school programs to New York City public schools. In 1999, Carter co-founded the Full Frame Festival (neé the Doubletake Documentary Festival) in Durham, North Carolina. Since the festival began five year ago, it has grown to become the largest documentary film festival in the world. Before that, Carter experienced the production and distribution sides of the film industry as co-producer of the documentary, Margaret Sanger, about the life and times of the pioneering birth control advocate. Nationally broadcast on PBS in 1998, Margaret Sanger went on to receive the Creative Excellence Award from the U.S. International Film and Video Festival and the Golden Apple Award from the National Educational Media Network.

2 From 1985 through 1988, Carter was a journalist and editor in the Business Section of The New York Times. During her tenure, Carter was part of the team nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the 1987 stock market crash. From 1998 through 1990, Carter served as a writer and editor on the Editorial Page of The Times, for which she received numerous awards, including a Publisher s Award. In 1990, Carter won a Henry Luce Scholarship and spent three years in Korea one yearworking as a photographer at a Korean news magazine and two years working as a freelance journalist. That experience was a transformative one for me, Carter says of leaving her prestigious post at The Times. I wanted to bring the world home. Carter s world travels have taken her to Northeast and Southeast Asia, Africa, Russia, and Mongolia. An accomplished photographer, Carter s work has appeared in solo shows at the Korean Consulate in New York, as part of a group show in Mexico City, and in several international publications. In 1999, Carter received an honorary Doctorate of Law degree from her alma mater, The Colorado College, and delivered the school s opening convocation address. She is currently on the Board of Trustees. Carter, who enjoys skiing, yoga, and biking, lives in Manhattan with her daughters, Emily, 9, Anya, 5, and husband, Robert, a media entrepreneur. Our complex world situation calls for an understanding of other cultures, and these films are a powerful vehicle from which to learn, sayscarter. About The Global Film Initiative The Global Film Initiative is a U.S.-based charitable foundation dedicated to the promotion of crosscultural understanding through cinema. The Initiative has developed four programs to achieve this goal: the Granting Program, the Acquisitions Program, the Distribution Program, and the Education Program. To date, the Initiative has acquired ten films and given grants to seven films. # # # Press contacts: Jen Turner P&F Communications (212) jturner@pfcomberney.com The Global Film Initiative was created to promote cross-cultural understanding through the medium of cinema. Filmmaking in the developing world has suffered due to shifting economic conditions in film financing and distribution. As a result, audiences in the United States have been denied the rich cultural lessons these films have to offer. The Initiative has developed four complementary programs, all involving film from the developing world, to address this situation: The Granting Program supports narrative film production in the developing world that is authentic,

3 original, and rooted in local cultures. Grants are awarded to filmmakers as funding for films in production or postproduction. The Initiative supports films that promise artistic excellence, exhibit accomplished storytelling, and offer American audiences a variety of cultural perspectives on daily life around the world. The Acquisitions Program ensures that exceptional finished films produced in the developing world are made available throughout the United States. The Initiative purchases rights each year to as many as ten films that have made a significant impact in the international film community and makes them available through the Distribution and Education Programs. The Distribution Program presents the best of developing world cinema at leading cultural institutions throughout the United States. Launched at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA), an Initiative sponsored showcase tours for at least one year. Supported films remain available through continuing distribution efforts and MoMA's preservation archive. The Education Program broadens the understanding of developing world cultures through cinema. In collaboration with creative educators, the Initiative designs and implements an annual package of study guides, lesson plans, and audiovisual material to support high school curricula. Each multidisciplinary package is based on a film supported by the Initiative and explores social and political concerns, ethics, cultural dynamics, and film aesthetics. GLOBAL LENS, 2003/2004 LINEUP Angel on the Right (2002). Tajikistan. Directed by Djamshed Usmonov A tough Tajik gangster returns home from Moscow to see his dying mother but realizes too late that the town has only lured him back in hopes of getting its hands on the money he owes them. Khorma (2002). Tunisia. Directed by Jilani Saadi In a Tunisian village, the seemingly idiotic Khorma is appointed the town s official announcer of births, deaths and marriages, until his power begins to corrupt him. Mango Yellow (2002). Brazil. Directed by Cláudio Assis In the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife the experiences of a group of larger-than-life characters a waiter, a gay chef, a butcher, and his Evangelical wife are followed as they pursue romantic encounters and misadventures, as well as unrealized dreams and illusions. Margarette s Feast (2002). Brazil. Directed by Renato Falcão In an ode to classic silent films, a working-class everyman in Brazil escapes from his desperate life through the power of imagination. Nothing (2001). Cuba. Directed by Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti

4 Carla works in a Cuban post office and, to pass the time, assumes other people s identities by secretly writing letters on their behalf and giving meaning to inhibited emotions. Rachida (2002). Algeria. Directed by Yamina Bachir-Chouikh Rachida is a young, Algerian schoolteacher who flees to another village after having been shot by terrorists, only to find that terrorism is unavoidable there too. Shadow Kill (2002). India. Directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan In pre-independence India, a state-appointed executioner can no longer bear the guilty solitude of carrying out death sentences that are, more often than not, the result of politics rather than justice. Ticket to Jerusalem (2002). Palestine. Directed by Rashid Masharawi A Palestinian film projectionist s perseverance is put to the test when he tries to organize a film screening in Jerusalem s old city. Women s Prison (2002). Iran. Directed by Manijeh Hekmat A diverse group of women struggle to survive in a claustrophobic Iranian prison in three segments set in 1984, 1992 and Wretched Lives (2001). Philippines. Directed by Joel Lamangan Set in the Philippines of the early nineties, during the short-lived and ill-fated reign of Joseph Estrada, Wretched Lives focuses on Vanessa, a cosmetics consultant who is forced to care for her troubled and mentally challenged sister after the sudden death of their mother. Global Lens Regional Schedule New York, NY MoMA, November 13-29, 2003 Denver, CO Denver Film Society (Starz Film Center), November 21-December 14, 2003 Minneapolis, MN Walker Art Center, January 8-29, 2004 San Rafael, CA California Film Institute (Smith Rafael Film Center), January 30-February 14, 2004 Cleveland, OH Cleveland Art Institute (Cleveland Cinematheque), February 18-29, 2004 Boston, MA Museum of Fine Arts, February 26-March 29, 2004 Sarasota, FL Sarasota Film Society (Burns Court Cinemas), March 19-25, 2004 Columbus, OH The Wexner Center for the Arts, April 8-29, 2004 Portland, OR Northwest Film Center (The Guild Theater and The Whitesell Auditorium), April 30- May 20, 2004 Los Angeles, CA California Institute of the Arts (The Disney Music & Art Center), May 21-June 7, 2004 Madison, WI UW Madison Arts Institute & Cinematheque (UW Cinematheque and The Orpheum Theater), April 1-17, 2004 Chicago, IL The Gene Siskel, September 3-30, 2004

5 Houston, TX Museum of Fine Arts (Brown Auditorium Theater), October 12-27, 2004

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