ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS. DIRECTOR - Rachel Beth Anderson

Transcription

1 LOGLINE Two young friends abandon their peaceful lives in Canada for an uprising in their homeland of Libya, fueled by their hatred of Dictator Muammar Gaddafi, these untrained fighters join an unconventional war and risk everything to reach the front lines of battle. SYNOPSIS An intimate tale of friendship and revolution, this coming of age story documents the journey of two young friends, Hamid (26) and Tarek (21), who abandon their peaceful lives as students in Canada to join an unconventional war in their homeland of Libya. Hamid and Tarek have never fired a gun, but in 2011 they run recklessly toward the war, fueled by their hatred of Muammar Gaddafi and their desire to be part of history. Once they arrive, their paths diverge. Hamid blazes ahead with fearless enthusiasm, and with a camera in hand he is invited to film the front lines by rebel forces, easily fitting in with the boyish camaraderie on the battlefield. Tarek's journey is more difficult, introspective and unsure, consistently plagued by obstacles. He fights relentlessly against his destiny, ignoring all warnings that suggest his single-minded ambition to reach the frontline may have tragic consequences. For eight months, director Rachel Beth Anderson, documented raw moments of personal and breathtakingly dangerous acts of war and sacrifice as Hamid and Tarek join the rebels taking on Gaddafi's army. The film captures the chaos and giddiness of revolution, the brutal loss of lives and innocence, and a deeply intimate view charting the young men s decent into war as they discover who they are and what they are capable of. In Tarek's words, The end of the story is different than what I thought."

2 ABOUT THE FILM Official Website: EPK: Facebook: VHX, pre-order film and deleted scenes: First To Fall was a Gucci/TriBeCa grant recipient (2012) and had its World Premier screening at the International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA) in late In 2014 the film was a winner of two jury awards at the investigative journalism festival, FIGRA, and will be featured as the Best of Fest winner at the Columbus International Film Festival. The film has continued to screen over 20 times in 9 countries. Most notably: the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in London/New York, the Frontline Club in London/Prauge, the Kickstarter Film Festival in New York/Los Angeles/London, the Bronx Documentary Center, Harvard University, and at the Bayeux-Calvados Award for War Correspondents.

3 SCREENING SCHEDULE 11/22 Columbus International Film Festival (WINNER: BEST OF FEST) Columbus, OH 11/19 Mary Ripma Ross Theater Special Screening w/q&a - Lincoln, NE 11/02 International Random Film Festival Gdynia, Poland 10/24 Harvard University Screening Cambridge, MA 10/18 Kickstarter Film Festival - London, UK 10/16 10/19 La Femme International Film Festival - Los Angeles. CA 10/12 Bayeux Award for War Correspondents Bayeux, France 10/10 10/19 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival - Hot Springs, AK 10/03 30 Under 30 Film Festival Manhattan, NYC 09/24 10/08 Festival do Rio - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 09/18 Open Show San Francisco, CA 09/2014 Kickstarter Film Festival - Los Angeles, CA 09/2014 Bronx Documentary Center Screening Bronx, NY 09/2014 Sea of Glass Center Screening Tuscon, AZ 08/2014 Beyond Borders Festival Edinburgh, Scotland 08/2014 Latchis Theater Screening Brattleboro, VT 07/2014 Kickstarter Film Festival - Brooklyn, NY 06/2014 Human Rights Watch Film Festival New York (US Premiere) NY, NY 06/2014 Biografilm (Italian Premiere) Bologna, Italy 06/2014 Frontline Club Prauge, Czech Republic 04/2014 Cinemazero Pordenone, Italy 03/2014 Frontline Club London, UK 03/2014 Tricycle Theaters London, UK 03/2014 FIGRA (France Premier) WINNER of Two Grand Jury Awards: Special Mention International Competition & Youth Audience International Competition Jury Prize Touquet, France 03/2014 Human Rights Watch Film Festival London (UK Premiere) London, UK 11/2013 IDFA (World Premiere) Amsterdam, Netherlands

4 ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS DIRECTOR - Rachel Beth Anderson Rachel Beth Anderson, a Sundance award wining cinematographer, has filmed around the world in several conflict zones including Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, Turkey, Liberia and South Sudan, for CNN Hero s, PBS Frontline, Human Rights Watch, and independent feature documentaries First To Fall and E-TEAM. Originally from North Dakota, Rachel graduated from the University of Nebraska- Lincoln Journalism school, where she filmed and co-produced, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award winning doc Breaking Down Barriers. Prior to graduating she participated in a Fulbright sponsored Journalism program based in Cairo, Egypt. This led Rachel to official relocate to Cairo in 2010 for her work as a cinematographer and journalist. During the 2011 Egyptian revolution Rachel worked as a videographer and field producer for PBS Frontline documentaries: Gigi s Revolution, and The Brothers. In 2013, she returned to shoot on the PBS Frontline follow-up film, Egypt in Crisis. Her directorial debut film, First To Fall, has received international acclaim and screened over 20 times in 9 countries worldwide. Her cinematography on the feature documentary E-TEAM received a (2014) SUNDANCE Excellence in Cinematography jury award. Rachel is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.

5 CO-DIRECTOR Tim Grucza Tim Grucza is an Emmy award winning cinematographer and filmmaker. As a director/dp he has garnered several prizes including a Peabody in 2012 for work with CNN and the 2006 Banff International Television award for his first feature length documentary White Platoon. For the past 8 years he has shot and field produced dozens of films for PBS investigate documentary program Frontline. He specializes in conflict reporting, having covered the wars in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan through to the Egyptian and Libyan revolutions. After nine years based in Paris, France he moved to New York in EDITOR Christina Burchard Christina Burchard is a producer/writer/editor for documentary, television, short film,commercial and music video, including the Emmy award winning PBS documentary Hecho A Mano: Artists in Exile. She has worked on stories that explore impostors and fraudsters, privacy and surveillance, the post 9/11 world arena, revolution, and the expanse of an artist s creative spirit. Other notable credits include Unraveled, a feature documentary about mega-

6 fraudster Marc Dreier; feature documentary The Woman Who Wasn t There; and Visionaries: Inside the Creative Mind for OWN. She splits her time between New York and Los Angeles. EDITOR Kate Taverna Kate Taverna, a New York City native, has been editing and directing films for over three decades. Academy award nominated for previous work, Taverna is best known for Pray the Devil Back to Hell (Tribeca Festival Best Documentary Feature award winner), the highly acclaimed short Killing in the Name, the dramatic historical film Lodz Ghetto, and most recently in a producing partnership with Allen Adelson, In Bed with Ulysses. EDITOR Luis Alvarez y Alvarez Luis Alvarez y Alvarez, film editor, was born in Mexico City and lives in New York City. Since 2010 he has been editing the artist Matthew Barney s ANCIENT EVENINGS film series to be released in His previous feature film editing credits include Leonardo DiCaprio s environmental documentary THE 11th HOUR (2007), Matthew Barney s DRAWING RESTRAINT 9 (2005) and Larry Charles MASKED AND ANONYMOUS (2003). Recently he has completed a number of documentaries for National Geographic Television

7 including TITANIC THE FINAL WORD WITH JAMES CAMERON. Mr. Alvarez y Alvarez apprenticed as an assistant editor working on the Pixar Animation Studios feature films: TOY STORY 2, MONSTERS INC and FINDING NEMO. PRODUCER Tony Gerber Tony Gerber s films include Full Battle Rattle (SXSW '08 Special Jury Prize) about life inside the US Army s Iraq simulation in the California desert. He is a two-time Emmy recipient and has written and directed over a dozen documentaries for National Geographic, shot in some of the most remote regions of the world. He recently produced Rachel Beth Anderson s First to Fall (Gucci/TriBeCa recipient, IDFA 2013) about the broken promise of the revolution in Libya. In addition to independent works, he has directed a number of special projects including THE FINAL WORD with James Cameron and short films for the PBS TEDTalks with John Legend. Gerber has collaborated with visual artists Allora and Calzadilla, Ann Sofi Siden and Matthew Barney. In 2005 he founded Market Road Films, a NY-based production company with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage. Currently in development is a trans-media project about how poverty is changing the American narrative, and a documentary based on Johnny Dwyer s forthcoming American Warlord (Knopf 2014) about Charles Taylor s American-born son. The Notorious Mr. Bout is Gerber s 3rd film to premiere at Sundance.

8 EXEC-PRODUCER Mike Lerner Oscar-Nominated, Mike Lerner has been making films since 1988 including Afghan Star, Hell and Back Again, Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, Smash & Grab The Story of the Pink Panthers, The Square, The Do Gooders, A Whole Lott More, First To Fall. He has won a number of industry awards including; Academy Award Nomination for Best Documentary Feature 2012, 6 Sundance Awards (Grand Jury, Special Jury, Best Director, Audience, Cinematography), EMMY Award for Best Documentary, 2 Grierson Awards for Best Documentary, Prix Italia, 2 Royal Television Society Award Nominations and 2 IDA Award Nominations, Cinema Eye Award, Independent Spirit Award Nomination, Gotham Independent Film Award Nomination, BIFA Nomination, The Alfred Dupont Award, Winner Best Documentary Moscow Film Festival, Winner BIFA 2013 Best Documentary. EXEC-PRODUCER Amr Ben Halim Amr Ben Halim is a business leader, entrepreneur, and civil society activist with a track record in the industrial, political and philanthropic fields. He is Founder and Chairman of the Board of the Forum for Democratic Libya (FDL), an organization established during the 2011 revolution in Libya to promote democracy, citizen engagement, and accountability. Amr oversees and provides support to the work of FDL that covers all corners of Libya. Amr is

9 also a board member of AFAC, the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture. AFAC is an independent Arab initiative that funds individuals and organizations in the fields of cinema, performing arts, literature, music and visual arts, while facilitating cultural exchange and cooperation across the Arab world and globally. Through a philanthropic trust Amr supports projects to bring art and drama therapy to patients with mental illnesses in Lebanon and the UK. He is also co-founder of the first women-led micro-lending programs in the Palestinian refugee camps of south Lebanon. He continues to be an active member and supporter of various philanthropic and civil society projects in the Arab world. His work has been featured in leading regional and international business and news forums including The National, Sky News, Libya Herald, BBC News, Gulf News, PR Newswire, Arabian Oil and Gas. Amr holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Wales and an MS and MBA from Stanford University. He is currently on the Advisory Board of Visualizing Impact, a visual media organisation focusing on social justice issues in the Middle East. EXEC-PRODUCER Brandon Litman Brandon Litman Co-founded One Day on Earth, a worldwide community that produces global filmmaking collaborations. He is responsible for project development, including global partnerships and project financing. In 2010, Brandon forged an unprecedented partnership with the United Nations, giving One Day on Earth global access through diplomatic relationships. In 2012, he produced the world's most global film premiere, with a record setting 160 countries participating. Brandon founded a post-production company called Alien Kung Fu in 2006, where he still serves as an Executive Producer. Over the past 7 years, Brandon has executive produced on-air marketing efforts for various television networks, including Discovery, FX Networks, Science Channel, and HBO.

10 CO-PRODUCER Lynn Nottage Lynn Nottage is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and a screenwriter. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. They include, By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lily Award, Drama Desk Nomination), Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, OBIE, Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics Circle, Audelco, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award), Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Play), Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine (OBIE Award), Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, Mud, River, Stone, Por knockers and POOF!. She is currently developing a new play and multimedia performance installation based on two years of research and interviews conducted in Reading, PA. (w/ Oregon Shakespeare, Arena Stage & Labyrinth Theatre Company). In addition, she is working with composer Ricky Ian Gordon on adapting her play Intimate Apparel into an opera (commissioned by The Met/LCT). She is the co-founder of the production company, Market Road Films, whose most recent projects include The Notorious Mr. Bout directed by Tony Gerber and Maxim Pozdorovkin (Premiere/Sundance 2014), First to Fall directed by Rachel Beth Anderson (Premiere/ IDFA, 2013) and Remote Control (Premiere/Busan New Currents Award) Over the years, she has developed original projects for HBO, Showtime, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment,This is That and Harpo. Nottage is a board member for Theatre Communications Group, BRIC Arts Media Bklyn, Donor Direct Action, Second Stage, The New Black Fest, and the Dramatists Guild. She recently completed a three-year term as an Artist Trustee on the Board of the Sundance Institute.

11 COMPOSER Mark degli Antoni Mark degli Antoni is a film composer / performer living in Los Angeles and NYC. He studied with Milton Babbitt and David Loeb, earning a BM & MM in Composition from the Mannes College of Music in Manhattan. Mark co-founded the internationally acclaimed Warner Bros band Soul Coughing. He has performed and recorded with David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, John Zorn, Low, Redman, among others. While at the Harmonic Ranch in NYC, he created sound works for Richard Prince, Julia Scher, Christian Marclay, and Nam Joon Pike. Influenced by artists from Schubert, to John Cage and Pedro Almodovar, Mark s approach to music and film scoring is unique. He often fuses his studied appreciation of traditional forms with the sounds around us from pop songs to found fx crafting notably distinct music. He has scored films for an eclectic selection of award-winning directors including Werner Herzog, Wallace Shawn, Finn Taylor, William Wegman, Lily Baldwin, Jed Rothstein and most recently Roger Ross Williams.