SYNOPSIS
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Harriet Hirshorn is a documentary filmmaker whose award-winning documentaries focus on social justice issues.
Hirshorn has been closely following HIV/AIDS activism in Africa for the last fifteen years. She has specifically documented ‘Rolake Odetoyinbo and the Treatment Action Movement and the struggle for access to lifesaving AIDS drugs in Nigeria since 2002. She has also filmed AIDS activists and interviews with some of the first people to openly declare they are HIV + in South Africa, Burundi, Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya and Burkina Faso. She has created short films that were used by African summits on ethics and research for African groups organizing for fair treatment in clinical trials. Hirshorn has made dozens of short films about HIV, exhibited a video installation in the Pompidou Center’s Main Hall in Paris in 2005 and has produced several videos about HIV/AIDS and women in Africa for New York Times including a short feature on the Prevention of Vertical Transmission of HIV and one on the implication of adult male circumcision as HIV prevention for African women living with HIV. Hirshorn’s knowledge of the current issues and themes--from research to prevention-- regarding this pandemic is extensive.
She has also produced and directed two documentary films about the struggle for democracy and human rights in Haiti: The Disappearance of TiSoeur: Haiti after Duvalier and Pote Mak Sonje (Whoever Bears the Scar Remembers): The Raboteau Trial.
She is a recent Ford Foundation grant recipient and has also received grants from MAC AIDS Fund, Open Society Institutes, the Centre National de Cinema (France), New York State Council on the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, and has received an artist’s fellowship from New York Foundation for the Arts. (1/18)
Lydia Dean Pilcher is an American film and television producer and founder of Cine Mosaic, a production company based in New York City. Cine Mosaic has established itself as one of New York's leading independent production companies forging relationships with a wide range of talent and business partners in the US, Europe, India, Turkey, Africa and the Middle East. Releasing in 2013 are The Reluctant Fundamentalist, (IFC Films) based on the highly acclaimed novel by Mohsin Hamid, starring Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schrieber, and directed by Mira Nair; Academy Award nominated Cutie & The Boxer, (Radius-TWC) directed by Zachary Heinzerling and The Lunchbox, (Sony Classics) directed by Ritesh Batra. Projects in development include Fela: Music is the Weapon, based on the life of Nigerian musician and political activist, Fela Kuti, with Focus Features and director Andrew Dosunmu; and Belly of the Beast with writer/director Oren Moverman for HBO Films. In post-production is The Sisterhood of Night, based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steven Millhauser and directed by Caryn Waechter.
After receiving an MFA at New York University Graduate Institute of Film and Television in 1983, Pilcher began her career making documentaries and working in the production department of feature films including After Hours (dir: Martin Scorsese); F/X (dir: Robert Mandel); Round Midnight (dir: Bertrand Tavernier); Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (dir: John Hughes); Mississippi Burning (dir: Alan Parker); and Quiz Show (dir: Robert Redford). In 2002, Pilcher founded Cine Mosaic, a production company committed to producing feature films with an energetic focus on entertaining stories that promote social, cultural and political diversity. In 2010, Pilcher was nominated for Emmy, Golden Globe, and PGA Awards for producing HBO Films' You Don't Know Jack, directed by Barry Levinson. The film, starring Al Pacino, follows Jack Kevorkian's battle to legalize assisted suicide. Prior to that, Pilcher produced Amelia, starring Hilary Swank as the famous aviatrix, Amelia Earhart; The Darjeeling Limited, directed by Wes Anderson; and The Namesake, based on the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri and directed by Mira Nair, released by Fox Searchlight. Pilcher was nominated in 2005 for a Golden Globe Award for the HBO feature film, Iron Jawed Angels directed by Katja von Garnier and starring Hilary Swank and Anjelica Huston. She was nominated in 2004 for an Emmy Award, Golden Globe and Producer's Guild Award as the Executive Producer of Normal with writer/director Jane Anderson and starring Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson. (8/14)