For Immediate Release - March 31, 2009
RISING FROM RUINS SET TO HAVE U.S. PREMIERE AT NEW ORLEANS INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL APRIL 1
NEW ORLEANS/TORONTO March 31, 2009 - Independent America: Rising from Ruins, a new feature documentary by filmmaker Hanson Hosein and Executive Producer Tom Powers will have its U.S. premiere at PATOIS: The Sixth Annual New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival on April 1 at 6 pm at the New Orleans Museum of Modern Art.
Independent America: Rising from Ruins (70’, HD) (http://www.risingfromruins.com) takes a hard yet hopeful look at the risks and rewards of small business ownership in post Katrina New Orleans. It depicts the locals coming home to resurrect their businesses and neighbourhoods and the challenges they now face from all sides including their City government and big box retail.
Emily Ratner, Festival Co-Director states, “We are so proud to help bring this premiere to New Orleans. Rising from Ruins is exactly the kind of film we love to present. It is a powerful film that is especially relevant to all of us living here in New Orleans. And its great filmmaking.”
Hanson Hosein, a former NBC foreign correspondent and Emmy winner, who is currently the Director of the Master in Communication Digital Media (http://mcdm.washington.edu/ ) program at the University of Washington, said “We are honored to be having our US premiere at this wonderful festival in New Orleans. We look forward to screening this film to the inspiring people who made it happen.”
For Hosein, Rising from Ruins is the completion of an unfinished journey. When doing his first full-length documentary with Powers, “Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop (www.independentamerica.net), Hosein and his wife, Heather Hughes, decided to bypass New Orleans six weeks before Katrina hit, in order to make a key interview with Wal-Mart in Arkansas. “Now we’re here to honor the voices of Moms & Pops and hopefully help them shape the future of an independent New Orleans,” says Hosein.
Independent America: Rising From Ruins, is a co-production between Open Door Co. and HRH Media.
About PATOIS:The Sixth Annual New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival (www.patoisfilmfest.org)
PATOIS was founded by New Orleans artists and activists, and we are dedicated to nurturing our city's human rights community. PATOIS is the language spoken at the intersection of art and social justice.
About Open Door (www.opendoorco.com)
Launched in 2005, Open Door is in the business of producing, acquiring, distributing and investing in Content That Matters. It is content with a Double Bottom Line:
• High impact personal, social & political themes, characters and subjects
• Provocative, edgy, uncomfortable, thoughtful, intelligent, challenging
• Real stories that make a difference in who we are, how we view ourselves and how we relate to others
About HRH Media (www.hrhmedia.com)
HRH Media is an independent production company headed by Emmy Award winner and NBC foreign correspondent, Hanson Hosein and his partner, network news journalist Heather Hughes (NBC, MSNBC). Hosein is presently Director of the Master of Communications in Digital Media program http://www.uwdigitalmedia.org/ at the University of Washington in Seattle.
CONTACT
Tom Powers, Executive Producer: (416) 855-7386; tpowers@opendoorco.com
Emily Ratner, Co-director, New Orleans International Film Festival: (216) 978-1395
emily@nolahumanrights.org
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