Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Derek Doneen profiles one man’s tireless mission to end child slavery.
Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition
Sundance Program Description:
Hidden inside overcrowded factories around the world, countless children are forced into slave labor due to rising global demands for cheap goods. With the help of a covert network of informants, Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi and his dedicated team carry out daring raids to rescue and rehabilitate imprisoned children. Using hidden cameras and playing the role of buyers at the factory to gain access, we watch Kailash take on one of his most challenging missions to date: finding Sonu, a young boy trafficked to Delhi for work who has been missing for eight months. Now his father dreams of Sonu coming home.
Kailash’s warmth and passion have gained international support for his philosophy that each child should be allowed to embrace their childhood. He gives them support, clothes, medical care, and an education. Equal parts harrowing and motivating, first-time filmmaker Derek Doneen pulls us into Kailash’s gripping pursuits and relentless energy to create the change he wants to see.
Some Background:
Director:
This is Doneen’s directorial debut. He began working with Davis Guggenheim as Participant Media’s first in-house filmmaker, creating supporting content for WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”, and later produced several projects for Guggenheim.
Producers:
Past Sundance docs:
AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER (2017, executive producer)
WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN” (2010, director, Sundance US Documentary Audience Award winner)
IT MIGHT GET LOUD (2009, director)
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (2006, director/executive producer)
Guggenheim won the Best Documentary Feature Academy Award for TRUTH, and was Oscar-shortlisted for his most recent doc feature, HE NAMED ME MALALA, about Kailash Satyarthi’s joint 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai.
Past Sundance docs:
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DICK CHENEY (2013, line producer)
Anthony has a background producing for PBS’s Frontline and for HBO, and is collaborating with Davis Guggenheim on projects dealing with other pressing social justice issues.
Co-Producer:
Raghunath works with Anthony in Abbott Documentary Partners and has a background in factual programming for Indian and US television. This is her first Sundance credit.
Executive Producers:
Combined past Sundance docs:
AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER
MELTING ICE (VR) (2017)
3 1/2 MINUTES, TEN BULLETS (2015)
A PLACE AT THE TABLE (2012)
CANE TOADS (2010)
COUNTDOWN TO ZERO (2010)
WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”
CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY (2010)
CHICAGO 10 (2007)
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SESAME STREET (2006)
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Philanthropist and social entrepreneur Skoll is the founder and chairman of Participant Media. His Skoll Foundation has been a major partner of the Sundance Institute for several years. He is also an executive producer of 2018 Sundance Indie Episodic series AMERICA TO ME.
Weyermann, Participant Media’s president of documentary films and television, was previously the director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program for several years and the director of the Open Society Institute’s arts and culture program before that. She also executive produced this year’s AMERICA TO ME docuseries.
Past Sundance docs:
PROTAGONIST (2007, producer)
Participant’s senior vice president, documentary films, is an Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning producer for FOOD, INC.
Past Sundance docs:
BENDING THE ARC (2017)
Powell Jobs is the president and founder of the Emerson Collective, which supports social entrepreneurs who work to remove barriers to opportunities through social justice initiatives, including education and immigration reform.
Dill previously served as both executive producer and line producer on Guggenheim’s HE NAMED ME MALALA. This is her first Sundance credit.
This project marks the first Sundance credit for Silberberg, an Emmy-nominated producer for PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY.
Editors:
Past Sundance docs:
UNDER THE GUN (2016, editor/screenwriter)
HOLY HELL (2016, senior consulting editor)
FED UP (2014)
UNDER THE ELECTRIC SKY (2014, additional editor)
ALIVE INSIDE: A STORY OF MUSIC & MEMORY (2014, consulting editor)
Lazarte is also an editor for fellow 2018 US Doc Competition title THE DEVIL WE KNOW.
Past Sundance docs:
WE ARE THE GIANT (2014)
BONES BRIGADE: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (2012)
THE TILLMAN STORY (2010)
WE LIVE IN PUBLIC (2009)
Altman also cut fellow 2018 US Doc Competition title MINDING THE GAP.
Why You Should Watch:
Doneen viscerally draws the viewer into Satyarthi’s vital – and often dangerous – work in unforgettable raids on sweatshops, while also humanizing those he rescues through portraits of individual children he has brought to his Bachpan Bachao Andolan group home, where he serves as a warm benefactor and surrogate father. The film premieres as one of this year’s Day One screenings.
More Info:
Sundance’s Meet the Artist
For Sundance screening dates and times, click the film title in the first paragraph.
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