INVITATION TO GOOD PITCH SQUARED

The People 2 People International Documentary Film Conference has joined up with the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program in a joint venture – The Good Pitch Squared. This film networking forum is taking place in Johannesburg at the Alexander Theatre, 36 Stiemens St, Braamfontein on Tuesday 13th September. This will be the first time that The Good Pitch takes place outside of North America and Europe, where the initiative has been running for three years with much success. As the first satellite of The Good Pitch we share the same ambitious goal: to fast-track effective, world-changing partnerships between documentary film and the philanthropy, NGO, technology, brand, social entrepreneurship, and media sectors. (www.britdoc.org/goodpitch). HOW DOES IT WORK?

Born out of the conviction that documentary is a powerful tool for creating social change, the Good Pitch Squared team selects seven of the most inspiring social justice documentary projects in production at this time from a multitude of applicants.

The selected filmmakers are taken through two months of campaign strategy and a two-day intensive campaign development workshop to help focus their pitch and define the partnership potential in their project.

At the Good Pitch Squared, each team has 7 minutes to present their film and its associated outreach campaign and show a trailer to a roundtable of 10 invited representatives and a theatre of up to 200 participants drawn from:

• Foundations, philanthropists, and grantmaker associations who have an interest in the issue area.

• Leading NGOs/non-profits whose mission/campaigning work intersect with the issues in the film- Broadcasters, traditional media funders and platforms.

• Technology innovators, digital, social media, and crowdfunding

platforms.

• Brands who have a CSR agenda around the issue and social entrepreneurs.

• UN partners and federal, state, and local government

The ten pitch table participants change for each project, assuring that we always match the right films to the right partners as well as allowing time for additional contributions from the 150+ participants in the room.

With an outstanding audience drawn from business, media and society, the Good Pitch offers a unique opportunity to create a coalition around each film to accelerate its impact and influence. There is great potential to network and build partnerships around creative funding strategies, cause marketing, policy change, issue advocacy, and public engagement.

CONFIRMING YOUR PARTICIPATION

We would like to recognize your support and attendance in our various communications, and so would ask that you confirm your participation by xxxxxx. Every participating organization receives a page in our Pitch Directory book profiling the organization that is distributed to all participants. Should you have any questions regarding the Good Pitch, or if there are other individuals, foundations, organizations or brands that you recommend we invite to The Good Pitch Squared, please do not hesitate to be in touch with me at anita@uhuruproductions.co.za

THE FILMS

THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY Dir. Ryley Grunenwald Three West Africans, including a ten-year-old boy with a disfigured leg, are in need of specialized surgery but are without access to healthcare. Meanwhile, a South African plastic surgeon leaves his successful private practice to volunteer on a hospital ship. DEVIL’S LAIR Dir. Riaan Hendricks More than 3000 prisoners are released back into society every month. Many become the bone and marrow of the illicit drug trade, the main source of income for gangs on the Cape Flats. This film explores the stark contrasting realities of a community’s struggle against crime and the life choices of previously convicted prisoners surviving in the criminal underworld.

DIRTY MONEY Dir. Peter Goldblat A compelling and unique perspective on the world, work and environmental value of informal urban recyclers in Johannesburg emerges through the visual art response of Jacki McInnes and the voices and lives of the recyclers themselves – their experiences, their dreams – and our common humanity. DREAMS OF SHAHRAZAD Dir. Francois Verster This film explores the legacy of the THE 1001 NIGHTS in context of huge political changes sweeping the Maghreb and Middle East. A Turkish conductor performs Rimsky-Korsakov’s SCHEHERAZADE suite, a Lebanese actress struggles speaking out against injustice, an Egyptian artist finds inspiration from a younger storyteller, a Cairo theatre troupe creates performances from testimonies of martyrs of the Revolution. THE MEN FROM ATLANTIS Dir. Jo Higgs Determined to shift their reputation as a community of rapists, drug dealers and lost causes, twelve ordinary guys from Atlantis, near Cape Town, decide to take a stand. A grueling journey ‘carrying a woman on their hands’ in an unprecedented attempt to mobilise men in the fight against abuse. NTSIKA – THE PILLAR Dir. Dinah Arnott In Grahamstown, people are talking – is the white principal going to cope in a township school? This documentary follows Madeleine Schoeman's first year running Ntsika Secondary. Through her outsider eyes we bring both harsh problems and big dreams into focus, showing what it takes for a township school to function. GUARDIAN OF UGANDA’S GENTLE GIANTS Dir. Micheal Hutchinson Following the tradition of Diane Fossey, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka (Ugandan vet) has for the past 15 years, been the guardian of half the world’s gorilla population. Her passion for these gentle giants is evenly matched by her commitment to the well being of the people of Uganda. This film tells her story and looks at innovative models for sustainable conservation.

WHAT IS THE IMPACT?

The very first Good Pitch took place in Oxford, UK 2 1/2 years ago - eight projects were pitched, including the Resist project authored by actor Gael

Garcia Bernal. To get a taste of this exciting event, please watch the 3-minute trailer at www.britdoc.org/goodpitch.

Since then, the team has taken the Good Pitch to Toronto, Washington D.C., London, San Francisco, and New York, each time welcoming over 125 major organizations and foundations to participate in the one-day event. In the last two years The Good Pitch has leveraged more than $2.5 million in direct funding as well as other resources for projects pitched.

Results have included on-the-spot financing and broadcast offers, and the development of NGO partnerships that went, in one filmmaker’s words, “from first-date to marriage.”

Foundations, brands and non-profits that have participated in The Good Pitch include: Alliance to End Hunger, American Bar Association, American Red Cross, Amnesty International, Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors, Asda Walmart Foundation, Ashoka, Babelgum, BAVC Producers Institute for New Media Technologies, BBC, Ben & Jerry's Foundation, The Bezos Family Foundation, Andrea & Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, The Calvert Foundation, CARE, Center for Asian American Media Fund, The Center for American Progress, Center for Constitutional Rights, Cinereach, The William J. Clinton Foundation, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Craigslist Foundation, CrossCurrents Foundation, Dalberg Global Development, Democracy Alliance, Edelman, Facing History and Ourselves, Fenton Communications, The Fledgling Fund, The Ford Foundation, Funders Concerned About AIDS, Give2Asia, The Global Fund for Women, Global Youth Action Network, Google, Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media, Green for All, Greenpeace, HBO, HSBC, Idealist.org, International Human Rights Funding Group, Impact Partners, ITVS, Kiva.org, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, McKinsey & Co, MTV, NAACP, Naked Edge Films, National Coalition of 100 Black Women, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The National Black Programming Consortium, The National Endowment for the Arts, The National Gallery of Art, Nike, Nokia, ONE, One Economy/PIC.tv, The Opportunity Agenda, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), OSI, Oxfam, The Paley Center for Media, PBS, Physicians for Human Rights, Planet Green, POV, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, Puma.Creative, Saatchi & Saatchi, Search for Common Ground, SEIU, Sierra Club, Skoll Foundation, Sundance Channel, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, TED, The Tides Foundation, Tribeca Gucci Documentary Fund, Twenty-First Century Foundation, UN Department of Public Information (DPI), UNHCR, Whole Foods, WITNESS, Women Donors Network, World Economic Forum.

To recap, we would like to recognise your support and attendance in our various communications, and so would ask that you confirm your participation by August 2oth. Should you have any questions regarding the Good Pitch Squared, or if there are other individuals, foundations, organizations or brands that you recommend we invite to the Good Pitch, please do not hesitate to be in touch.