AMERICA REFRAMED: TRIUMPH OVER TRAUMA WITH FILM “TRUST”

Tune in to WORLD Channel on Sunday, October 14 at 8 pm ET/9 pm PT

Chicago’s neighborhood Albany Park Theater Project (APTP) is dedicated to helping teenagers re-imagine their difficult life experiences into creative interpretations on stage. Marlin, an 18-year-old Hondureña tells her traumatic story of enduring rape as a young girl, immigrating to the U.S.in a difficult journey, suffering further abuse at the hands of her brother, overcoming substance addiction and finally facing down her past. Her fellow young actors transform her story into a daring, original play. TRUST follows Marlin and APTP as they transform a personal story into a public expression and invite family, friends, teachers, and classmates to see Remember Me Like This, during its seven-weekend run.

Since 1997, APTP has created artistic and transformative theater with kids who never have to audition. APTP Co-Founder and Artistic Director David Feiner, who holds a masters degree from the Yale Graduate School of Drama, supports his young actors as they grow to reflect on life and the theatre.

About the filmmakers:

Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto
For more than 25 years, independent filmmakers Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto have been making critically acclaimed documentary and narrative films that have aired on PBS, Showtime, Sundance, and Britain’s Channel Four (among others), as well as in theaters, museums, film festivals around the world, and even at an outdoor street cinema.  Nancy and Kenji attended the Sundance June Lab with their narrative feature THOUSAND PIECES OF GOLD and Kenji attended the Sundance Documentary Lab with Jennifer Maytorena Taylor’s NEW MUSLIM COOL.  Their films have been funded by the Ford Foundation, PBS American Playhouse, MacArthur Foundation, ITVS, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Endowment for the Arts, Gerbode Foundation, Driehaus Foundation, Columbia Foundation, Fleishhacker Foundation, Woods Fund of Chicago, LEF, Pacific Pioneer Fund, and many others.

The Series
The 52-week series, America ReFramed, tells the stories of a transforming American culture in all its broad diversity.  With independent films, 60 to 90 minutes in length, as well as in-depth interviews and commentary from host Natasha Del Toro, the series takes an unfiltered look at challenging national issues with personal storytelling.

America ReFramed showcases films that offer viewers a “snapshot” of America — the guts, the glory, the grit of a new and changing culture.  From contemporary life on Native American reservations to stories of recovery on the Gulf, from hardships and renewal in small towns to stories of tough city streets across the country, these independent and personal films document the times in which we live.

Host Natasha Del Toro is an independent journalist and documentary producer who brings an urban and energetic voice to the series.   From interviews with filmmakers and others, Del Toro elicits the issues, the challenges, and the back story of each featured film.  The series is produced by American Documentary, Inc. and broadcast by public television’s WORLD Channel.

Presenters

American Documentary, Inc. (www.amdoc.org)
American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia company dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.

About WORLD (www.WORLDchannel.org)
The WORLD Channel is a 24/7 public television  channel dedicated to delivering the best of public television’s
nonfiction, news and documentary programming, and a growing schedule of original content from independent producers.  The complementary website  http://www.WORLDchannel.org expands on broadcast topics and fuels content across social media, providing opportunities for broad and diverse audience interaction.  WORLD is produced and distributed by WGBH Boston, WNET New York Public Media, and American Public Television (APT) in association with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA). The WORLD channel is available in markets representing nearly 54% of US TV households, and 13 of the top 25 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston and Atlanta. Funding for WORLD is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

About WGBH (www.wgbh.org)
WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcaster and the largest producer of PBS content for TV and the Web, including Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, Nova, American Experience, Arthur, Curious George, and more than a dozen other prime-time, lifestyle, and children’s series.  WGBH also is a leader in educational multimedia, including PBS Learning Media, and a pioneer in technologies and services that make media accessible to the 36 million Americans who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or visually impaired.  WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards…even two Oscars.  Find more information at www.wgbh.org.

ARTWORK/SCREENERS:  Trailers, promotional materials, high resolution downloadable artwork and media-only screening episodes available at: http://worldcompass.org/shows/americareframed_press

INTERVIEWS:  To set up interviews with our host, executives or filmmakers, please contact:  Karen.Hansen@bullseyecomm.com