Santa Fe Film Festival 2008

After nearly two decades of civil war, Liberia is a nation ready for change. On January 16 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was inaugurated President. She is the first ever freely elected female head of state in Africa. Winning a hotly contested election with the overwhelming support of women across Liberia, since taking office she has appointed other extraordinary women to leadership positions in all areas of government. Can the first female Liberian president bring sustainable democracy and peace to such a devastated country? With the exclusive access, African director Siatta Scott Johnson and American director Daniel Junge follow President Sirleaf and her closest aides behind the scenes during their first year inoffice. Biography Daniel Junge was named by Filmmaker magazine as one of 25 up-and-coming filmmakers in 2003. Junge had his feature-length directorial debut with CHIEFS, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Documentary, and subsequently received national airing on PBS. He also won four regional Emmy’s for COMMON GOOD (2005), a six-part series on social entrepreneurs. Co-Director Siatta Scott-Johnson was born in Buchanan, Liberia, 1974, and raised in rural Grand Bassa County. She has five years of experience as a reporter and producer at DCTV, one of Liberia’s few broadcast television stations, and is a founding member of Omuahtee Africa Media. 2008 AFI DALLAS International Film Festival, Target Documentary Award AFI Project: 20/20 is an American Film Institute (AFI) international initiative designed to enhance cultural exchange, understanding and collaboration through filmmakers and their films from the US and abroad. It is an unprecedented cultural diplomacy effort that is the only international filmmaker exchange supported by all of America’s cultural agencies—National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)—and the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Participation in AFI Project: 20/20 is by invitation based on an artist’s filmmaking excellence and their potential for positively interrelating with film professionals, filmmaking peers, cultural officials and audiences, particularly in foreign countries. AFI FEST—the debut festival for the program—and the other venues and countries participating in AFI Project: 20/20 provide an arena for American and International cultural voices to be heard and seen, creating learning opportunities for audiences and artists alike. Through workshops, seminars and appearances at film festivals, cultural centers, museums and other community, educational and cultural venues in the US and abroad, AFI Project: 20/20 filmmakers will promote mutual understanding, while nurturing filmmaking excellence. Now in its third year, the program continues to support and advocate the use of film in cultural diplomacy. Representing various countries, AFI Project: 20/20’s multicultural roster of films challenges its audiences to examine, reflect and celebrate diversity. In 2008-2009, 13 filmmakers from 8 countries and their films are planning to visit China, Peru, South Africa, France and Great Britain, as well as St. Louis, Santa Fe, Washington, D.C, Honolulu, Dallas and Waterville, Maine.

This is the story of World Champion Boxer, Kassim "The Dream" Ouma - born in Uganda, kidnapped by the rebel army and trained to be a child soldier at the age of 6. When the rebels took over the government, Kassim became an army soldier who was forced to commit many horrific atrocities, making him both a victim and perpetrator. He soon discovered the army’s boxing team and realized the sport was his ticket to freedom. After 12 years of warfare, Kassim defected from Africa and arrived in the United States. Homeless and culture shocked, he quickly rose through the boxing ranks and became Junior Middleweight Champion of the World. Kassim, 27 seems to have obtained the American Dream with his jovial nature, fame and hip hop lifestyle. As Kassim trains for his next world title fight against Jermain Taylor in Little Rock Arkansas, keeping his demons out of the ring becomes increasingly difficult. His desires to reunite with family in Uganda intensify when Kassim’s only hope for a safe return is a military pardon from the president and government responsible for his abduction. Biography Kief Davidson is an award-winning feature film and documentary director born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. His previous film, THE DEVIL'S MINER, made its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2005 and won over a dozen awards at International Film Festivals including Tribeca, Hot Docs, Chicago, Woodstock, Jerusalem and Mexico City. He received the prestigious DGA Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Directing, won the coveted FIPRESCI- Film Critics Award and the PBS Independent Lens Audience Award. Kief has also directed and produced documentaries for The Discovery Channel, ABC News, PBS, ARTE and A&E. As a narrative filmmaker, Kief wrote and directed the dark comedy, MINOR DETAILS, an independent feature film starring Peter Sarsgaard and Larry Pine. He began his filmmaking career in 1993 as editor on the Academy Award-nominated documentary, BLOOD TIES: THE LIFE AND WORK OF SALLY MANN. He is the recipient of two Emmy nominations for his work with National Geographic and earned the International Monitor Award for Best Editing on the journalistic film, WHAT'S NEWS? 2008 American Film Market/SILVERDOCS Award. AFI Project: 20/20 is an American Film Institute (AFI) international initiative designed to enhance cultural exchange, understanding and collaboration through filmmakers and their films from the US and abroad. It is an unprecedented cultural diplomacy effort that is the only international filmmaker exchange supported by all of America’s cultural agencies—National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)—and the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Participation in AFI Project: 20/20 is by invitation based on an artist’s filmmaking excellence and their potential for positively interrelating with film professionals, filmmaking peers, cultural officials and audiences, particularly in foreign countries. AFI FEST—the debut festival for the program—and the other venues and countries participating in AFI Project: 20/20 provide an arena for American and International cultural voices to be heard and seen, creating learning opportunities for audiences and artists alike. Through workshops, seminars and appearances at film festivals, cultural centers, museums and other community, educational and cultural venues in the US and abroad, AFI Project: 20/20 filmmakers will promote mutual understanding, while nurturing filmmaking excellence. Now in its third year, the program continues to support and advocate the use of film in cultural diplomacy. Representing various countries, AFI Project: 20/20’s multicultural roster of films challenges its audiences to examine, reflect and celebrate diversity. In 2008-2009, 13 filmmakers from 8 countries and their films are planning to visit China, Peru, South Africa, France and Great Britain, as well as St. Louis, Santa Fe, Washington, D.C, Honolulu, Dallas and Waterville, Maine.