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UPDATE! Our Seattle-made gem of a doc, ULTIMATE CITIZENS is screening at Seattle International Film Festival. We have kids and families, some of whom shared their stories in the film, who need tickets, and they won't be able to come to the screening unless we can help. Our goal is to sponsor 50 individuals, which will cost approximately $900.
For $90, you can sponsor a family of five. Many of the families will come to our Mother's Day screening on May 12 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown, in Seattle. Please help if this moves you, and we hope you can join us at a screening!
Sincerely,
Francine
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ULTIMATE CITIZENS DOCUMENTARY
HELP US FINISH THE FILM AND GET TO THE WORLD PREMIERE!
Hello!
We are an award-winning Seattle-based filmmaking team - Francine (director) and Tracy (executive producer) - and ULTIMATE CITIZENS is the beautiful documentary we’ve been making over the past many years. We've directed films broadcast and streamed on PBS, Showtime, Netflix and Amazon. And the moment we met school counselor Jamshid Khajavi, the heart and soul of ULTIMATE CITIZENS, we knew we had to make this documentary. As partners in work and life, with a shared history of being teachers' kids, we believe no child (and no family) should be left out or excluded. In ULTIMATE CITIZENS, Jamshid shows how to build more resilient and welcoming communities for all.
Jamshid is an Iranian American who came to study in 1970’s America, and due to the Revolution, never went “home.” As a guidance counselor at Hazel Wolf K-8, a Seattle public school, Jamshid’s best work takes place on the Ultimate playing field with “his kids,” the children of refugees and immigrants. Their parents are in the grip of their own struggles to make a living and home in a strange land. Mr. Jamshid is the charismatic, fiery, funny human with a Frisbee in hand, who shows that “LOVE WINS” on the field, off the field, at home with family, or boldly forging a new community, in a new country - one kid, chicken, extreme mile, and friend at a time.
On May 26, 2023. ULTIMATE CITIZENS will have its world premiere at Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, Colorado. With just weeks to go before the big day, we desperately need funding to complete the film (editing, color correction and sound mix) and to cover festival travel costs and fees. We're raising money to help pay for Jamshid and two young Frisbee stars, Pio Faumuina and Nyahoak Rambang to travel and present the documentary with us in Telluride. Our gofundme goal is $20,000.
THE NEED: Mountainfilm is a crucial opportunity for independent filmmakers like us to meet distributors who can bring the film to a national audience. At Mountainfilm we’re honored to premiere in competition (this is big!), and in the festival’s largest (600-seat) theater. We'll follow the screening with an intergenerational Ultimate Frisbee clinic led by Pio, Nyahaok and Jamshid.
But first, we need to finish the movie! Our editors, sound engineer, colorist and graphic designer are still hard at work. So far we've managed to fund ULTIMATE CITIZENS through grants from Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, 4Culture, Treeline Foundation and Mountainfilm. We've clocked countless pro bono hours ourselves to get to this point. Documentaries are very expensive to make, and your support will go directly to pay skilled Seattle creatives for post-production.
This is just the beginning! We have big plans to bring ULTIMATE CITIZENS to schools and communities across the country with learning guides and tools that can turn the film's vision for more welcoming communities into action. Please help support ULTIMATE CITIZENS by giving big! Every penny contributed will truly help.
Thank you so much for your support!
ABOUT Director Francine Strickwerda
Francine's award-winning independent documentaries, including Oil & Water and Busting Out, have been broadcast and streamed on Showtime, Netflix, Amazon, PBS and television channels all over the world. Francine’s work has been supported by MacArthur Foundation, Independent Television Service (Corporation for Public Broadcasting), Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, 4Culture, and more. Her films are David and Goliath stories that explore power and trauma, as well as healing and reconciliation. Her first-person documentary, “Busting Out,” about the history and politics of America’s obsession with the female breast, premiered on Showtime in 2004 and was named one of the year’s best documentaries by the American Library Association. Her next feature “Oil & Water” (for PBS, 2014) took on oil industry abuses through the epic story of Hugo, an indigenous boy whose Amazonian tribe sent him to be educated in Seattle in hopes that he'd return to help fight the oil giants that poisoned them. Francine has created video campaigns for some of the world’s most recognizable brands and non-profits through her company Hullabaloo. Formerly, she was a producer at KCTS Public Television in Seattle, and an executive editor of PBS websites. Francine grew up a teacher’s kid, and she began her career in journalism as a newspaper reporter.
ABOUT Executive Producer Tracy Dethlefs
An Emmy-award winning editor and director, Tracy's delivered top shows and documentaries to PBS, MTV, VH-1, BBC, and National Geographic. An industry veteran, Tracy draws on his experience directing reality and music television to offer corporate clients vibrant marketing experiences. He founded Hullabaloo, his creative video production company, twenty years ago in Seattle. In 2015, Tracy launched Hullabaloo into the Wild West of 360° video. Since then, the company has post-produced many viral 360° videos for non-profits and created a full slate of immersive healthcare training programs designed to keep the pipeline of new healthcare workers going through the pandemic and beyond. Other notable collaborations include working with Bill Nye the Science Guy on “Eyes of Nye” a 12-part series for PBS, and with "Weird Al" Yankovic. During the pandemic, Tracy racked up frequent flyer miles crisscrossing the country to direct “American Icons' George Takei” and especially “Team Tan,” a six-part documentary series about young Canadian racecar driver Samantha Tan’s quest to compete at LeMans.
