SHENANDOAHA FILM BY PULITZER PRIZE WINNING PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID TURNLEY

“When there is injustice, we are all victims. I use my camera, my eyes and my heart so that people might be left thinking

‘We can do better than this’.” David C. Turnley

USA, 2012, color, 97 min

SHENANDOAH Director and Producer: David Turnley In Association with : Epic Match Media Louverture Films Netflix Executive Producer: Billy Peterson Executive Producers: Joslyn Barnes Danny Glover Ted Sarandos Director of Photography: David Turnley Editors: Christopher Seward Christina Burchard Greg Finton A.C.E. Music by: David Majzlin Co-Executive Producers: Juliette Feeney-Timsit Caroleen Feeney Susan Rockefeller Danny Bennett Tim Speidel

Festival Representative: Alla Verlotsky, Seagull Films alla.verlotsky@gmail.com

Original title of the film: SHENANDOAH Country of origin: USA Year of copyright: June 2012 Original film language: English Running time: 97 min Shooting format: HDCAM Screening format: HDCAM Sound format: Stereo Mix/Dolby E

SHENANDOAHFILM SYNOPSIS

An epic feature documentary about a coal mining town with a fiery immigrant heritage, once pivotal in fueling America’s industrial revolution and today in

decline and struggling to survive and retain its identity, soul and values - all of which were dramatically challenged when four of the town’s white, star football

players were charged in the beating death of an undocumented Mexican immigrant named Luis Ramirez. Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer

David Turnley’s most personal work, SHENANDOAH creates a deeply felt portrait of a working class community, and the American Dream on trial.

SHENANDOAHBACKGROUND

“Shenandoah” is the heartfelt story of a working-class community wrestling with its conscience, following an incident in which four of the town’s star High School football

players beat to death Luis Ramirez, an undocumented Mexican immigrant.

In this town, where football had become everything, the local police covered up the incident until a Mexican-American civil rights lawyer saw the story and traveled to

Pennsylvania to call a press conference, at which time charges were finally brought.

It was just prior to this tragedy - in the spring of 2008 that then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama made the statement that, ‘in times of crisis, the working class in Pennsyl-vania cling to their guns and religion’. Filmmaker David Turnley set out later that summer

to scout a project in a coal-mining town and learned of the incident in Shenandoah. He would end up spending over two years there, documenting the lives of the people

who came together in one terrible moment that would change their fates forever.

SHENANDOAHDIRECTORS STATEMENT

“Shenandoah, is for me, a coming home story. For the last thirty-five years, I have used my camera around the world to photograph my conviction that human dignity is what we share. I went to the coal region of Pennsylvania with the intention of portraying a contemporary American working class community, with a spirited and tough heritage forged by immigrants and the sweat of their labor, at a time when work is scarce, and

peoples’ backs are up against the wall.

I felt that fate had directed me to this town, to once again - this time in my own country - try to understand why good people can hate, and whether they have the potential to

change. I am interested in the great universal human tension between the value placed on forming alliances, and the risk, that this, if not carefully understood, can lead to

exclusion, and even hate.

A feature length documentary four years in the making, I am proud to present the story of Shenandoah, and the American Dream on trial.”

SHENANDOAHEXECUTIVE PRODUCER: EPIC MATCH MEDIA

Epic Match Media is an independent production company aimed at developing, creating and supporting independent documentary and feature films whose stories involve pressing themes

and issues we face today, as global citizens.  Founded by Billy Peterson, Epic Match Media brings independently minded films and projects to audiences across the world through

all media platforms.

Billy Peterson, Executive Producer, is the Founder and CEO of Epic Match Media.  Prior to forming Epic Match Media, Billy worked as a Director for an international public-policy

organization where he participated in policy-making dialogue between both public and private entities in the United States and Europe.  Billy earned his bachelors degree in communication from American University in Washington, DC.  He then went on to earn his masters degree in communication from Emerson College in Boston, MA, where he began to participate in local

theatre and film productions. 

Billy is from the Washington DC metro area where he resides with is wife and two children.

SHENANDOAHEXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: LOUVERTURE FILMS

New York based Louverture Films is dedicated to the development and production of films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value and artistic integrity.  Taking its name and inspiration from

the great leader of the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture - famous for creating an “opening” in the face of enormous obstacles - Louverture Films partners with progressive filmmakers and

producers around the world and particularly from the global South, and pro-actively supports the employment of cast and crew from communities of color in the United States.

Joslyn Barnes, Executive Producer, is a writer and Emmy® nominated producer.  She is the author of the upcoming Indian feature THE COSMIC FOREST, and the award-winning film BÀTTU, which she associate produced.  Among the films Barnes has executive produced or produced since

co-founding Louverture Films are: César-nominated BAMAKO by Abderrahmane Sissako; Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, and Oscar® and Emmy® nominated TROUBLE THE WATER; Oscar®

shortlisted SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION; the award-winning THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975; Bollywood thriller DUM MAARO DUM; and this year’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner

THE HOUSE I LIVE IN.  Barnes also associate produced Elia Suleiman’s THE TIME THAT REMAINS, and the 2010 Cannes Palme d’Or winner UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES

by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

SHENANDOAHEXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: LOUVERTURE FILMS

In addition to being one of the most acclaimed actors of our time, with a career spanning 30 years from Places in the Heart, The Color Purple, the Lethal Weapon series and the award-winning To Sleep with Anger, Executive Producer Danny Glover has also produced, executive produced and financed numerous projects for film, television and theatre.  Among these are Good Fences, 3 AM, Freedom

Song, Get on the Bus, Deadly Voyage, Buffalo Soldiers, The Saint of Fort Washington and To Sleep with Anger, as well as the series Courage and America’s Dream.  Since co-founding Louverture Films Glover

has executive produced BAMAKO, AFRICA UNITE, TROUBLE THE WATER, SALT OF THIS SEA, SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION, THE TIME THAT REMAINS, UNCLE BOONMEE WHO

CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF McKINLEY NOLAN, THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE, DUM MAARO DUM and THE HOUSE I LIVE IN.

SHENANDOAHEXECUTIVE PRODUCER: NETFLIX

With more than 25 million streaming members in the United States, Canada, Latin America, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Netflix, Inc. is the world’s leading

internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV programs.

Ted Sarandos, Executive Producer, has been Chief Content Officer of Netflix Inc., since March 2000. Mr. Sarandos’s responsibilities include developing strategic

relationships with the major motion picture studios and producers and determining the title selection and purchase levels for Netflix’s DVD rental inventory.

SHENANDOAHDIRECTORS BIOGRAPHY

David Turnley is considered by many to be one of the best documentary photographers working today. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, two World Press Photos of the Year, and the Robert Capa Award

for Courage, he has photographed the human condition in some 75 countries around the world. Turnley was a Detroit Free Press staff photographer from 1980 to 1998. He was based in South Africa from 1985 to 1987, where he documented the country under Apartheid rule. He was based in Paris from 1987 to 1997, covering such events as the Persian Gulf War, revolutions in Eastern Europe, student

uprisings in China and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. He has published seven books- his most recent, Mandela: In Times of Struggle and Triumph, an anthology of 20 years of his photographs

looking at the unraveling of Apartheid, and the life of Nelson Mandela.

Turnley earned a B.A. in French Literature from the University of Michigan, received Honorary Doctoral degrees from the New School of Social Research in 1997, the University of St. Francis in 2003, and has also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. He studied filmmaking under a Nieman

Foundation Fellowship at Harvard in 1997-1998.

David has Directed and Produced three feature-length Documentaries. The Dalai Lama: At Home and in Exile, for CNN, nominated for an Emmy; La Tropical, called by Albert Maysles “the most sensual film ever shot in Cuba”; and his recently released, four year in the making, epic story of

Shenandoah, located in the tough coal region of Pennsylvania.

David is an Associate Professor at his alma mater, the University of Michigan, School of Art and Design, and The Residential College. The proud father of two children, David lives with his wife

Rachel and family, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

SHENANDOAHPRESS PHOTOGRAPHS

High-resolution photographs available for download at http://shenandoah-film.com/presskit/

SHENANDOAHCONTACT INFORMATION

For inquiries, sales and distribution please contact:

David Turnley, Shenandoah, PA LLC info@shenandoah-film.com

Billy Peterson, Epic Match Media billy@epicmatchmedia.com

For film festivals and special screenings, please contact:

Alla Verlotsky, Seagull Films 526 West 111th Street, New York, NY 10025 646 707 3879 • alla.verlotsky@gmail.com

www.shenandoah-film.com facebook.com/shenandoahfilm • twitter.com/shenandoahfilm

SHENANDOAH

All photographs and material copyright © 2012 David Turnley, Shenandoah, PA LLC except as follows: Page 3, Photograph by Tim Leedy © The Reading Eagle; Page 5, Photograph courtesy of Telemundo; Page 8, Photograph by Jacqueline

Dormer © Republican Herald; Page 13, Photograph by Jacqueline Dormer © Republican Herald