Tag: Girls of Daraja

Who is Barbara Rick?

An award-winning filmmaker, journalist, and writer.  Screenwriter.  Episodic series writer/creator.   President and founder of Out of the Blue Films Inc., an independent documentary nonprofit devoted to exceptional storytelling that explores, articulates, and celebrates humanity.  

What are you currently working on?

Seeking new commissions from philanthropists, major corporations, and nonprofits eager to harness the power of film and storytelling to excite and inspire others. 

 
We’re also finding new audiences to connect with our work and with executive producer Deborah Santana we’re focused on outreach and distribution for our new films on high school girls in Kenya who are changing the world:   “School of My Dreams” Trailer and “Girls of Daraja” Trailer

And I’m now writing and developing episodic television dramas and a single-camera comedy.  Crafting a pilot with a dear friend and colleague in L.A. via Skype.  And I’m getting ready to do a new draft of a feature film script inspired by the subject of one of my documentaries.

What honors have you received for your filmmaking?

Three Emmys (national and local), a DuPont Columbia award honorable mention, and a Peabody award for a WNBC-TV documentary I produced with veteran reporter Gabe Pressman on the crisis of New York’s mentally ill homeless.  During my tenure as a news writer and producer for ABC News, writing broadcast copy for the anchors, I was part of the team that won Peabody awards for 9/11 coverage and the tsunami in Thailand.  My independent films have received invitations to screen at film festivals around the world winning Audience Favorite, Best Documentary, Best Director, and Jury Prize honors and have been broadcast widely.

Do you have an upcoming event or showing you’d like people to attend?

I invite people to check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/ootbfilms   And please ‘like’ our Out of the Blue Films Facebook Page:  And Twitter!  @OuttaTheBlu and @brickdoc.  That’s how Artists Without Walls’ cofounder Charles R. Hale and I first connected, as Twitter pals. : )

Who are the filmmakers you admire?

Albert Maysles (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens, Salesman), Barbara Kopple, Agnes Varda.  Was thrilled to work alongside Al Maysles on our film about an American nun taking on the Vatican over her ministry to gay and lesbian Catholics – IN GOOD CONSCIENCE.   I also bow to Krzysztof Kieslowski, Hitchcock, Spielberg, Ang Lee, Claire Denis, Jane Campion, Nancy Savoca.  And in television, Tom Fontana, Matthew Weiner, Shonda Rhimes, Lena Dunham, David Simon, Alan Ball, David Chase, Terence Winter, Beau Willimon.  

Who or what is your greatest inspiration and why?

Nelson Mandela is the person I admire most on the planet.  He refused to take hatred of his captors outside the prison gates after those twenty-seven years behind bars because – in his words – ‘then they would still have me.  I wanted to be free so I let it go.’   So brilliant.  Forgiveness as a winning strategy and facing one’s fiercest enemies without rancor seems to me the highest form of humanity.  Meeting President Mandela on a film shoot with my husband, cinematographer Jim Anderson, in 2006 with a delegation from Artists for a New South Africa remains a highlight of my life.  Filming inside Mr. Mandela’s cell on Robben Island changed me on a profound level.  My deepest gratitude to Deborah Santana for that opportunity and to Alfre Woodard who made the introduction.   All our thoughts are with him and his family in these recent difficult days.

What are the top five things you’d like to accomplish in the next five years?

To be of greater service to people and ideas that matter.  To have the shows and ideas I’m working on now come to fruition.  I’m excited about selling these projects, a couple of feature screenplays with great directors attached, and directing my own features too.

What was the best gift that someone gave you that inspired or facilitated an interest in your art?

We have received funding over the years from so many generous foundations and individuals – Susan Sarandon, Ellen DeGeneres, Agnes Gund, Tom Fontana, Trudie Styler, N. Peter Hamilton, Mary Catherine Bunting, Deborah Santana, and many others.   This helped us to move forward as a creative company and continue making films. It also enabled me to explore still photography as an additional storytelling tool. That’s been a joy.  My photographs have become a kind of emotional signature in my most recent films.

“Barbara Rick” website

“Out of the Blue Films” website

“Out of the Blue” Facebook page