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NOBEL LEGACY FILM SERIES

Betty WIlliams: contagious courage

A FILM BY DAWN ENGLE AND IVAN SUVANJIEFF

PRESS KIT

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ABOUT BETTY WILLIAMS

Williams was born in 1943 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Like many families in Northern Ireland, Betty’s family was touched by violence. Her Protestant grandfather was attacked because his son was marrying a Catholic woman. Her cousin Daniel was killed by Protestant extremists. Another cousin was killed by an IRA bomb. In Betty’s words, “The Protestants killed one of my cousins, and the Catholics killed the other. ” In 1976, three innocent children were killed in a shooting in Belfast. Williams, a housewife and secretary, witnessed the tragedy and decided that the decade of violence had to end.

Williams co-founded “The Peace People” with Máiread Corrigan, the aunt of the three children killed. Williams became a grassroots activist who established local peace groups comprised of former opponents in the conflict. She organized a peace march to the children’s graves that 10,000 Protestant and Catholic women attended. The Irish Republican Army disrupted the peaceful walk, but 35,000 people marched with Williams and Corrigan the following week to protest violence in their country. Betty and Máiread continued to organize marches across Northern Ireland and beyond.

Betty Williams and Máiread Corrigan were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976. They had started a movement to build bridges between Catholics and Protestants and to end the ethno-nationalistic conflict in Northern Ireland. Thirty years later, their efforts bore fruit, and a Peace Treaty was signed, ending 300 years of conflict and struggle in their homeland.

“Fear’s contagious, but so is courage.”-Betty Williams

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SYNOPSIS

Ireland in the 1970’s was defined by violence. Protestant Paramilitary Groups faced off against the Catholic Provisional IRA, and the average citizen of Northern Ireland was caught in the middle. Betty Williams was drawn into the public arena after witnessing the death of three children on August 10, 1976, when they were hit by a car whose driver, an IRA fugitive, was fatally shot by British police.

Williams was so moved by the incident that she went door to door obtaining 6,000 signatures on a petition for peace within two days, gaining widespread media attention. Williams then organised a peace march to the graves of the slain children, which was attended by 10,000 Protestant and Catholic women. However, the peaceful march was violently disrupted by members of the Irish Republican Army. The following week, Williams led another march that concluded successfully without incident this time with 35,000 participants. Their peace marches continued to grow in scope and scale, creating a worldwide movement.

They then began to focus on building bridges of friendship and cooporation between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. They started the first integrated sports team, the first intergrated elementary school, and supported the creation of intergrated workplaces as well.

Their movement for peace laid the groundwork for the changes in society that needed to occur in order to allow a peace treaty for Northern Ireland to be negotiatied and signed thirty-five years later. In 1977 Betty Williams and Maíread Maguire were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their heroic efforts to create this new movement despite constant threat of assassination and violence. Since then, Betty has dedicated her life to helping children around the world.

“We want to live, love and build a just and peaceful society. We dedicate ourselves to working with our neighbors day in and day out to create this peaceful society.” -Betty Williams

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ABOUT- THE FILMMAKERS

DAWN ENGLE - WRITER/DIRECTORDawn Gifford Engle is an activist and filmmaker, and she has been nominated seventeen times for the Nobel Peace Prize. She directed the award-winning documentary films, “PEACEJAM”, “Mayan Renaissance”, “Children of the Light”, “Rivers of Hope”, “Daughter of the Maya,” and “Without a Shot Fired.” She also co-authored the book, “PEACEJAM: A Billion Simple Acts of Peace”, which was published by Penguin in 2008. She has a background in public service, working 12 years for the U.S. Congress, and she was the youngest woman ever appointed to serve as Chief of Staff for a U.S. Senator. In 1994, Dawn Gifford Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff created the PeaceJam Foundation, which has been recognized nationally as an award-winning service learning program, and internationally for excellence in peace education.

IVAN SUVANJIEFF - EXECUTIVE PRODUCERIvan Suvanjieff is an artist and an activist. He was a Detroit punk rock musician (lead singer of the Ramrods) and an editor at CREEM magazine (his work is featured in two recently published books: ‘The Best of CREEM’ and ‘Iggy Pop and the Stooges: The Authorized Biography’). He is well known for his abstract paintings and his literary magazine, ‘The New Censorship’, with contributing editors Charles Bukowski, Anselm Hollo, Anne Waldman and Andrei Codrescu. He co-created the PeaceJam program, and he has been nominated seventeen times for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the Executive Producer and Director of Photography for the award winning films “PEACEJAM”, “Mayan Renaissance”, “Children of the Light”, “Rivers of Hope”, “Daughter of the Maya,” and “Without a Shot Fired.” He and his wife Dawn were married by Archbishop Desmond Tutu at Saint Georges Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa in March 2000.

DAVE WRUCK - CINEMATOGRAPHERDave Wruck is an Emmy Award winning editor, with more than two decades of experience working in both television and documentary film. He has received five Emmy Awards for documentary films he has edited. He has also won many awards at leading film festivals, including Best Documentary Film, Audience Favorite, Jury Award, and Directors Choice. He is a constant traveler as he takes on documentary projects all over the world. Dave Wruck has worked closely with the PeaceJam Foundation film department for eleven years.

GIACOMO BOUNAFINA - SOUND DESIGNGiacomo Buonafina is an award-winning actor, sound engineer, and activist from Guatemala. As an actor he is known for his work with respected directors Carlos García Agraz, Rafael Rosal, and the great Guatemalan director Luiz Tuchán. His indie label, “Primera Generación Records”, recorded over 100 albums of local and Central American music and worked with artists to record albums which became fundamental in the post war artistic movement in Central America.

ZABE HOLLOWAY - EDITORElizabeth “Zabe” Holloway has been working professionally in the film production field since 2004. She’s an award winning editor, and first began working with the PeaceJam Foundation in 2010 as an Editor for the documentary film “2012: The True Mayan Prophecy” and continued on as Editor and Production Manager for the films “Mayan Renaissance”, “Children of the Light”, “Rivers of Hope”, “Daughter of the Maya,” and “Without a Shot Fired”. She is a graduate of the Art Institute of Colorado.

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BUDGET

Story development & ScriptDirectorDirector of photographyproducerscasttotal above the line

Grip/set operationscameraproduction soundtransportationlocation & office expenseproduction film & labstock footagetotal production

editing staffmusicpost soundpost film & labtitles, optical, & digital fxother deliverablesother post coststotal post-production

publicity & marketinglegal & accountinginsurancegeneral expensetotal other

total above-the-linetotal below-the-linegrand total

raised to dateremaining funds to raise

$33,000$35,000$35,000$35,000$20,000

$158,000

$7,000$11,200$10,700$41,171$5,449$2,000

$23,600$101,120

$55,500$12,000$17,800$31,000$12,750$10,500$8,000

$147,550

$58,000$13,000$3,000$9,330

$83,330

$158,000$332,000$490,000

$340,000$150,000