Partnership Announced Ahead of Tribeca Film Festival World Premiere on April 19
“I am going to work, until Ebola leaves my country, I am going to work.” — Garmai Sumo, Liberian Red Cross Body Team 12 Worker
Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions and RYOT Films today announced a new partnership to produce and distribute the short film Body Team 12, which will premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival on April 19. Director David Darg and team embedded with a heroic group of Liberian Red Cross workers tasked with collecting the dead during the height of the Ebola outbreak. The story is told on the ground in Monrovia, Liberia, through the eyes of the only female member of the team, who reveals the heartbreaking, lifesaving work of removing bodies from loved ones in order to halt transmission of the disease. Paul G. Allen and Olivia Wilde are executive producers of the film.
Carole Tomko, General Manager and Creative Director of Vulcan Productions, states, “Body Team 12 immediately grounds us in the grim reality of the global health crisis that Ebola sparked. It is our hope that this profoundly moving film will raise awareness and support for the ongoing Ebola relief effort, while breaking the stigma and misconception surrounding the disease, and inspiring others to volunteer. David Darg and RYOT have created an exceptional short film, and we are proud to be part of and support their artful, intimate storytelling that will shine a light on the monumental heroism of people like Garmai Sumo, who risk their own lives every day to save the lives of others.”
Director David Darg states, “I was astonished at the bravery of this team of young Liberians, fighting to save their country. This film is a tribute to these Ebola heroes. The partnership with Vulcan enabled us to overcome the difficult logistics in telling this story. It was an extremely dangerous film to make but a story that needed to be told.”
Paul G. Allen has been a catalyst in the global response to the ongoing West African Ebola outbreak. He is the largest private donor in the effort to combat the disease, having committed at least $100 million to raise awareness and fund impactful work in the field. Body Team 12 extends the media work of Allen’s Vulcan Productions to help stop Ebola. Other media projects include the #ISurvivedEbola video campaign and funding of BBC Media Action on the ground in West Africa.
Director and RYOT co-founder David Darg was hailed as one of Esquire Magazine’s “2012 Americans of the Year,” and has spent the last decade as a first responder and frontline journalist for Reuters, the BBC and CNN, covering some of the world’s largest natural disasters and wars.
For more information about the film, visit: bodyteam12.com
For a list of public screenings of Body Team 12, visit: TribecaFilm.com
To download film stills, click here.