CreativeChaos vmg Premieres Two Provocative Films on Critical Social Justice Issues at DOC NYC

CreativeChaos vmg, the award-winning production company known for powerful documentaries that move cultural conversation, will be unveiling two projects this November at DOC NYC - This Changes Everything (November 14th) and the HBO documentary film Bleed Out (November 13th). Since its inception, the disruptive content creator has achieved significant success with major global distribution and award-recognition (including a Gracie Award and Emmy nomination in 2014 for the HBO documentary Casting By). Most importantly it has catalyzed real and lasting change, and This Changes Everything and Bleed Out are no exception.

"As storytellers, we feel it's our obligation to not only shed light on societal issues, but to do so in a way that engages and encourages audiences to take action," notes CreativeChaos vmg founding partner and Director Tom Donahue.

In keeping with this sentiment, both films hone in on pivotal, hotly debated issues facing society at a critically important time - gender equality and healthcare. Critically acclaimed during its World Premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, where it received multiple standing ovations and won the first runner-up for the Grolsch People's Choice award, This Changes Everything spotlights decades of discrimination against women in Hollywood. Directed by Donahue and produced by Ilan Arboleda and Kerianne Flynn in association with Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, David Yurman, award-winning producer Regina K. Scully and Lyft Entertainment, the film takes an incisive look at the history, empirical evidence, and systematic industry forces that perpetuate gender disparity in today's culture. The documentary features first-hand accounts by some of Hollywood's leading voices behind and in front of the camera, including Geena Davis, Meryl Streep, Shonda Rhimes, Reese Witherspoon, Taraji P. Henson, Natalie Portman, Amandla Stenberg, Matt McGorry and FX Network CEO John Landgraf, who was singlehandedly responsible for transforming FX from the network with the worst record on diversity to the best in less than a year. Following the DOC NYC screening at the iconic SVA theater, there will be a live panel Q&A featuring director Tom Donahue, former president of ABC Susan Lyne, Bloomberg Chairman Peter Grauer, actress Heather Graham and other A-list talent appearing in the film.

In addition to producing social action-driven films, CreativeChaos vmg also gives citizen journalists the opportunity to tell their untold stories. The HBO documentary film Bleed Out, directed by Steve Burrows and produced in partnership with HBO and Impact Partners, uncovers the issue of medical error - the third leading cause of death in the United States. The film is a cautionary tale about the future of America's healthcare system and follows Burrows' through a nightmarish eight-year ordeal when what was to be a routine hip replacement surgery, lands his mother in a coma with permanent brain damage. Statistics and figures presented in the film provide shocking evidence of systemic healthcare failure, including that one out of every four patients in America are harmed by medical error. As the country continues to grapple with the healthcare debate, these staggering statistics are just a snapshot of the unreasonable shortcomings of the national medical system that impact Americans every day. Bleed Out premieres on HBO December 17th.

CreativeChaos vmg is not new to addressing challenging issues. Its critically acclaimed documentary Thank You For Your Service (2015), was extremely effective in drawing attention to the mental health crisis in the U.S. military and arguing for the need for a military Behavioral Health Corps. Seeking to get to the bottom of the rising suicide epidemic among active duty servicemembers and veterans, the filmmakers traveled to over 50 U.S. cities and conducted over 150 interviews, including former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, General David Petraeus, Senator Patty Murray, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Their investigation concluded that any change in this systemic injustice must begin from the moment men and women enter the military to when they return to civilian life. Following the creation of a non-profit (The Military Behavioral Health Initiative) dedicated to its advocacy and a two-year social action rollout of the film, in May of 2018 Congressman Seth W. Moulton implemented language into the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that mandated a one-year study into the organization of mental health within the military. This month, in the lead up to Veteran's Day, CreativeChaos vmg co-founder and Executive Producer Steve Edwards will host a screening on Sunday, November 11th, 2018 at the Famous Byrd Theatre in Richmond, VA, to keep the spotlight on this persistent and unresolved issue.

CreativeChaos vmg continues to intensify its challenges to the status quo with a slate of exciting and relevant projects currently in production, including an untitled feature documentary investigating America's obsession with guns and the roots of gun violence in American history. It also confronts a major global issue with The Last Statesman, a film that argues for peace in the Middle East by extracting solutions from the conflict resolution agreements of South Africa, Columbia and Ireland. Aptly put by co-founder and principal Producer Ilan Arboleda, "Real and lasting change can only come when grassroots activism works in concert with the powers at the top, whatever the personal or institutional cost."

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