Shine Global to Honor Sunny Hostin at 4th Annual Gala

Shine Global to Honor Sunny Hostin at 4th Annual Gala

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Shine Global to Honor Sunny Hostin at 4th Annual Gala

The Emmy nominated co-host of The View and the Emmy-winning Senior Legal Correspondent for ABC News will be awarded the inaugural Beacon Award for her commitment to children


NEW YORK (September 27, 2018) – Shine Global, a non-profit media company, announced today they will honor The View co-host and ABC News Senior Legal Correspondent Sunny Hostin with the inaugural Beacon Award at the 4th Annual Shine Global Gala on October 24th in New York City.

The Shine Global Gala is an annual celebration of the power of media to transform children’s lives through compelling storytelling that raises awareness, promotes action, and inspires change.

“We are privileged to acknowledge Sunny Hostin as our first gala honoree,” said Susan MacLaury, Shine Global co-founder and Executive Director.  “Shine Global believes in the power of storytelling and the need to share children’s stories of resilience to inspire us all to make the world a better place.  As a 6-year-old, Sunny was exposed to violence and at that young age made the conscious decision to choose a different life for herself, one led with purpose and courage. She’s carried this conviction throughout her career from prosecuting child sex crimes to reporting on some of the biggest stories of the past decade. Sunny’s belief in children’s resilience and their right to self-determination has never wavered.”

A gifted storyteller herself, Sunny has an impressive depth of knowledge about the criminal justice system. She has won two Emmys for her work as a correspondent for ABC’s Good Morning America and as a Correspondent for the ABC News Special, The President and the People. Sunny was born in the South Bronx and became the first in her family to attend college. She began her career as an appellate law clerk after graduating from Notre Dame Law School and went on to become a trial attorney for the Justice Department and a federal prosecutor. During her time as Assistant U.S. Attorney, Attorney General Janet Reno awarded the Special Achievement Award to Sunny for her prosecution of child sexual predators.

Since its founding in 2005 Shine Global has taken action on child labor, child abuse, and child soldiering; shared moving stories about the effects of war, parental incarceration, undocumented immigration, and homelessness on children; and highlighted the power of music, dance, and sports to overcome intolerance. In all its projects, Shine Global celebrates children’s resilience.

For more information about this year’s gala and to purchase tickets, please visit: https://shine18.auction-bid.org/

Sunny Hostin – Co-host of The View and Senior Legal Correspondent for ABC News
Sunny Hostin is the Emmy nominated co-host of The View and the Emmy-winning Senior Legal Correspondent for ABC News. From 2007 to 2016, Sunny was a host and legal analyst at CNN. Prior to working at CNN, Sunny filled in as co-anchor for ABC News’ “World News Now” and “America This Morning.” During her time as Assistant U.S. Attorney, Attorney General Janet Reno awarded the Special Achievement Award to Sunny for her prosecution of child sexual predators.

 

About Shine Global
Shine Global, a non-profit media company, gives voice to children and families by telling stories of their resilience to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change. The organization’s films have won more than 60 major awards including an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short Subject for Inocente and an Academy Award®-nomination and two Emmys® for War/Dance. Shine Global is attached to the recent festival hit Liyana which is opening in theaters this fall and is currently producing a documentary focusing on alternatives to incarceration for juveniles.

Tre Maison Dasan to broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens in Spring 2019

Tre Maison Dasan to broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens in Spring 2019

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Tre Maison Dasan to broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens in Spring 2019

PBS’s documentary strand ‘Independent Lens’ has acquired broadcast rights to the feature-length documentary Tre Maison Dasan, directed by Denali Tiller and produced by Rebecca Stern, to air on the network during the 2019 spring season.

Produced in association with Shine Global, Tre Maison Dasan is a story that explores parental incarceration through the eyes of three boys. Following their interweaving trajectories through boyhood marked by the criminal justice system, and told directly through the child’s perspective, the film unveils the challenges of growing up and what it means to become a man in America. Hilarious, heartbreaking, uplifting and ending with tremendous hope, Tre, Maison and Dasan’s lives are stories of growing up, struggle, loss, empathy, positivity, resilience and unconditional love.

Tre Maison Dasan reveals how our country’s mass incarceration problem impacts entire families — especially the most vulnerable, children,” said PBS’ Lois Vossen, executive producer of ‘Independent Lens,’ in a press release. “Intimate and accessible, it’s also part of our ongoing series of films looking at criminal justice in America. We’re proud to support Denali and the entire filmmaking team as part of our decades-long tradition championing women directors and producers to create gender equality behind the camera.”

“I made this film in collaboration with Tre, Maison, and Dasan as it was important to me to center and empower the voices of the children directly,” added director Tiller. “We are very excited to present Tre Maison Dasan on public broadcasting so that it can be accessible to communities who don’t have access to other types of programming, including incarcerated populations in prisons and jails across the country. We are thrilled to be working with [U.S. documentary funding body] ITVS to bring this film, and the children’s voices, to people and families affected by the prison system, and to those who hold the keys.”

Tre Maison Dasan is produced in association with Pilgrim Media Group, Shine Global, Chicken and Egg Pictures and Sustainable Films.

Rebecca Stern and Craig Pilligan serve as producers, with Andrew Freiband and Patty Quillin executive producing, Andrea van Beuren co-executive producing, and Susan Maclaury, Albie Hecht, and Sarba Das co-producing.

Liyana Opens October 10 in NYC

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Liyana Opens October 10 in NYC

Abramorama has picked up the documentary Liyana from directors Amanda Kopp and Aaron Kopp. The film is set to open in New York City on Oct. 10 with a theatrical release slated for select cities in the following weeks.

Produced in association with Shine Global, executive produced by Westworld‘s Thandie Newton, and produced by Academy Award-winning director Daniel Junge (Saving Face), the film features South African storyteller Gcina Mhlophe guiding us in a narrative about five orphaned children from Swaziland who collaborate to craft a collective fairytale drawn from their darkest memories and brightest dreams. Their titular fictional character, Liyana, is brought to life in gorgeous animated artwork from artist Shofela Coker. The children’s real and imagined worlds begin to converge, and they must choose what kind of story they will tell — in fiction and in their own lives.

“It is one of the purest and most powerful examples of the importance and purpose of storytelling,” executive producer Thandie Newton told USA TODAY. “The boys and girls in the orphanage chose a girl to be their protagonist. … They wanted the most lowly to be the one to conquer their fears, as that’s the most extraordinary outcome.”

Newton says she was attracted to the documentary in part because of what the story can mean for African children. “If this young girl can be victorious, then it’s possible for every one of us to overcome our fears,” she says. “Liyana is from rural Africa, and these kids have catapulted her onto the main stage of a place none of them ever dreamt they’d find themselves.

“It’s horribly rare to have African stories written by Africans, let alone African children. Stories like ‘Liyana’ make us realize that an orphan from rural Africa has the same dreams, imagination, hopes and potential as a more privileged child living in New York or Tokyo. ‘Liyana’ compels me to want to do everything I can to close the gap, and it will for audiences everywhere.”

Liyana will be screening at the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem, NYC starting on October 10th with more cities screenings to be announced.