Meet The Sticking Place by Brittany Baxter

THE STICKING PLACE MEDIA KIT THE STICKING PLACE is a web-based interactive documentary about 72Kg Freestyle Wrestler, Leah Callahan. Filmmakers Josephine Anderson and Brittany Baxter follow Leah on her journey of preparation for the upcoming Olympic Qualifiers, where wrestlers of all stripes will compete to represent Canada at the 2012 Summer Games.

CONTENTS OF MEDIA KIT: THE STICKING PLACE TEAM (CAST & CREW) ONE PAGE SYNOPSIS PRODUCTION BIOS MOOSESTASH FILMS

PRESS CONTACT: THE ARTSBIZ PUBLIC RELATIONS MARNIE WILSON: mwilson@theartsbiz.com 604-836-2409 KATHARINE KITTS: katharine@theartsbiz.com (604)786-3369

THE STICKING PLACE TEAM DOCUMENTARY SUBJECT

PRODUCTION INFO

Leah Callahan, Freestyle Canadian Wrestler, 2012 London Olympic Games

RUNNING TIME: User’s Choice (approximately 60 minutes of video/audio/graphic information available)

CREW CO-DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS: Josephine Anderson & Brittany Baxter ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Mercedes Grant WEBSITE PROGRAMMING: Alvin Yip, Supreme Heaven Internet Team SOUND DESIGN & MIXING: John Diemer COMPOSER: Ian Craig GRAPHIC & MOTION DESIGN: Brittany Baxter ANIMATION & ADDITIONAL SCREEN DESIGN: Su-An Ng STORY MENTOR: Moira Simpson PRODUCTION BLOG DEVELOPER: Jason Harley SOCIAL MEDIA CO-ORDINATOR: Niki Martin STILLS PHOTOGRAPHER: Monique Smith, Eye:58 Photography

ASPECT RATIO: Best viewed on 16:9 monitors CURRENT FORMAT: Flash Website PRODUCTION COMPLETION: 2012 PRODUCTION COMPANY: Moosestash Films

FILM SYNOPSIS Produced with assistance from the National Film Board of Canada’s Filmmaker Assistance Program, The Sticking Place is an interactive documentary in the making, exploring the story of elite athlete, Leah Callahan, a freestyle wrestler on her way to achieving her lifelong dream of competing in the Olympic Games. Filmmakers Josephine Anderson and Brittany Baxter have followed Leah throughout this last year of her journey towards the 2012 Canadian Olympic Qualification tournament, capturing every gut-wrenching, exhilarating moment of action along the way. At the big showdown, they filmed Leah win an incredible victory, dethroning Canada’s ten-time National Champ Ohenewa Akuffo, and earning herself a spot on the 2012 Canadian Olympic Team. This secured her entry to the 2012 Pan American Olympic Games Qualifying Tournament in Florida, where she triumphantly beat out the competition, thereby officially qualifying her weight class of 72 kg to get to compete for Canada in the London Summer Games this August. Leah, the rebel dreamer with a cause, will be the youngest member of the 2012 Canadian Women’s Olympic Wrestling Team. She has already proven to be a force to be reckoned with by defeating Wang Jiao, 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist, at the 2012 World Cup in Japan.

The Sticking Place uses the strengths of the online medium to make what could be a typical sports documentary into an innovative exploration of the thoughtful life. Users have active control to navigate the project, exploring and experiencing key pivotal moments in Leah’s Olympic journey. In one segment, viewers can get to know Leah’s personal life by voyeuristically exploring her email inbox and handwritten journal. In another, users can contribute to the story by submitting a video message to appear in an interactive map housing submissions from viewers all over the world. By blending candid pieces of Leah’s life into a vibrant interface, The Sticking Place invites users to playfully but critically examine conventional truisms about what it means to have a dream and follow it. With unwavering dedication and authenticity, Leah’s journey to achieve her dream mirrors the challenges we all face while striving to build lives filled with meaning and joy. Through innovative interactive documentary production, The Sticking Place team will bring Leah’s victories, defeats, challenges and passion to viewers as a unique, dynamic and engaging film experience.

PRODUCTION INFORMATION START DATE: Summer 2011 END DATE: June 2012 POST-PRODUCTION: Winter 2011, Spring 2012 VIDEO TEASERS & TRAILERS: www,vimeo.com/thestickingplacefilm/videos FILM WEBSITE: www.thestickingplacefilm.ca Simply put, interactive documentary film is the tidal wave of the future; the familiar idea of collective exchange and networking made new, through a unique online platform, whereby the audience can directly influence and interact with the story as it progresses. A 21st century audience is captivated by personal connections and the sharing of ideas. They are committed to little until a bond is made upon which common values are built and ideologies are shared through story-telling. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a brave new world that demands brave new ideas, and The Sticking Place is committed to showcasing innovation while bringing a rousing new story to audiences worldwide.

KEY TEAM BIOS JOSEPHINE ANDERSON is a documentary filmmaker committed to making a positive difference by engaging people in fresh and meaningful discussion. She was awarded “Best Director” by Nokia N8: Direct and Project for her short film NORMAL DESIGN (which happens to star her now co-director, Brittany Baxter, drinking coffee at an alarmingly fast rate). Josephine is an alumnus of Berlinale Talent Campus 2011 and of DOXA Connexions 2010, a joint partnership between DOXA Documentary Film Festival and the National Film Board of Canada, where she made a short documentary called LOVE LIFE. Her first film, THE JANITOR, was nominated for Labour Video of the Year (LabourStart), was an official selection for DC Labor FilmFest 2010, and was invited to screen at McMaster University. She believes in informed, unfaltering optimism. BRITTANY BAXTER is a multimedia artist, filmmaker, and writer. She has a penchant for challenging status quo through publicly accessible art and has created pieces for exhibitions and festivals all over Western Canada. Brittany has spent the better part of the last couple of years working with her friends at the Treefort Lab. Collective to co-write, produce, and edit The Bike Heist, a feature-length bromantic caper film coming to theatres near you summertime in the future. Brittany is always open to insanely zany grassroots production ideas and can often be heard dropping the terms “concept” “installation” and “workflow”, sometimes using all three in the same sentence. Brittany met Josephine on the set of a (questionable) webseries LEAH CALLAHAN was born in Newfoundland, grew up in the small town of Mackenzie, BC and currently lives in Calgary, AB. From coast to coast, people can claim Leah as their own! Growing up in Northern BC gave Leah participated in numerous sports and discovered her passion for wrestling. In 2006 she moved to Calgary to join the University of Calgary’s varsity wrestling team. Leah has had a successful wrestling career both domestically and internationally leading her to pursue a life as an elite athlete. She is now officially a member of the 2012 Canadian Olympic Women’s Wrestling Team, and hopes to stand on the world’s most famous podium in London this August.

MOOSESTASH FILMS MOOSESTASH FILMS is made up of an enthusiastic power duo of filmmakers, Josephine Anderson + Brittany Baxter. They met on the set of a (questionable) webseries, while they were each trying to figure out how to find their place in the “industry” in Vancouver, having both just graduated from their respective film schools. Upon meeting, they soon discovered a shared passion for the magical new world of internet filmmaking, and decided that they no longer needed to try and fit into the “industry” but could instead work together towards building something new! After researching interactive documentary process + execution for more than a year, the two sort of stumbled upon Leah’s story - Brittany happened to be in Edmonton at the 2011 Wrestling Nationals where Leah narrowly lost to the 10 time National Champ - and immediately knew that it was the perfect opportunity for their first foray into online documentary. As they went about developing Leah’s story into the film we now know as The Sticking Place, they decided it was high time to make their partnership official. Soon after the creation of the company known as Moosestash Films, the founding ladies embarked on their first crowdfunding campaign to in an effort to secure the majority of financing for The Sticking Place. This campaign turned out to be outrageously successful! And so, with their community of friends, backers and fans growing daily, Moosestash Films looks forward to an exciting and prosperous future. Although Jos and Britt are both still frequently mistaken for really dedicated film students, the Meece are sprouting bountiful new gray hairs daily, in an effort to prove how very wise and professional they truly are. MISSON STATEMENT: We are coming at you, world, brimming with informed optimism, telling stories of hope, perseverance, and dignity in a time that lesser minds would have you believe to be endlessly dark. Our mission is to be gentle/playful storytellers, using the magical technologies of our digital slr cameras, modest mobile editing studios and the much beloved Internet, coating every project we touch with our special brand of ‘hip and classy canadiana’. We believe in the power of this generation to overthrow the warlords of yore and bring peace to these lands at last. We stand in solidarity with the socially/ecologically minded entrepreneurs, the tireless frontline non/normal-profit workers, the inspirational critical thinkers, the politically motivated walking mural makers and all the other modern hero/ines; we strive to help bring about a realistic version of utopia (who says there is no such thing) through participation in truly democratic media creation. We will dream big dreams, we will make exciting things and we will always always do our part.