Staging Hope Documentary Arrives at the Starz Denver Film Festival

Online, November 3, 2011 (Newswire.com) - STAGING HOPE rolls into the Starz Denver Film Festival on November 5th and 6th at the Starz Film Center with a powerful story of suffering, resilience, war, forgiveness, and hope from producers Melissa Fitzgerald (The West Wing, Frequency) and Katy S. Fox (Halfway Home.)

The documentary follows a team of actors, playwrights, and activists who use a theater program to help Ugandan teens share their story of resilience after being abducted and forced to become child soldiers and sex slaves in northern Uganda.

The film captures the incredible humanity and emotion between the children and adults as they work together to construct dramatic theater performances based on their lives. Through an intensive drama workshop, the Ugandan teens were able to tell their remarkable stories and teach their communities about important social issues such as peace building and HIV/AIDS. They also recount living for years under the terror of the Lord's Resistance Army rebel movement. The film combines personal accounts, live performances, music, and dance to tell their emotional and uplifting story.

Since the workshop in 2007, the Ugandan theater group has continued staging performances thanks to the support of Voices of Uganda, an organization founded by the actors and partners who led the theater workshop.

STAGING HOPE is produced by Katy Fox (For Your Consideration, Taken), and Melissa Fitzgerald, an actor and activist best known for playing Carol, C.J. Cregg's assistant on the Emmy-award winning political drama, The West Wing. Melissa's writing has been featured in The Huffington Post and The New York Times. She also won the Nick Kristof Contest, "Your Turn to Tell the Story," for her writing on Darfur. Martin Sheen, John Prendergast, and Cindy Landon are executive producers of the film.

To purchase tickets for the screenings of STAGING HOPE at the festival on November 5th (5:00pm) or November 6th (12:00pm), visit www.denverfilm.org. For more information about the film or to see pictures and video, visit www.staginghope.com.

About Staging Hope
In the summer of 2007, a team of actors and playwrights, who make up Voices of Uganda, traveled to an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in northern Uganda to work with 14 Ugandan youth on a theater program. A film crew documented the experience. Many of the teens had escaped being sex slaves or child soldiers of The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel movement who has terrorized the people of northern Uganda for years. The Ugandan government's strategy of moving northerners into "protected villages" has turned into a displacement nightmare for 1.7 million people. At the height of the insurgency, approximately 1,000 people died each week as a result of camp conditions. Children have been the primary victims. Playwright Winter Miller and a team of American actors collaborated with the youth to turn their personal stories into short plays. The teens chose thoughtful, relevant topics including HIV/AIDS, peace building, and reconciliation. The final performance gave these teens the opportunity to share their voices and their stories with over 1,000 people in their camp. Staging Hope gives them the opportunity and platform to share their voices and their stories with the world. For more information about the film or to see pictures and video, visit www.staginghope.com or email [email protected] or call 315.430.7584.

# # #