THE CARRIER
A DOCUMENTARY FILM BY MAGGIE BETTS
PRESS CONTACT:
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FILMMAKER CONTACT:
Tent Full of Birds Production, LLC
601 West 26th St, Suite 1776
New York, NY 10001
P: (212) 352-3007 x245
E: carrierthefilm@gmail.com
www.thecarrierfilm.com
www.facebook.com/thecarrierfilm
www.twitter.com/thecarrierfilm
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THE CARRIER
A DOCUMENTARY FILM BY MAGGIE BETTS
Short Synopsis:
Told through the eyes of an increasingly empowered heroine, THE CARRIER is a
powerful and moving portrait of an unconventional family, set against the backdrop
of the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia. This lyrical film follows Mutinta
Mweemba, a 28-year-old subsistence farmer living in a polygamous marriage. After
learning she is HIV positive and pregnant, Mutinta sets out to keep her unborn child
virus-free and break the cycle of transmission.
Long Synopsis:
When 28-year-old Mutinta Mweemba first shares all the hopes and dreams she once
nurtured as a child, her aspirations seem no different from those of many other
young women around the world. She dreams of meeting and falling in love with a
handsome man, being married and raising children and hopefully one day providing
those children with a better life than her own.
But Mutinta's dreams were never realized. Her soft-spoken husband came with two
other wives, and the remote Zambian village that she calls home is being ravaged by
a deadly new epidemic -- a mysterious disease called AIDS.
Set against the backdrop of today's most urgent plague, Maggie Betts's THE
CARRIER is a stunning portrait of both a family and a community caught in a
desperate struggle to emancipate their next generation from AIDS. As all the adults
in her marriage, including Mutinta, soon discover that they are afflicted with HIV,
tensions within the household threaten to tear her family apart and the fragile love
between a husband and wife finds itself challenged. All the while and as Mutinta also
learns that she's become pregnant again, her quest to the save her baby from her
disease, becomes the family's last hope for redemption.
In its breathtaking visuals and unique lyrical style, THE CARRIER is a story of hope
and renewal, of love and dignity, told through the eyes of an increasingly
determined young heroine who refuses to be overwhelmed by the forces that
surround her. It is an inspiring and emotional testament to today's modern Africa
and a proud people struggling not only to understand and make sense of, but also
persevere and overcome what has happened to their world.
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THE CARRIER
A DOCUMENTARY FILM BY MAGGIE BETTS
Director’s Statement:
I’ve spent much of the past five years of my life traveling to various regions
throughout Africa, with an intense interest in the impact of HIV/AIDS and what can
be done to combat the devastating pandemic. During the course of my experiences
and travel, I became increasingly inspired by the Prevention of Mother to Child
Transmission (PMTCT) programs I encountered along the way, what I saw as their
extraordinary potential and vital contribution to the hope of one day seeing a new
HIV free generation on the continent.
I decided to make a documentary about the subject of PMTCT, in the most intimate
and accessible way I could imagine, by centering the story on the very moving and
poignant experiences of one mother: a mother caught in a desperate fight to save
her unborn child from her disease and all that transforms and changes her in the
process. Knowing that the success of such an endeavor rests solely upon its heroine,
I could not have found a more inspiring or embodying catalyst than I did in the film’s
protagonist, Mutinta Mweemba. Mutinta is one of the most stunning and remarkable
women I’ve ever met and she continues to serve as an endless source of inspiration
for me.
While my highest aspiration for THE CARRIER is that it should help to create more
widespread interest and awareness in what is a profoundly important cause to me,
that of one day seeing a new HIV free generation in Africa, making the film also
involved a number of very personal and aesthetic aspirations as well. Having grown
up with an inexhaustible passion for film, both fiction and non-fiction, much of the
effort was also about exploring the different boundaries of documentary storytelling, striving to create a more aesthetic, atmospheric and intensely cinematic
experience for its audience.
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THE CARRIER
A DOCUMENTARY FILM BY MAGGIE BETTS
About Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT):
Sub-Saharan Africa is by far the most affected region of the world with women and
children living with AIDS. The fact that close to 60 percent of all infections in subSaharan Africa are found among women of reproductive ages - between 19 and 50
years old - makes PMTCT a life and death issue.
Mother-to-child transmission of HIV and AIDS accounts for the vast majority of the
more than 700,000 estimated new HIV infections in children worldwide annually.
About 90 percent of mother-to-child transmission infections occur in Africa, where
AIDS is beginning to reverse decades of steady progress in child survival. Without
proper treatment, close to 15 to 30 percent of babies born to HIV positive women
become infected with HIV during pregnancy and delivery. Furthermore, 5 to 20
percent become infected through breastfeeding.
Mother to child transmission has been virtually eliminated in many wealthy
countries thanks to effective voluntary testing and counseling as well as access to
therapy and safe delivery practices. If these interventions were used worldwide,
they could save the lives of thousands of children each year.
About PMTCT in Zambia:
HIV/AIDS is increasingly contributing to morbidity and mortality in children in
Zambia, a country of 11 million people and with one of the highest child and
maternal mortality rates in the world.
With a national HIV prevalence rate of 14 percent and an estimated 19 percent
among pregnant women, it is no wonder that HIV and AIDS have become major
killers of children. Each year, it is estimated that 100,000 HIV positive Zambian
women give birth. Nearly 40 percent of those women not enrolled in a PMTCT
program will transmit infection to their babies. Without any intervention, one third
of the children born with HIV will die by their first birthday, and half by their
second. The majority of these deaths could be avoided through comprehensive
PMTCT programs, early infant diagnosis and timely provision of effective care,
treatment and support.
The Government of the Republic of Zambia's Prevention of Mother to Child
Transmission Program started as a pilot in 1999 at the Keemba Rural Health Center,
which continues to serve the community where Mutinta and Maggie Mweemba
receive care.
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THE CARRIER
A DOCUMENTARY FILM BY MAGGIE BETTS
Principal Crew Bios:
MAGGIE BETTS, Director
Director Maggie Betts is a first-time filmmaker and native New Yorker. Maggie is a
longtime advocate for the rights of HIV positive women and children in sub-Saharan
Africa. She has spent the past five years traveling throughout the continent for
various United Nations organizations. Her specific interest in Prevention of Mother
to Child Transmission (PMTCT) and the increasing potential to one day see an HIV
free generation in Africa, is what inspired her to direct her first film, THE CARRIER.
Maggie graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in English.
BEN SELKOW, Producer
Ben Selkow is an independent filmmaker and the producer of THE CARRIER. Ben
also is the producer, director and cinematographer of BURIED ABOVE GROUND, a
documentary about PTSD. Previously, Ben was the producer, director and
cinematographer of the award-winning documentary A SUMMER IN THE CAGE that
premiered on Sundance Channel in October 2007. He is a Rosalynn Carter Mental
Health Journalism Fellow, was honored as one of 50 Non-Fiction Filmmakers at the
Current TV/Fader Films Symposium “A Day of Dialogue and the Future of NonFiction Film," featuring keynote speaker former Vice President Nobel Prize honoree,
Academy Award winner and Current TV founder Al Gore, and was a participant in
the 2003 Sundance Institute’s Producers’ Conference.
Ben graduated from Wesleyan University with Honors from both the Film Studies
and African-American Studies Programs, where he also received the W.E.B. DuBois
Academic Award for Overall Excellence.
ROLAND W. BETTS, Executive Producer
Roland W. Betts is the Executive Producer of THE CARRIER. He also is the Founder
and Chairman of Chelsea Piers, L.P. which developed and operates the Chelsea Piers
Sports and Entertainment complex in New York City.
Roland is Founder and President of Silver Screen Management, Inc., which raised
more than $1 billion in four limited partnerships from 140,000 investors to finance
and produce over 75 films with the Walt Disney Company. Films include BEAUTY
AND THE BEAST, PRETTY WOMAN, THE LITTLE MERMAID, and THREE MEN AND A
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BABY. Additionally, Roland is the President of International Film Investors, Inc.,
which produced and financed numerous films including, GANDHI and THE KILLING
FIELDS. Roland is responsible for the financing of approximately 100 feature films.
Previously, Roland was also an entertainment attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind,
Wharton & Garrison. Before that, Roland taught school at I.S. 201 in central Harlem
and trained teachers as part of a not-for-profit corporation called The Teachers
Incorporated. Mr. Betts remained in public education as a teacher and assistant
principal until 1975. Mr. Betts wrote “Acting Out: Coping with Big City Schools,” a
book published by Little Brown in 1978 which explores his experiences in the public
school system.
Roland is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School.
KATHRYN WESTERGAARD, Cinematographer
Kathryn Westergaard is the cinematographer of THE CARRIER. In addition, Kathryn
has been working on another documentary project entitled BATTERED WOMEN
WHO KILL, about long-term female felons who are survivors of domestic violence
and now are caught up in the Missouri prison system. She has worked on projects
focused on population growth and infrastructure in the dynamic city of Istanbul, as
well as looking at the foster care system in New York City with director Tony Gilroy.
In 2008, Kathryn was asked to work as Barack Obama’s personal filmmaker and
spent six months on the campaign trail with the Obama campaign recording
President Obama’s route to the White House.
Kathryn also works as a New York based cinematographer on feature films and
commercials. Her director of photography credits include: Day on Fire starring
Olympia Dukakis and Martin Donavan, LIFE IS HOT IN CRACKTOWN with Kerry
Washington and Laura Flynn Boyle and TRUE ADOLECENTS with Melissa Leo and
Mark Duplass. Additionally, Kathryn extended her visual expertise to the
commercial world, shooting for high-profile clients such as L’Oreal, Maybelline, Liz
Claiborne and MTV.
Kathryn left a career in still photography to begin course work at the prestigious
graduate film program at New York University in 2002. During her time at NYU she
shot many award-winning short films and received the “Néstor Almendros Award
for Excellence in Cinematography” two years in a row.
FLÀVIA DE SOUZA, Editor
Flàvia de Souza has worked as an editor in New York City for the last ten years on
several documentary films and television programs. Flavia recently co-edited In 500
WORDS OR LESS, a film about four high-school seniors as they navigate the college
admissions process, which premiered at the Austin Film Festival in 2009. She is one
of the co-editors on BURIED ABOVE GROUND, a feature-length documentary about
three subjects battling the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Flàvia also
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edited ADOPTED, a documentary film that examines trans-racial adoption through
two stories and WHEN THE SPIRITS DANCE MAMBO, a film about the impact of
African religious practices in Cuban culture, which premiered at the Havana
International Film Festival in 2003. Flàvia's work for television include, GETTING
IN: KINDERGARTEN (The Learning Channel, 2007) and WORLD WEDDING
(Discovery, 2003). Previously, she had been an associate editor with Susanne
Rostock on STEALING THE FIRE, which follows an unbroken chain of events and
personalities connecting Hitler's atomic bomb program, Nazi gold, and today's
nuclear weapons black market, and premiered at the 2002 Human Rights Film
Festival in New York.
Before becoming an editor, Flàvia worked as photographer in her native Brazil. She
holds a bachelors degree in Industrial and Graphic Design from Rio de Janeiro's
State University (UERJ) and a MFA in Photography and Related Media from the
School of Visual Arts.
JOEDAN OKUN, Producer
Joedan Okun is a Producer of THE CARRIER. Joedan has worked in different
capacities on a variety of documentaries, including the Academy-Award nominated
feature documentary SOUND & FURY, the Academy-Award nominated documentary
short WHY CAN’T WE BE A FAMILY AGAIN?, the 2003 American Experience
historical documentary THE PILL, and the 2007 Sundance Channel documentary A
SUMMER IN THE CAGE. Joedan is also currently working as the Co-producer on Ben
Selkow’s feature length documentary, BURIED ABOVE GROUND. Joedan graduated
with Honors from Wesleyan University.
DANIEL MILLER AND DAVID DELLA SANTA, Composers
Dan Miller is a Brooklyn based musician and composer. In 2008, he won a Grammy
award for his work on “Here Come the 123’s” (Disney Sound) with the band They
Might Be Giants. In 2010, he received a Grammy Nomination for TMBG’s “Here
Comes Science” (Disney Sound). He continues to tour and record with the band.
David Della Santa is a San Francisco based composer and producer. He work from
coast to coast in a number of Indie Bands, the latest being Machines Kill Music. He
has lent his musical talents to the advertising world for clients like Nike, New
Balance, Gatorade and Mastercard winning him ASCAP and New York One awards.
Dan and David’s collaborative efforts have yielded many national ad campaigns.
They are currently working together composing music for several upcoming
television series. Their first film collaboration was Doug Walker’s film “Rhag” which
debuted at the 2011 Slamdance Festival.
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THE CARRIER
A DOCUMENTARY FILM BY MAGGIE BETTS
Principal Production Credits:
Written, Directed and Produced by
MAGGIE BETTS
Produced by
BEN SELKOW
Executive Produced by
ROLAND BETTS
Director of Photography
KAT WESTERGAARD
Edited by
FLÁVIA DE SOUZA
Original Score by
DANIEL MILLER
DAVID DELLA SANTA
Produced by
JOEDAN OKUN
BENJAMIN PRAGER
Field Produced by
MUTINTA CHISEKO
Additional Editing by
CRAIG HOLZER
Consulting Editor
GEETA GANDBHIR
Sound
DAVID HOCS
Assistant to Camera
CAMERON DINGWALL
CAROLINE PENDER
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