BENDING THE ARC

Kief Davidson is an Academy Award®-nominated director who makes films that inspire and entertain.

Kief is currently in post-production on IVORY, about undercover intelligence operatives in Africa, Asia and Europe who are who are taking down the Ivory cartels as rangers and activists fight for the species survival. Co-produced by Red Bull’s Terra Mater Studios and Vulcan Productions, the film will make its world Premiere in fall, 2016.

His prior film A LEGO BRICKUMENTARY – released theatrically by Radius/TWC. Narrated by Jason Bateman, the film delves into the extraordinary impact of the LEGO brick, its massive global fan base, and the innovative uses for it that have sprung up around the world.

Kief also directed OPEN HEART, which was nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject of the 85th Academy Awards®. The film took him and a small crew to the heart of Rwanda and Sudan. They followed eight children on a perilous journey to get high-risk surgery at Africa’s only high-tech, free-of-charge heart surgery hospital. The film made its US broadcast debut on HBO and internationally on ARTE Germany/France.

Kief is concurrently filming a companion film to OPEN HEART, about Dr. Paul Farmer and his organization Partners In Health, produced by Matt Damon in collaboration with the Sundance Institute, Skoll Foundation and Tribeca Gucci.

Kief has had international success from the award-winning feature-length documentaries, KASSIM THE DREAM and THE DEVIL’S MINER. KASSIM THE DREAM, about a former child soldier turned boxing champion of the World, premiered at the Tribeca film festival and won over 10 international film festivals, including AFI, IDFA and Silver Docs. A co-production with ARTE Germany/France, the film was theatrically released by IFC Films.

His first feature, THE DEVIL’S MINER, made its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival and won over 15 awards at international film festivals including Tribeca, Hot Docs, Chicago and Woodstock. The film was nominated for Best Documentary by The Director’s Guild of America and Won the coveted Fipresci Prize at Hot Docs, Toronto.

In advertising, Kief is represented by acclaimed production company Park Pictures where he has directed commercials for global brands such as GE, Toyota, Absolut and Facebook.

PEDRO KOS is an award winning director and editor living in Los Angeles.  Most recently, Pedro edited Jehane Noujaim’s Academy Award and Spirit Award nominee, THE SQUARE which also won the DGA and IDA Award for best Feature Documentary film, the Documentary People’s Choice Award at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival, and earned Pedro an Emmy Award for Best Editing for a Non-Fiction program.  

Pedro’s other work includes editing the Academy Award nominated documentary feature WASTE LAND, directed by Lucy Walker, for which he also won the Cinema Brazil Grand Prize for best documentary editing. The film went on to win Audience Awards at both the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival, and the IDA Award for best feature documentary film. Pedro also edited Ms. Walker’s documentary feature film, THE CRASH REEL, which won the Audience Award at the 2013 South by Southwest Film Festival. Prior to that he edited Jon Shenk’s, THE ISLAND PRESIDENT (2011 Toronto Film Festival Documentary People’s Choice Award winner).  Additional past work from Pedro includes ELEMENTAL, directed by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee and Gayatri Roshan and Freida Mock’s SING CHINA!, on both of which he also served as 2nd Unit Director.  In 2008, Pedro was the 2nd unit director on Jessica Sanders’ MARCH OF THE LIVING.

Pedro was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and raised both there and in New York City and Miami, Florida. He received his B.A. in Theater Directing from Yale University.

Cori Shepherd Stern is an Oscar-nominated film producer as well as a social change strategist. Her 2013 Academy Award-nominated documentary OPEN HEART focused on health care and social justice through the lens of rheumatic heart disease in Africa and access to quality care. She is currently filming BENDING THE ARC, a feature documentary about the epic arc of the global health & social justice movement.  Additional current projects include ARIZONA, a scripted film in development with Miramax based on the true store of the founding of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE); and a scripted feature film in development with Rocklin/Faust (SPOTLIGHT) based on a 2015 Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalism series. Past projects include WARM BODIES, a major scripted feature film released by Summit Entertainment, as well as award-winning groundbreaking virtual reality films including COLLISIONS and FRANCIS. She has been a speaker at global convenings including the Skoll World Forum and the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival. Her work in social change with her organization The Strongheart Group has been covered by NPR, BBC, CNN, the Oprah Winfrey Show, and National Geographic. Cori has a first-look deal with Rocklin/Faust, the Oscar-winning team behind the critically-acclaimed film SPOTLIGHT.