Directed, produced, and filmed by Academy Award–nominated and Emmy–winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman, City of Ghosts is a singularly powerful cinematic experience that is sure to shake audiences to their core as it elevates the canon of one of the most talented documentary filmmakers working today. Captivating in its immediacy, City of Ghosts follows the journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently” – a handful of anonymous activists who banded together after their homeland was taken over by ISIS in 2014. With astonishing, deeply personal access, this is the story of a brave group of citizen journalists as they face the realities of life undercover, on the run, and in exile, risking their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.
To learn more about Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), click here:www.raqqa-sl.com/en/
Matthew Heineman is an Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker based in New York. His film CARTEL LAND was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and won three Primetime Emmy Awards, including Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking and Best Cinematography. The film premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, where Heineman won the Best Director Award and Special Jury Prize for Cinematography.
The film was released theatrically nationwide by The Orchard in July 2015 and had its broadcast premiere on A&E in January 2016. Heineman won the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Award from the Director’s Guild of America for the film, as well as the Courage Under Fire Award from the International Documentary Association “in recognition of conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth.” He was also named one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2015. In addition, CARTEL LAND was nominated for a Gotham Award, Critics’ Choice Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, and was recently presented with the 2015 Documentary Award by the prestigious George Polk Awards in Investigative Journalism.
Previously, he directed and produced a feature-length documentary ESCAPE FIRE: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare. It premiered at Sundance 2012, won numerous awards at festivals across the country, and was released by Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate to critical praise in October 2012. The film premiered on CNN in March 2013, and was subsequently nominated for an Emmy.
Heineman collaborated for two years with a team at HBO on the groundbreaking, Emmy-nominated HBO series, The Alzheimer's Project, which aired in May 2009. He also directed and produced OUR TIME – a feature length documentary about what it's like to be young in today's America. Heineman has directed several short films and commercials and is in development on a few different projects.
Matthew Hamachek began his career working on the Oscar-nominated documentary STREET FIGHT with Marshall Curry and went on to collaborate with Curry on three films including IF A TREE FALLS which won the Documentary Editing Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2012. Hamachek also won the Documentary Editing Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival for GIDEON’S ARMY. He followed that with MEET THE PATELS. In 2015 he co-produced and edited CARTEL LAND which went on to be nominated for an Academy Award and win three Emmy awards. His most recent film, AMANDA KNOX, premiered in the fall of 2016 to critical acclaim.
Pax Wassermann is a film editor and producer with twenty years in documentary and fiction features. CITY OF GHOSTS is his second film with director Matthew Heineman, following 2015’s Sundance prize-winner CARTEL LAND (also nominated for a 2015 Academy Award). His other work includes DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, PUSSY RIOT: A PUNK PRAYER, KNUCKLEBALL! And WHICH WAY HOME, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2009.
Award-winning composer, H. Scott Salinas has contributed towards an impressive variety of notable projects including Bruce Lee action fable BIRTH OF THE DRAGON, Aaron Sorkin's smash hit The Newsroom, TNT's dark thriller Murder in the First, and the Oscar-nominated documentary film CARTEL LAND. Along with accolades such as the prestigious Cannes Lion, Clio, BMI, and Turner Classic Movies Young Film Composer awards, Scott's accomplishments have earned him esteem and recognition as a highly versatile yet specialized talent.
Jackson Greenberg is a composer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer originally based in Los Angeles, CA. Jackson’s recent film and TV work includes the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary CARTEL LAND (soundtrack, Lakeshore Records), and two projects premiering at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival: CITY OF GHOSTS (Dir. Matthew Heineman), and HOT GIRLS WANTED: TURNED ON (Netflix, April 2017). Jackson received an undergraduate degree in music from Princeton University and a graduate degree in composition/scoring from Motion Pictures and TV from The Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.
Alex Gibney is an American documentary film director and producer. Gibney has been called “the most important documentarian of our time” by Esquire Magazine and “one of America’s most successful and prolific documentary filmmakers” by The New York Times. His previous work includes Taxi to the Dark Side, winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, the Emmy-award winning Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015), and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), among others.
Molly Thompson is founder of A+E Networks’ documentary feature production arm, A&E IndieFilms. Thompson has built a library of critically acclaimed, award winning titles including four Academy Award® nominated films, LIFE, ANIMATED (2016), CARTEL LAND (2015), JESUS CAMP (2006) and MURDERBALL (2005). She also serves as executive producer for documentaries produced under the History Films banner, such as the Emmy®-nominated BEING EVEL (2016), and for narrative features from Lifetime Films, including Eleanor Coppola’s PARIS CAN WAIT (2016), starring Diane Lane and Alec Baldwin.
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