The biggest challenges to independent films like From War To Wisdom are a lack of funding, and insufficient planning for promotion, marketing, and distribution after completion of the film.
This IndieGoGo campaign will provide the resources we need to ensure that this film is completed in early 2015, and that it will have the aesthetic quality and narrative power to reach major festivals. Additional fundraising efforts for the marketing, promotion and distribution of the film are underway.
Should we hit a roadblock in funding, we will improvise, adapt and overcome. The film may take longer to complete if we fall short of our fundraising goal, but we will not stop until it reaches its intended audience. However, given the battles veterans face every day, the ongoing instability in the middle east, and the flagrant inability or unwillingness of our government to provide veterans with the resources they deserve, we believe the time is now!
Make your TAX-DEDUCTIBLE donation today, and help us serve the veterans who have risked their lives for the freedoms we enjoy. If you can't donate, help us spread the word by sharing this campaign with your friends and family. Show them the videos, suggest that they follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Small circles of dedicated people have always had the biggest impact in our democracy. We are counting on you to help us succeed!
Director/Producer/Editor/Filmographer:
Daniel Collins
Daniel Collins founded Dan
Collins Media, LLC, in 2010 with the goal of creating unique documentary film
projects that examine the untold stories of American subcultures, and to
produce independent music projects in the Philadelphia region where he lives
and works. Dan has worked with independent production company Teleduction, Inc., and its nonprofit affiliate Hearts and Minds Film (Wilmington, Delaware)
since 2001.
His work as an editor and
producer has won many awards, including a regional EMMY Award in 2003 for Outstanding
Cultural Documentary. He is a faculty member of the annual Distinctive Lecture
Series at Common Ground on the Hill (McDanielCollege), and is also a co-founder of the
Common Ground on the Hill Veterans Initiative.
Recent
Filmography
Degenerate Art: The Art and Culture of Glass Pipes (2012)
World Premiere SXSW Film Festival 2012
Director, Marble Slinger; Editor: Daniel Collins
Distributor: Cinetic/Filmbuff
My Friend Ed: Activist and Artist Ed Asner (2014)
Best Short Documentary, 2014 NYC Independent Film Festival
Producers: Hearts and Minds Film/TELEDUCTION
Director, Sharon Baker; Producer/Editor, Daniel Collins
The People's Report (2013)
Producers: Hearts and Minds Film/TELEDUCTION
Director, Sharon Baker; Producer/Editor, Daniel Collins
Why I Write: The Twin Poets (2011)
2011 Silver Chris Award, Columbus International Film and Video Festival
Producers: Hearts and Minds Film/TELEDUCTION
Director, Sharon Baker; Producer/Editor, Daniel Collins
With All Deliberate Speed: The Legacy of Brown v. Board (2005)
Gold Special Jury Award, Worldfest Houston
Producer: TELEDUCTION
Director, Sharon Baker; Producer/Editor, Daniel Collins
His Master's Voice: The Marvelous Talking
Machine (2004)
2004 Mid-Atlantic EMMY Award
Producer: TELEDUCTION
Director, Sharon Baker; Editor, Daniel Collins
Director/Producer: Josh Hisle
Cpl. Josh Hisle
(USMC) is a two-tour combat veteran of the Iraq War, and a renowned independent
musician. His music is informed by his experience in combat, and his ongoing
exploration of a violent, but ultimately hopeful world. His work is intensely
personal, and yet universal in its power. Josh has performed with Neil Young
and CSNY, toured with Stephen Stills, and has performed at colleges and
universities, using his music to foster dialogue with students, faculty and
public audiences about his experience. Josh has appeared on numerous news
programs including Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN), and been featured in major
magazines including Rolling Stone.
Josh was featured in the 2008
documentary film CSNY/Déjà Vu (Directed by Neil Young, Benjamin Johnson, and
Mike Cerre), which premiered at Sundance Film Festival. He was also signed to
Neil Young’s Vapor Records label and has toured nationally as a solo artist. He has released two albums, Hearts and Minds (2006) and Whisky at Home (2011), both powerful musical interpretations of the horrors of the battlefield
and the complex challenges of returning home.
In 2012, Hisle helped found
the Common Ground on the Hill Veterans Initiative, a nonprofit program that
provides scholarships for veterans to attend annual traditional arts and music
workshops in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Arizona. He is currently a student at MiamiUniversity in Ohio.
Assistant
Director of Photography: Pascal Dieckmann
Born into a family of artists,
architects, writers and film makers, Pascal developed an early passion for
photography. He studied at the Federal Film College SFOF in Berlin/Germany,
emerging from his training to become a freelance Director of Photography for
German TV. Pascal honed his skills as a popular cameraman for ZDF (Europe's largest TV
network) where he traveled throughout the world to film award-winning
documentaries for the network.
In 1996 Pascal moved to the U.S. with his wife, an American educator, and their daughter. He was soon
sought out for his talents as a photographer by prominent American broadcast
programmers, including ABC 20/20, NBC’s Dateline and the Today Show, National
Geographic, the Discovery Channel, the Food Network, HBO Sports, and non profit
organizations like Greenpeace. Pascal has worked in over 60 countries, filming
subjects that range from street kids in Romania to American Presidents and world events that include the fall of the
Berlin Wall, the Gulf War, the aftermath of 9/11 and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Contributing
Combat Correspondent: Mike Cerre
Mike Cerre served in the Marine
Corps during the Vietnam War. As CEO of GLOBE TV, he
oversees global production, reportage and strategic communications for major TV
networks, multinational companies and non-profits in over thirty countries. He is
an EMMY Award-winning foreign correspondent and was an embedded reporter in Iraq and Afghanistan and Producer and Correspondent of special reports for Nightline and
PrimeTime.
Cerre was embedded with FOX Company 2/5
during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, where he first met From War To Wisdom Co-Director Cpl. Josh
Hisle. After returning from combat, Cerre and Hisle collaborated on the
documentary film CSNY/Déjà Vu. Now, as a Contributing Correspondent, Cerre
brings hundreds of hours of combat footage to the table for the production of
From War To Wisdom.
Fiscal
Sponsor: Common Ground on the Hill (501 C3)
Common Ground on the Hill is an
annual traditional music and arts workshop located at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD. It was founded in 1994 on the premise that there is a common human
thread unifying all people expressed in our various artistic traditions. Its
mission is to make this thread a path towards human understanding, tolerance,
fulfillment, and enjoyment. In 2012, Common Ground on the
Hill Director Walt Michael, along with faculty members Josh Hisle (USMC) and
Daniel Collins, launched the Common Ground on the Hill Veterans Initiative,
providing full scholarships for veterans to attend the Traditions Weeks summer
workshops at McDaniel College in Maryland. The experience has been transformative. Both veterans and civilians
thrive in an environment of mutual respect and sharing, engaging in an
essential and difficult dialogue. Programming has since been expanded to
include weekend workshops throughout the year in Gettysburg, PA (Common Ground on Seminary Ridge) and Tucson, AZ (Common Ground on the Border).
The Common Ground on the Hill
Veterans Initiative seeks to provide a safe space for veterans to grow and to
share, to process their experiences and teach others, while gaining a new
perspective from their peers at the summer workshops.
