'The Perfect Neighbor' Documentary

Soledad O'Brien's latest documentary project is The Perfect Neighbor.  This documentary examines Florida's Stand Your Ground laws and gun regulations. The film is in final negotiations to be acquired by Netflix after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. 

The film, which debuted to critical praise, uses police body-cam footage to tell the story of how a neighborhood dispute slowly escalated into a shocking act of violence. It follows a tragedy that captivated national attention, one in which a woman named Ajike "AJ" Shantrell Owens was shot and killed by her neighbor, Susan Lorincz, after Lorincz kept complaining about children playing near her apartment.

The Perfect Neighbor was seen as one of the most accomplished and powerful documentaries to play at the festival and is believed to have awards potential.

Geeta Gandbhi directed the film and had a personal connection to the story. Owens was her sister-in-law's best friend. Soledad O'Brien serves as an executive producer.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 19 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.8/10.[

The End of Affirmative Action

 

Soledad O'Brien joined "CBS Mornings" to discuss her new CBS Reports documentary, "The End of Affirmative Action," and the impact the Supreme Court ruling is having on colleges and families. 

Soledad O'Brien Brings Rosa Parks Documentary to Florida A&M University

Florida A&M University President Larry Robinson, Ph.D held a Black History Month Conversation with journalist Soledad O’Brien, executive producer of “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" at a February 9 event on campus.

Soledad O’Brien shared and discussed clips from the documentary film currently streaming on Peacock.

The 96-minute documentary on Rosa Parks’activism has a message that will resonate on the FAMU campus, O’Brien said. “Rosa Parks mentored and was a champion of youth activists, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate her and her legacy than speaking to the students at FAMU. They are the leaders of today and tomorrow,” O’Brien said

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis is the definitive political biography of Rosa Parks. It examines her six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement. It is the basis for the documentary of the same name executive produced by award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien. 

Jeanne Theoharis is a professor of political science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. She received an AB in Afro-American studies from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in American culture from the University of Michigan. She is the author or coauthor of four books and articles on the black freedom struggle and the contemporary politics of race in the United States.

Hungry To Learn - with Soledad O'Brien

Hungry To Learn, a documentary from Soledad O'Brien Productions, is discussed by Soledad on New York Live.

"We think of college as cheerleaders and games and keg parties. And for them it's how do I make sure I get another job so I can pay off that bill that I have at the medical center in time so I can register for my next classes, it's a struggle," says O'Brien.

Outbreak: The First Response

Yahoo Life partnered with Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning broadcaster Soledad O'Brien for the exclusive digital premiere of the documentary "Outbreak: The First Response."

O'Brien, Executive Producer on the documentary, and her film crew were at ground zero of the pandemic in Seattle earlier this year, and they captured dramatic, heart-wrenching footage and personal stories showing the virus's toll on at-risk communities, notably the homeless population and the residents of the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., which was devastated by the outbreak. 

The documentary is an important chronicle of the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on America's most vulnerable from the earliest stages. 

In the article excerpted below, O’Brien reports on the most recent threat brought on by the pandemic: the millions of Americans who face homelessness as eviction moratoriums expire around the country:

When Seattle became the first community in the U.S. to grapple with COVID-19, the city faced a daunting challenge. How would it care for the thousands of homeless people living on its streets and in its shelters? In my documentary Outbreak: The First Response (watch above), my producers and I chronicled the public health response to the pandemic in a city with one of the largest homeless populations in the country. Now, COVID-19 may force every community to answer that question, as millions of people face eviction and the possibility of joining the ranks of the nation’s homeless...

For people living on the brink, July was the cruelest month and August looks to be even worse. The moratorium on evictions from federally financed housing — about 30 percent of all renters — expired on July 25. The Eviction Lab at Princeton University estimates that more than 20 state moratoriums have also expired since May. The $600 a week unemployment benefit also expired at the end of July.

The documentary was developed by Soledad O’Brien Productions in partnership with the de Beaumont Foundation. “Outbreak: The First Response” premiered on Hearst stations on June 19 and on Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien June 20–21 and is available for streaming on Yahoo Life. 

Who Shot Biggie & Tupac? Airs Sunday

The story of Tupac Shakur's mysterious death was covered in Snapped: Notorious, a documentary that aired September 10. On Sunday, September 24 a Tupac documentary on FOX hosted by Ice-T and Soledad O'Brien, Who Shot Biggie & Tupac?, will also detail the circumstances of these events.

The rappers were gunned down within months of each other in the late 1990s. Shakur was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on Sept. 13, 1996. Biggie, born Christopher George Latore Wallace, was killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997.

20 years since the second murder and no one has been held accountable.

There have been rumors of police corruption, gang connections and a East vs. West rap rivalry, but both murders remain officially unsolved.

The special will reveal new details of the investigation. It includes interviews with former private investigators, police officers, informants and hip-hop insiders. There is an on-camera reunion between Lil’ Cease and E.D.I. Mean, who will talk about the friendship between the two rappers. An exclusive, never-before-released audio recording of Biggie talking about the shooting of Tupac will be revealed.

Soledad O'Brien's THE WAR COMES HOME Debuts Tonight

CNN's new Soledad O'Brien special, “The War Comes Home,” will focus on veterans returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq coping with post traumatic syndrome, rage, and thoughts of suicide.

The special follows Delon Beckett and Garrett Combs, two returning veterans at a time that the Veterans Administration is under intense criticism for its failure to help American troops back from war. One in five veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffers from post traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, or severe depression, according to a Rand Corporation study cited by CNN. Almost 8,000 veterans commit suicide each year, and 22 veterans take their own lives each day, according to the VA.

In the special, Beckett and Combs are invited to join an innovative, Malibu-based therapy program called Save a Warrior. Founded and led by veteran Jake Clark, it uses equine therapy, transcendental meditation, and physically and emotionally demanding trust exercises to help vets.

The special is produced by O'Brien's Starfish Media Group and will be shown on CNN starting tonight, Tuesday, August 12 at 9 p.m. ET.

Watch the preview trailer for THE WAR COMES HOME

Source: http://www.thewrap.com/soledad-obriens-new-cnn-special-follows-veterans-with-ptsd-exclusive

'The War Comes Home' on CNN August 12

Starfish Media presents its first documentary project, The War Comes Home, Tuesday, August 12th,  at 9:00pm EST on CNN.

Soledad O'Brien follows two veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as they participate in Save A Warrior, a program dedicated to helping soldiers who return home with Post Traumatic Stress.

Live Q&A With Soledad O'Brien Tonight

Soledad O'Brien will be taking your questions during a Live Google Hangout tonight (8/7/14) at 8:30pm ET about the upcoming The War Comes Home.

Go to https://plus.google.com/events/

In the documentary, Soledad O'Brien follows two veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as they participate in Save A Warrior, a program dedicated to helping soldiers who return home with Post Traumatic Stress.

The program is the first documentary project from O'Brien's Starfish Media and will premiere August 12 at 9:00pm EST on CNN.

The War Comes Home

Starfish Media presents its first documentary project, The War Comes Home, on August 12th at 9:00pm EST on CNN.

In it Soledad O'Brien follows two veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as they participate in Save A Warrior, a program dedicated to helping soldiers who return home with Post Traumatic Stress.

Upcoming Productions for Soledad O'Brien

Starfish Media Group, Soledad O’Brien‘s production company, is now a year old.

Five upcoming Starfish productions for 2014:

1. a special for CNN on veterans struggling with PTSD
2. New York City’s controversial “stop and frisk” program
3. the Washington Corrections Center for Women, which allows incarcerated women to keep their children in prison until they are three
4. For Al Jazeera, documentaries on a new model of “therapeutic justice” for teenagers in prison and
5. a special on heroin use in America.

Soledad O'Brien's New Production Company

Soledad O’Brien’s new production company, Starfish Media Group, will work with CNN in a production and distribution agreement.

The production company will be producing long-form documentaries for CNN. The company will launch in June and this year will produce another installment of one of the network’s most successful franchises, Black in America.

The company will also produce three long-form specials for CNN in 2014.

The company will not work exclusively with CNN and will also work through other avenues of distribution including cable TV and the Web.

"The new partnership opportunity allows me to focus on what I love to do the most, and to focus on the next stage of my career, owning my own work," said O’Brien, "At CNN, I am grateful to have been able to tell often underreported stories and confront difficult topics. In the new production venture, I will continue to shine a light on what we all find most interesting about America."

Beyond Bravery: The Women of 9.11

Soledad O'Brien and Janet Napolitano

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Napolitano was interviewed by O'Brien for her documentary "Beyond Bravery: The Women of 9.11" which will air on Sept 8 on CNN.

Battle for Blair Mountain Documentary Tonight on CNN

Soledad O'Brien's CNN documentary, "Battle for Blair Mountain: Working in America Video" airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET and at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, August 20.

Coal vs. Environment – Soledad O’Brien's Battle for Blair Mountain

This CNN documentary shows the intense struggle over mountaintop removal. Battle for Blair Mountain: Working in America, debuts on Sunday, August 14 at 8:00pm ET and PT, with a replay on Saturday, August 20.

Anchor and Special Correspondent Soledad O’Brien examines the fight over Spruce One, one of the largest mountaintop removal sites ever proposed in the U.S. When O’Brien’s team first arrived in Sharples, W.V., nearly everyone in Appalachia was waiting to see if the Environmental Protection Agency was going to allow Spruce One’s permit to proceed, citing Clean Water Act violations.

When O’Brien’s team first arrived in Sharples, W.V., nearly everyone in Appalachia was waiting to see if the Environmental Protection Agency was going to allow Spruce One’s permit to proceed, citing Clean Water Act violations.

Several groups were invested in the fight: coal miners who wanted to keep the jobs they’ve had for decades, the green activists who oppose all coal mining and a coalition of people who would like to see mountaintop removal replaced by less damaging mining practices. Influential people such as EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Senator Joseph Manchin (D-WV) and Robert Kennedy, Jr. had plenty to say about the outcome, too. O’Brien and her team tell the story from all sides.

 Additional reporting on the mountaintop removal debate and video excerpts from The Battle for Blair Mountain: Working in America can be found at cnn.com/inamerica.

CNN Student News is producing an Educator and Parent Guide for the documentary, which will include discussion questions and a learning activity. The guide will be available on CNNStudentNews.com prior to the debut of the documentary as a companion viewing aid and teaching tool.

The Women of Ground Zero

Soledad O'Brien in New York City taping a documentary on the women of Ground Zero. The special for CNN will air late summer prior to 9-11 10th anniversary.

Soledad with Michael Arad, who designed the 9-11 memorial.

O'Brien at Newark Peace Education Summit

Soledad O'Brien spoke and hosted a panel at last week's Newark Peace Education Summit in New Jersey. The Summit was a three-day conference focusing on peacemaking practices from around the world. The conference was structured as a comprehensive, exploration of the many aspects of peacemaking, beginning with the practices of finding peace within the self, then subsequently radiating outward to peace within the home, peace through education, peace in the community, the world and the planet.

Large-scale panel discussions broke into practical workshops for further exploration of the various topics discussed.

In an interview on beliefnet.com, Soledad said:

I was thrilled to be asked. Anything with the Dalai Lama attending and someone like Mayor Corey Booker – sort of a nice group of people to be asked to participate with. The connection is our new documentary, Don't Fail Me, which takes a look at the crisis of education in America. 

Her own educational background has had a huge impact on her life's work. Her mother and father were both teachers who valued education. Soledad and her siblings attended Harvard.

I went to high school and then on to college, but a lot of my job is about being educated. It’s about reading, learning and discovering new things. The only way to get new experiences and to grow is to be educated by exposure. It’s so crucial. The more you can be exposed and the more you can be educated, the more you see opportunity in your life and the more you see chances to do something else and different versions of what an end outcome can be. All those things lead to more peaceful solutions. People who are desperate and hopeless look at violence as the way out, and I think anybody who sees opportunity doesn’t.

Most of Soledad's work for CNN the past few years has been in "educational" documentaries. She says that though the Black in America on CNN touched a lot of people, she realized that " We had just scratched the surface. There were dozens and dozens of great stories to tell. We discovered we should be doing this all the time."

CNN's  "In America" series has continued and will be looking at women who were rescue workers in 9/11, miners in West Virginia, Latinos and profiles of other groups.

Speakers at the Newark Summit included Nobel Peace Laureates, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights advocate, Jody Williams, the American anti-landmine activist, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Martin Luther King III, Robert Thurman, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Goldie Hawn, Soledad O’Brien, Ed Norton, Donna Karan, Van Jones, Jeffrey Sachs, Majora Carter, the Kogui Shaman of Columbia, South America, Somaly Mam, Cameron Sinclair, Russell Simmons and may more distinguished peace advocates from a wide cross section of cultures, disciplines and perspectives.

The event was held at the NJPAC (New Jersey Performing Arts Center) in Newark, New Jersey, May 13-15, 2011.

The Women Who Would Be Queen

Diana and Kate

Watch the promo video for the documentary "The Women Who Would Be Queen" hosted by Soledad O'Brien which airs internationally April 23 and in the U.S. on Sunday, April 24th on CNN.

"Women Who Would Be Queen" Part of CNN's Royal Wedding Coverage

Soledad O'Brien has been most recently reporting from the multiple disasters in Japan and seen on her documentary on the controversies concerning Muslims in America.

On a much lighter side of the news for the CNN journalist will be her anchoring a documentary on Catherine Middleton as part of the networks Royal Wedding coverage.

She is working in England on "Women Who Would Be Queen" which is scheduled to air on April 24 at 8 p.m., 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. on CNN/U.S. and will debut on CNN International on Saturday, April 23 at 8 p.m. ET.

The documentary is a look at the life of Catherine Middleton, the woman who may some day become Queen of the United Kingdom.

Featured in the documentary are Jules Knight, close friend of the couple from the origins of their fairytale romance during their university days at St. Andrews, and Arthur Edwards, longtime royal photographer.

Edwards has chronicled the princes' entire lives during his 30-year career at England’s The Sun newspaper. He has captured the princes’ childhoods, how they’ve coped with the tragic loss of their mother, and their transition into manhood.

CNN will globally televise the biggest royal wedding event since Charles married Diana – from the ceremonial to the personal, from what is happening at Westminster Abbey to the reactions of those around the world.

On the day of the wedding, Friday, April 29, beginning at 4 a.m. ET. CNN will live stream various angles of the day’s events on CNN.com, including views from inside the Abbey as well as the parade, via the CNN Apps for iPhone and iPod touch, iPad and Android tablet.

Leading up to the big day, Piers Morgan and Anderson Cooper will anchor their nightly programs from London.

"Pictures Don't Lie" Debuts This Weekend

This weekend, CNN's Soledad O'Brien looks at a story from the Civil Rights era that has an air of mystery.

Why did Ernest Withers, the renowned Memphis civil rights photographer, also act as a paid informant for the FBI?

Here is a review from http://www.washingtonpost.com

Withers had intimate access to the top civil rights leaders of the day, especially Martin Luther King Jr., but also to some of the movement's more militant fringe. It all began in 1955, when Withers, who had specialized in photographing black celebrities, took intentionally shocking open-casket pictures of Emmett Till, a black Chicago teenager who was beaten and shot in Mississippi. From there, Withers was always on the scene, all across the South.

'Pictures Don't Lie' is a thoughtful exploration of the debate that has gathered around Withers's legacy, as well as an opportunity to consider the breadth of his work. After he died in 2007, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that Withers was secretly paid to provide government agents with insider details, whereabouts and names. Activist and entertainer Dick Gregory, an early subject of Withers's pictures, tells O'Brien that he now thinks of the photographer as a 'black Judas' who betrayed the trust of those he photographed.

Withers 1975

Others - including Andrew Young, Earl Caldwell, Maxine Smith and three of Withers's children - are far more circumspect and forgiving, to the point of wondering if he even caused any harm. Withers made unforgettably historic images without much pay or recognition, which may have made the FBI's offer more tempting. He took the secret to the grave, and there it might have remained, except that his name was not redacted from certain FBI documents made available through a Freedom of Information Act request.

'Pictures Don't Lie' is refreshingly open to nuance, and O'Brien conducts precise interviews with people still trying to understand Withers's motives. The theme comes back around to the striking quality of his photos. Some may look at the pictures differently now, but the point is that they are looking.

Pictures Don't Lie airs Sunday at 8-9 p.m. ET on CNN.