* - Director's Statement

HERE’S THE TOP-END DRIVING THE VISION ~

The process of producing films on issues of humanitarian concern has meant becoming personally involved with organizations of like-mind, learning along the way. Developing films means research which equates to expressing empathy and becoming intimately acquainted with a network of people who might embrace starkly differing views.

Beyond filmmaking:

The reason for creating Reconnaissance Films is to develop stories that urgently need marking out. The most important advance must be to vigorously support leadership that understands, and is deeply committed to promoting social cohesion.

The intention here is to directly initiate on-the-ground projects; not only films. That could mean establishing synergy with other organizations where capacity building and education promotes healthy change for the better.

In the course of making the films, meeting the people, learning of their campaigns and their determination, I have become witness to how the winds of change are actually engineered. It is always at the very center, the vortex of need, of crisis, and struggle, that’s where you find the change makers. That’s how we’ll go forward. Once there, there is no going back.

— Hale Anderson

hale@reconnaissancefilms.com

BRIEF BIIOGRAPHY

Hale began his film career as a student in Film and Television at UCLA in Los Angeles, California. Upon graduation, he worked for Sony Pictures Entertainment Studios as the on-lot financial officer. Subsequently, Hale set up his own production company, The Feature Factory.

In 2005 he moved to Chicago to pursue humanitarian concerns. Working with the chief of the Illinois Department of Human Services Bureau for Immigrant and Refugee Services, Mr. Anderson created a city-wide refugee committee in partnership with refugee resettlement agencies and the Chicago Commission on Human Relations. Because of his intimate understanding of the refugee resettlement program in the U.S., the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) commissioned Mr. Anderson to conduct interviews with selected refugees representing their countries of origin to be screened in Geneva at the UN general assembly in September of 2008.

In 2009 Mr. Anderson produced a film for the Chicago Commission on Human Relations documenting the impact and response to the economic downturn in the city of Chicago, Rising Hope in Chicago.

Mr. Anderson was later commissioned to produce an environmental documentary, Eaarth Justice in California, centering on the efforts of the international environmentalist, Bill Mckibben, and his organization 350.org—completed in May of 2013.

In June 2013, Hale began production on the documentary, Ivory Disrupted, chronicling the phenomenal rise of a group of San Francisco Bay area activists driving the international movement to save African elephants. Production was completed in late fall 2017 and distributed to university environmental programs, as well as screened at conservation conferences in the U.S. and abroad.

In 2016, Hale began what turned out to be a nine-year odyssey producing and directing his latest film, MacArthur Park: Warriors in the Urban Storm. The documentary seeks to foster a realistic shift in perception about Latinos and their efforts to bridge the gap toward empowerment and full entitlement as residents in Los Angeles.

Story Notes The Visionaries Lessons Learned