Wild at Heart Films

Documentary Film Projects

Sound of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story

Sound of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story
The documentary film tells the story of Frank Morgan, a prodigal alto sax player who battled drug addiction and nearly 30 years of prison incarceration before a 22 year comeback career. His story and transformation is told through interviews with fellow musicians and people who were close to him, as well as interviews with Frank and clips of his performances. The film was directed by NC Heikin with executive producer Michael Connelly and producer James Egan.

All Sound of Redemption Coverage


Kimjongilia

Kimjongilia: The Flower of Kim Jong Il The Flower of Kim Jong Il, is the first film to fully expose the disaster through a tapestry of defectors’stories,North Korean propaganda, and original performance. This feature documentary shows why the defectors fled, describes their hair-raising escapes, and recounts the dangers they face in China, hunted by Chinese as well as North Korean police. These refugees are from every walk of life, from child concentration camp inmates to an elite concert pianist. But their stories all speak of body-and-soul killing repression and paint a picture of a country so far off the rails it defies belief. Ultimately, these humble heroes are inspiring, for despite their suffering, they hold out hope for a better future.

Kimjongilia Website


Angels In the Dust

Angels in the Dust is the story of a courageous, self-sacrificing, fiercely loving woman, who chooses a spiritual path over a material one. It tells of the life-changing power of one compassionate heart. For a nation overwhelmed by an epidemic of HIV/AIDS, orphans, rape, violence, and Apartheid’s legacy of social and political unrest, the film offers a clear pathway of hope and a replicable paradigm for the future.

Angels in the Dust won the 2007 Emerging Pictures/ Full Frame Audience Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the 2007 Special Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival.

More On Angels In the Dust


The Defector

Directed by three-time Oscar winning director, Mark Johnathan Harris,The Defector is the extraordinary story of one man’s struggle, sacrifice, and triumph to bring truth to the world. Victor Kravchenko, a high-ranking Communist official, exposed the crimes of Josef Stalin, put the Soviet dictator on trial in Paris in“The Trial of the Century,” and was discovered dead in his Manhattan apartment with a bullet in the head.

The documentary also follows Kravchenko’s son, Andrew, who journeys back in time and travels to Paris, Russia, and Ukraine to fulfill the last request of a father he barely knew, and uncover the truth about his father’s life and death.

More On The Defector


Forget-Me-Not

"Forget-Me-Not" is a documentary following wounded men and women, from the U.S. Marines and Navy Corps, who are struggling to make the transmission back into civilian life. The film will focus on 25 wounded soldiers, who will be attending a specialized training center in San Diego, to prepare them for jobs in the film and television industry.

More On Forget-Me-Not


Breaking the Silence

Wild at Heart Films is currently in production on a groundbreaking film with first-time director - and high school student - Shea Dietz, who has been chosen to recieve the HRC Colorado Outstanding Youth Award.

Breaking The Silence is a student-created documentary, following the lives of four LGBTQ teens of all different ages, and their struggles throughout high school.

The purpose of this film is to make it known and show that discrimination is happening in high schools everywhere.

This film is meant to inspire change in the culture of schools across the country and to love and honor the LGBTQ community.

Breaking the Silence Website

 

The Jüdische Kulturbund Project

The Last Coda: The Rise and Fall of the Jüdische Kulturbund

Nazi Germany, 1933.  Jews are turned out from almost all professions, including the performing arts.  A group of Jewish musicians write a proposal to Joseph Goebbels Office of Propaganda and Enlightenment, asking to set up a cultural organization that allows Jews to perform symphonies, operas, and dramas, for Jewish-only audiences. Goebbels, sensing an international propaganda coup, accepts.

From 1933-1941, the Jüdische Kulturbund, consisting of thousands of members at its peak, performed in 42 theatres across Germany.  When the Kulturbund closed, some members emigrated or went into hiding, most were sent to the camps. This is a little-known story of the power of music, resiliency of the human spirit, and will to survive. 

The film, to be executive produced by James Egan and Gail Prensky, will tell the Kulturbund story through both the words of former Kulturbund members, as captured in recently filmed interviews, and—more dramatically and accessibly—through the documenting of a live, multi-media stage production.  Through the eyes of the young actors and musicians who portray the Kulturbund artists, the story of the Kulturbund comes alive and gains relevance in our world that continues to struggle with oppression.

The Project Team
Gail Prensky, Writer, Executive Producer

As founding producer and director of the Jüdische Kulturbund Project, Gail brings to this project a deep and first-hand understanding of the Kulturbund’s spirit.  Her interviews with the survivors form the basis of her passion and vision for this project, which is rooted in the Kulturbund’s strong regard for music and the performing arts. 

For the last 20 years, Gail has written, produced, and directed a broad range of media projects in film, multimedia, books, and exhibitions for Discovery Communications, National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution, Time-Life Books, and Glaxo-Wellcome.

Mark Harris - Director
Mark Jonathan Harris is an American documentary filmmaker best known for his films Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (Academy Award Best Feature Documentary 2000) and The Long Way Home (Best Feature Documentary 1997).   Educated at Harvard, Harris co-directed the short The Redwoods for the Sierra Club with Trevor Greenwood; the short won the 1967 Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject.

Ottonia Media, Berlin – Co Producer
OTTONIA Media GmbH was established in 1998 and is responsible for non-fiction TV productions within the Bavaria Film Group, one of Europe's largest and longest-running media operations.

Broadcasting around 7,000 minutes annually, OTTONIA specialises in documentaries, reportages and magazine programmes. It carries out its extensive projects in conjunction with regional, national and international partners.

Cinephil – Co Producer and Distributor
Cinephil  - Philippa Kowarsky Productions Ltd.' handles the sales of distribution rights for International, Israeli and Palestinian films all over the world. It is based in Tel Aviv and since its establishment in January 1997, CINEPHIL has become the sales agent and home for leading producers and filmmakers from around the world.


WILD AT HEART FILMS was founded by James Egan: producer, screenwriter, and a screenwriting professor at the USC Graduate School of Cinematic Arts.