First feature documentary
We’re thrilled to announce the premiering in August of 2020 of our first feature documentary, Starting at Zero: Reimagining Education in America, produced in partnership with our client the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation, and directed by Firestarter’s Willa Kammerer.
The film—which features interviews from across the country, from New York to Oklahoma, California to Alabama—is the culmination of an ongoing multi-year collaboration between the Foundation and Firestarter Interactive. Watch the trailer below, or on film website.
The process of making of this film can only be described as a wonderful, fascinating, ever-evolving (and lucky) opportunity and journey, as so many of the best things in life are.
One day, I got a call from one of the directors of the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation, Elliot Steinberg, who I had interviewed several months earlier. Elliot, in his own words, sees the world “from 36,000 feet.” His vision is to put a dent in poverty in honor of his late dear friend, legendary filmmaker and media entrepreneur, Saul Zaentz. The Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation has decided that investing in the development of high-quality early childhood education in America is the most pragmatic vehicle, with the greatest potential for good.
Elliot had recently learned that Alabama's Pre-K program has been consistently ranked the #1 Pre-K program in the country, for over a decade. Interest piqued, he accepted an invitation to travel to Montgomery from Secretary of Early Childhood Education Jeana Ross and learn more. He returned from Alabama raving about the caliber of the program. That's when I got the call: "We have to tell this story! We have to make a how-to video about how they've accomplished this in Alabama! What do you think?" Of course, never on to say no to an adventure, I said yes. I called up Firestarter collaborator Matt Ziegler, Director of Photography and Editor for the film, and in December 2017, we began our first interviews in Alabama, truly planning to make a "how-to video”—maybe 20 minutes or so—about the nuts and bolts of their program.
But once we started interviewing, we realized there was so much more to the story—that it had roots in North Carolina, and Georgia, and Mississippi, and other threads in Oklahoma and Montana and Chicago, and Omaha, and beyond. Before we knew it, we had traveled around the country pursuing this question of "what is high quality” in early childhood education? Also, how do you accomplish it, and why is it so critical to our nation's current and future success?
It has been an honor and joy to partner with the Elliot and the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation on this important project, which we believe can make a real difference in the lives of young children, families, and society at large in our country.
This is our first full-length (or really any length) documentary, and this project has become a template and proof-of-concept for the kind of partnerships we endeavor to build and social-impact driven documentaries we’re dedicated to pursuing going forward.
I invite you to learn more about this project and partnership through exploring the links below. And of course, when the film is released, you will be the first to know!