Presents
How True Stories Become Popular Films: Creating Impact on Screen
LANA LINK
Moderator and Producer, Freedom Hair
and Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game
Lana Link is a producer for MPI Original Films and a P.G.A. member. Her recent credits include five feature films, four feature documentaries, and over a dozen shorts. Her projects have premiered at Tribeca and SXSW, and gone on to stream on Hulu, Netflix, and more. As MPI’s Senior Vice President she leads MPI’s talent development programming, including its Short Film Lab.
MELONY ARMSTRONG
Subject and Executive Producer, Freedom Hair
Melony Armstrong owns Naturally Speaking, a hair braiding salon in Tupelo, Miss. Before renovating her salon—which has employed dozens of full-time stylists over the years skilled in the art of braiding and weaving African American hair—Melony first had to renovate archaic and restrictive government regulations, as well as her community’s mindset about natural hair styles. She accomplished all this through persistence, hard work, a lawsuit and lobbying, and by mentoring a cadre of young, black women who saw her as a role model and guide to a better life.
AUSTIN BRAGG
Co-writer/director, Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game
Austin Bragg, along with his brother Meredith Bragg, wrote and directed the award-winning film Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game. Previously, their MPI Original short A Piece of Cake was nominated for Best Narrative Short at Tribeca, they sold their web series to Warner Bros. Television, and they won the HP Masters of Short Film competition at Cannes.
Nick Reid
MPI Executive Vice President and Executive Producer, Freedom Hair
and Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game
Nick Reid is MPI’s executive vice president responsible for shaping and executing fundraising strategy, serving as a producer on MPI Original productions, and he is the treasurer. His executive producer credits include Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game, A Piece of Cake (Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival, Nominated for Best Narrative Short), and We’re Doing Good(Official Selection SXSW). Nick is currently developing and producing several forthcoming short and feature-length MPI Original Films.
Featured Films
Gallery
The Moving Picture Institute (MPI) is a production company and talent incubator that creates high-impact films designed to entertain, inspire, and educate audiences with captivating stories about human freedom.
Founded in 2005 on the belief that stories can change the world, we advance our mission in two unique and effective ways: producing original content in-house and launching talented filmmakers’ careers.
MPI Original Films use the popular and accessible medium of visual storytelling to educate people about what freedom is and why it matters. We reach hundreds of millions by distributing our films to theaters and digital streaming platforms such as Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and YouTube. And MPI’s films and filmmakers consistently win major awards and screen at top-tier film festivals such as the Tribeca Film Festival and South by Southwest (SXSW).
MPI’s Rising Filmmaker Program identifies, trains, and supports a growing network of freedom-minded directors, screenwriters, producers, and industry executives. We strategically invest in filmmakers at key points in their careers, work with them to develop high-impact concepts and scripts, and then we acquire the best scripts to produce as MPI Original Films.
FEATURED FILMS
The MPI Rising Filmmaker Program trains and builds a network of freedom-oriented filmmakers. MPI invests in filmmakers at key points in their careers placing them in prestigious production internships; working with them to develop high-impact concepts and scripts through the MPI Short Film Lab and workshops, and then acquiring the best scripts to produce as MPI Original Films; and connecting them with like-minded future collaborators and to new connections who can help them succeed in the entertainment industry.
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