Our Time Projects is a New-York based documentary production company founded in 2009 by filmmaker Matthew Heineman.
After graduating from Dartmouth College in 2005 with a degree in history, Heineman and a group of friends founded THE YOUNG AMERICANS PROJECT (TYAP), a multi-media undertaking to try to figure out what makes their generation tick. He traveled the country for three months interviewing a wide range of America’s youth and, in the process, fell in love with filmmaking.
After six months at NBC sports, he was hired by HBO in 2007 to work on THE ALZHEIMER’S PROJECT, an Emmy-nominated documentary series that premiered in May, 2009. In addition to his work on two one-hour films exploring the human and scientific sides of this devastating disease, he co-produced the Supplementary Series of short films for the project.
In 2011, Heineman's work on TYAP culminated in the commercial release of OUR TIME—an hour-long documentary about what it’s like to be young in America—on the Documentary Channel, Amazon, and Hulu. He has directed, shot, and edited several short films and commercials. Heineman is now directing a feature-length film with veteran documentary filmmaker Susan Froemke about healthcare in America. His photography can be viewed at heinemanphotos.com.
ESCAPE FIRE: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare tackles one of the most pressing issues of our time: what can be done to save our broken medical system? The film examines the powerful forces trying to maintain the status quo in a medical industry designed for quick fixes rather than prevention, for profit-driven care rather than patient-driven care. After decades of resistance, a movement to bring innovative high-touch, low-cost methods of prevention and healing into our high-tech, costly system is finally gaining ground. ESCAPE FIRE follows dramatic human stories as well as leaders fighting to transform healthcare at the highest levels of medicine, industry, government, and even the US military. The film is about a way out, about saving the health of a nation.
The film is being directed and produced by Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke. Heineman recently completed OUR TIME – a feature documentary about what it’s like to be young in today’s America. Froemke is a four-time Emmy Award winning director with more than 30 documentary films to her credit from the classic GREY GARDENS to LALEE’S KIN, an HBO film that earned her an Academy Award nomination. The filmmakers first collaborated on the groundbreaking, Emmy-nominated HBO series, THE ALZHEIMER’S PROJECT.
‘A revealing documentary on America’s youth’ – The New York Times, Freakonomics Blog
‘It will challenge your stereotypes of Millenials’ – Fast Company Magazine
America has questions about today’s youth, what we care about, and where we’re headed. We had those questions too. So, after graduating college, four of us loaded an RV and embarked on a journey looking for answers. We traveled to all of the lower 48 states, talking to our peers about growing up, 9/11, race, the Internet, careers, sex, love, and the American Dream. Along the way, we met a wide cross-section of young Americans, ranging from a cancer researcher in Boston to a drug dealer in New Mexico, from an Iraq veteran in Florida to the founder of Facebook in Silicon Valley. The film ultimately leads to the historic 2008 election, where our generation finally stands up to make its voice heard. OUR TIME is a passionate portrayal of a generation, a meditation on coming of age in 21st-century America, and a rallying cry against apathy.
"The overall quality of the films in the 2012 Competition section will make for an exciting Festival and a remarkable year ahead for independent film audiences everywhere,” said John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival."
“For many of these filmmakers, receiving a grant will be just the beginning of our relationship with them," said Cara Mertes, Director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program. “We welcome these filmmakers to our community and look forward to working with them to further support and develop their unique visions."
