SOUTH DAKOTA is a unique film in which filmmaker Bruce Isacson intricately blends the powerful drama of a scripted motion picture along with the compelling impact of documentary elements. The film portrays two dramatic stories about unplanned pregnancies along with sound bites of passionate pro choice and pro life advocates.
Barb’s story is set in a South Dakota Norman Rockwell town. Barb is a 14-year-old high school track star and cheerleader in love with her 15-year-old star athlete boyfriend when a single moment of passion changes their lives forever. Barb is a "real-life" JUNO. Chris’s story is set in Philadelphia. Chris is a black teenager who is pregnant because of rape and lives with other runaways in parks and under bridges. Both girls deny their situation for too long as they avoid making the most important choice of their young lives. As Chris and Barb wrestle with teen pregnancy, and seek answers to help make their decision about having a baby or terminating the pregnancy, the film presents interviews with experts on those questions with opposing views about a woman’s right to choose.
As the stories unfold on the screen under Isacson’s direction of a talented cast, he simultaneously creates a fascinating mosaic of contradictory truths about the complex issues related to teen pregnancy and a woman’s right to choose. Through fast paced clips from documentary interviews with a wide range of political, scientific, legal and cultural experts who passionately share their views, Isacson assembles sound bites like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to accentuate the labyrinthine nature of the situation faced by each young woman. The emotional conclusion of each story leaves audiences with a profoundly new understanding of a woman’s right to choose.
Our director/producer Bruce Isacson and our crew have been traveling for more than two years to interview the most knowledgeable people on all sides of these issues. Some of the strongest pro-choice voices have been Gloria Allred, Alexander Sanger, Peter Singer, Lee Silver, and Dr. Wendy Savage. From the pro-life side we have Robert George, Bill Hurlbut, Bernard Nathanson and Michael Schwartz.
Our production team includes people such as Executive Producer Howard Kazanjian, Producer of Star Wars Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark; Editor Donald “Corky” Ehlers who was the editor for such movies as Gods and Generals, Gettysburg and Lonesome Dove; and co-executive producer Charles Warn who was Public Relations Director for the Directors Guild of America for twenty-five years and fifteen of the last seventeen Academy Awards shows.
We've had numerous focus group screenings around the country and overseas to over 800 people, of which 99% of the audiences were deeply riveted and emotionally impacted.
Attached are letters from our Executive Producer Howard Kazanjian, and Paul Lauer of Motive Marketing, who has recently signed on with LIONHEART MOVIES, to handle the marketing for SOUTH DAKOTA. Paul has personally overseen the grass roots marketing of such box office hits as The Passion of the Christ, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Polar Express, Rocky Balboa, Expelled and The Secret Life of Bees.
Director Bruce Isacson on set.
