Matt Ogens Celebrates Good Deeds In Iraq, Africa, For CNN Heroes

Matt Ogens of Rabbit just returned from an overseas adventure in which he produced and directed two profiles for CNN's Heroes, an annual Thanksgiving Day award special acknowledging 10 ordinary citizens engaged in extraordinary ongoing acts. This marks the second consecutive year CNN has chosen Ogens – along with four other directors – to produce two segments for the program, produced by Tenth Planet Productions Director Joel Gallen. The Anderson Cooper-hosted network staple, viewed by 20 million around the world, features celebrities, including Nicole Kidman and Carrie Underwood, who gather to honor the humanitarians. This year, Ogens traveled to war-ravaged Iraq and economically imperiled Zimbabwe to profile two heroes – in roughly 2:00 narratives – who have established impactful community programs in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Brad Blauser was a U.S. civilian contractor so troubled by the spectacle of disabled children hauling themselves through the streets of Iraq with their arms that he launched a program to fill the nation with pediatric wheelchairs. Since 2005, his organization has distributed 650 chairs to Iraqi children in need. Ogens stitches Blauser’s story together with a series of dramatic images of crippled, outcast children clawing their way through life in Iraqi clinics and slums stitched together with sequences of joyous kids seated in wheelchairs for the first time. To view Ogens’ profile of Brad Blauser, visit: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive09/brad.blauser.html

Betty Makoni, raped as a child, mother dead from domestic violence, is a hero of the wild streets of Harare, Zimbabwe. She combats African social ills – like the belief that sex with a virgin can cure HIV/AIDS – by creating safe places where young women can safely escape danger. Ogens flawlessly stitches Makoni’s story together with a montage of elated, singing girls standing invincibly in groups in their protected villages along with footage of the hero in action. To view Ogens’ profile of Betty Makoni, visit: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive09/betty.makoni.html

To prepare himself for the unpredictable and hazardous foreign environments, Ogens spent a week in Atlanta training with security firm AKE in their Hostile Environment training course. “This was quite an adventure,” noted Ogens. “But it was worth all the risk and anxiety that went along with traveling into war and danger. The segments that I shot last year were a true highlight of my professional career, and I’m really pleased that CNN asked me to return to acknowledge Brad and Betty for the 2009 special.”

“We’re really proud of Matt,” stated Rabbit EP Douglas Howell. “He’s always working on something exciting, but it’s great to see him establish a legacy with an ongoing project as meaningful as CNN’s Heroes.”

The full episode of Heroes featured all 10 videos, and aired Thanksgiving night, Thursday, Nov. 26, at 9 p.m. on CNN.

Credits:

For Iraq:
Director: Matt Ogens
DP: Leon Jobe
Editorial: Cosmo Street
Editor: Adrienne Gits
Executive Post Producer: Yvette Cobarrubias
Post Producer: Justine Smollan
Assistant Editor: Shinya Sato

For Africa:
Director: Matt Ogens
DP: Justin Purefoy
Editorial: Cosmo Street
Editor: Bill Chessman
Executive Post Producer: Yvette Cobarrubias
Post Producer: Justine Smollan
Assistant Editor: Shinya Sato

About Rabbit:

Throughout literature, folklore and pop culture, the Rabbit is known to be a mischievous sort. An upstart.
A shape-shifter. The loveable prankster.
We hope to live up to our name.