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Travelers, to EMMETT TILL lane

AWARD-WINNING CIVIL RIGHTS DOCUMENTARIAN

TEAMS WITH WHOOPI GOLDBERG AND  "MISSISSIPPI BURNING" PRODUCER TO TELL  THE UNTOLD STORY OF

EMMETT LOUIS TILL WITH THE FEATURE FILM "TILL"

NEW YORK, NY, August 19, 2015 - In the wake of the civil rights issues that continue to besiege our nation, the need for a feature film on the 14-year-old boy who galvanized the American Civil Rights movement is more critical today than ever before. Civil Rights documentarian and Executive Producer of Investigation Discovery's "The Injustice Files" Keith A. Beauchamp (The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till) will team with Academy Award winner Whoopi Goldberg and Academy Award nominee Frederick Zollo (Mississippi Burning) to tell TILL, a feature-length drama about Emmett Till's murder in 1955. TILL will be based on Beauchamp's'Untold,' and Simeon Wright's 'Simeon's Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till.'

It has been 60 years since Till's murder, yet his legacy continues to fascinate and inspire from all walks of life.  TILL will depict the young boy's brutal lynching and the courageous, catalytic decisions made by his mother, Mamie Till Mobley.  However, this was not just one family's tragic loss.  It was a nation's loss. The story of Emmett is our shared responsibility to tell, and, on August 19, just in time to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Till's death, the producers will launch a Kickstarter campaign to help fulfill that responsibility: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/653510710/till

Those pledging support of $1 or more will be offered everything from Behind-the-Scenes Production Access, a printable, original TILL Artwork ($50 or more), a digital download of the finished film ($100 or more), an invite to the New York City Premiere (estimated to be July 2017), to a Co-Associate Producer credit.

However, the launch of the Kickstarter campaign is not about breaking crowd-funding records.  It's aimed at garnering grassroots support for the film and spreading awareness about Till's legacy.  To further the movement and Till's story, the producers invite  the public to share their "Till Moment": that time and place when they first learned about Emmett Till or saw his iconic photograph through #Mytillmoment or @MyTillMoment, utilizing photos, videos, Kickstarter posts or tweets.   Click here for #MyTillMoment's YouTube channel.

Producer Keith Beauchamp is no stranger to Emmett Till; it was his award winning and Emmy nominated film, The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till that prompted the United States Justice Department, to reopen the case in 2004.  Since his production of Untold, Beauchamp has worked closely with FBI and their Civil Rights Cold Case Initiative, producing documentaries on other unsolved civil rights murders helping Federal agents with their investigations that could lead to bringing remaining perpetrators to justice. 

"I think it's the right moment for America and the World to experience a feature film about an event that shocked the consciousness of white and black Americans alike, the senseless kidnapping and murder of my cousin Emmett Till, a kidnapping that I witnessed first hand in my bedroom," said Simeon Wright.

"After dedicating two decades of my life seeking justice for Emmett Louis Till, I'm truly excited and moved to finally bring his true story to the world," said Beauchamp. "At a time where there's so much turmoil in our country, this story will speak volumes. And just like this case was a catalyst for change in 1955, I believe it will be an agent for change today.  Film can make a difference and impact on society, and TILL is not just a movie - it's a movement."

"Here is a story that is as much a part of American history as the Boston Tea Party and may stand as the greatest argument for getting rid of sanctioned racism," adds Producer Whoopi Goldberg. "Emmett Till's brutal death at the hands of ignorant, brutish people exposes the Jim Crow-era South that gave the implicit okay to uphold that kind of racism without any real fear of repercussions. Today, the return of rampant, unchallenged racism cries out for the telling of Emmett Till's story again."

For Zollo, TILL would be his trilogy of civil rights dramas that focus on race crimes in Mississippi. He produced the multiple Academy-Award nominated films, Mississippi Burning, about the murder of three civil rights workers Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney in 1964, and Ghosts of Mississippi, a drama about the murder of Civil Rights leader, Medgar Evers. 

"The murder of fourteen year old Emmett Till and the subsequent courageous acts of his grieving mother launched a new civil rights movement," said Zollo.  "It is an honor to join with Simeon Wright who lived this story, Whoopi Goldberg who has always stood for what is right and just and Keith Beauchamp, who made the definitive Emmett Till documentary resulting in the re-opening of the Till murder case, in finally making a film to tell this monumental American tragic story." 

Producing TILL along with Beauchamp, Goldberg and Zollo are Thomas K. Levine, Paul Kurta and Susan Rose. Production will begin on the film in early 2016. 

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