The Price of Resistance: Sala Udin, An American Agitator

Annette Banks and Ty Cooper teamed up to tell a story of a lifetime civil rights activist that have not been told in this way in the past.

Annette Banks, multi-Emmy Award bearing filmmaker got her start in story telling as a documentarian at the Pittsburgh PBS affiliate. As a former engineer, her mind gravitates to problem solving, which has served her well as a filmmaker with the types of projects she has tackled. She views untold and underrepresented stories as a problem and her solution is to pick up the story, shape it in a way for public digestion. One of her recent Emmy awarded projects, Freedom House Ambulance: The FIRST Responders had taken the world by storm, sharing the story of the first EMT service in the country, operated by Black community members in Pittsburgh. This is just one of the many stories picked up by this cutting edge filmmaker.

Ty Cooper, award winning writer, director, and producer, has produced various narrative short films from comedy to heart wrenching dramatic pieces. Ty has written and produced full length and short stage plays prior to entering the field of filmmaking. His film, Amanda, was motivated and inspired by his personal loss of family members to cancer, in celebration of both of his parents beating cancer. His style of storytelling is to create stories that are reflective of his community and he genuinely represent the stories of his own and those around him through creative and connective storytelling. Taking on a powerful story in his and his partner's documentary, the same approach was taken. The story had to connect and move him before committing to such a project.

Ty owns a marketing and branding company, and appreciated combining the efforts and approaches to filmmaking with a partner who came to the table with a different perspective and with the two, made a very compelling film.