Barbara Rick is president and founder of Out of The Blue Films, Inc., an award-winning independent documentary company officially recognized as a 501(c)(3) by the IRS for its dedication to the creation of exceptional films that explore, articulate, and celebrate humanity.
A Peabody and Emmy-winning filmmaker and journalist for more than twenty years, Ms. Rick has produced, directed, and written a number of highly acclaimed films.
Currently, she is launching a groundbreaking documentary and social networking initiative examining the causes and consequences of the most corrosive human emotion: ENVY. The project is the recipient of a $250,000 research and development grant from philanthropist Mary Catherine Bunting.
Her most recent documentary, Road To Ingwavuma (ing-wah-VOOM-ah), chronicles the journey to the heart of post-apartheid South Africa by a delegation of some of America's most respected artists and their families - Alfre Woodard, Samuel L. Jackson & LaTanya R. Jackson, Carlos Santana, CCH Pounder, Jurnee Smollett, and other members of Artists for a New South Africa. The project's Executive Producer and Narrator is author & philanthropist, Deborah Santana.
Road To Ingwavuma was chosen opening night film at the 2008 Boston International Film Festival, the closing night film at the Creatively Speaking series at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and an official selection of the 2008 Mill Valley Film Festival.
Rick's previous film, In Good Conscience: Sister Jeannine Gramick's Journey of Faith, is a collaboration with legendary cinematographer Albert Maysles, who describes Ms. Rick as "one of the very best documentary filmmakers I know." The film's executive producer is Humanitas prize-winning writer/producer Tom Fontana. (The Philanthropist, Oz, Homicide: Life On The Street, St. Elsewhere)
Funded by generous contributions from Ellen DeGeneres, Susan Sarandon, Trudie Styler, Agnes Gund, Deborah Santana, Tom Fontana, the H. van Ameringen Foundation, the Andrew Goodman Foundation, Aloe Investment Corporation, and anonymous and grass roots donors, In Good Conscience was selected to screen at New York's Lincoln Center in the Independents Night series, receiving standing ovations there and at numerous film festivals around the world.
The 82-minute feature documentary won awards for 'Audience Favorite' and 'Best Documentary' at film festivals in Philadelphia and Michigan and 'Honorable Mention' at New York's NewFest. An official selection of the Silverdocs/AFI Discovery Channel Film Festival, the Nashville Film Festival, the Turin International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and many others, In Good Conscience was honored as the Closing Night Film at Film Out San Diego and The Queer Screen Festival in Sydney, Australia.
In Good Conscience was profiled at length in the Real To Reel segment of PBS' In The Life program, and in Reflections, the Yale Divinity School Journal, in the article: "Tasting The Wine: The Nun, The Filmmaker and the Risk of Freedom."
Called a 'masterpiece' by two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple, In Good Conscience was cited by VARIETY as 'excellent' and 'absorbing' with 'enormous charm.' TimeOutNY said 'This gripping documentary by Barbara Rick is a must-see.'
Barbara Rick directed, produced and co-wrote the PBS film, SHE SAYS/ Women In News. Rick won a News & Documentary Emmy in the 'Outstanding Informational Programming-Long Form' category for that film and was cited as a finalist by the 2002-2003 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia awards jury. SHE SAYS received major funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Ford Foundation, the Whitehead Foundation, Bill Moyers, and others. Special screenings were sponsored by Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, KCET in Los Angeles, and New York Women In Film & Television. Ms. Rick was also invited to present the film before audiences at the United Nations, the Harvard Club, and colleges and universities.
Another documentary production, Sounds Sacred, explores how human beings connect with the spiritual through the tool of sound. Sounds Sacred was an official selection of the 2002 Maui Film Festival, 2001 Mill Valley Film Festival, and 2001 Lake Placid Film Forum. Featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, the film played before enthusiastic audiences in a brief theatrical run at the Red Vic Movie Theatre in San Francisco in January 2003.
Barbara Rick served as a freelance writer/producer/field producer and off-air reporter at ABC News from 1994-2005, where she wrote for the anchors of Good Morning America, World News Now, World News Tonight Saturday & Sunday, and World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. Other clients over the years include HBO, Disney Theatrical Productions, National Geographic Television, CNN, and Fox Television News. Barbara Rick has appeared as a guest on women's issues on the ABC News Now Digital Network and she and her films have been featured in scores of newspaper, magazine, and web articles and radio and television spots around the country and the world. She has been selected as one of the 2010 'People To Watch' in the upcoming April Arts Issue of 201 Magazine.
A graduate of Fordham University, Ms. Rick served as political reporter Gabe Pressman's producer at WNBC-TV. She won a Peabody Award and her second local area Emmy Award for Asylum In The Streets, a documentary on the crisis of New York's mentally ill homeless. Ms. Rick was one of the youngest recipients of the Peabody in the history of the award. She served as a broadcast producer on all the station's newscasts.
