LOVE FREE OR DIE director Macky Alston wins Special Jury Prize at Sundance

Documentary director Macky Alston wins a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Prize for an Agent of Change.

LOVE FREE OR DIE is about a man whose two defining passions are in direct conflict: his love for God and for his partner Mark. Gene Robinson is the first openly gay person to become a bishop in the historic traditions of Christendom. His consecration in 2003, to which he wore a bullet-proof vest, caused an international stir, and he has lived with death threats every day since.

The film follows Robinson's personal story as American churches debate whether or not lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are equal to heterosexuals in the eyes of God while our nation debates whether LGBT people are equal to heterosexuals in the eyes of the law.

In LOVE FREE OR DIE, Bishop Gene steps onto the world stage as he travels from small-town churches to Washington's Lincoln Memorial to London's Lambeth Palace calling for all to stand for equality -- inspiring bishops, priests and ordinary folk to come out from the shadows and change history.

LOVE FREE OR DIE reunites the filmmaking team of Macky Alston and Sandra Itkoff who collaborated on The Killer Within. Alston also directed Family Name which premiered at Sundance and prior production credits for Itkoff include Defamation, Cadillac Desert.

Macky Alston, documentary filmmaker, most recently directed Love Free or Die, a feature film about openly gay bishop Gene Robinson and the international firestorm his consecration sparked, which will premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Alston's first film, Family Name premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997 where it won the Freedom of Expression Award and later aired on PBS' POV. Since then he has directed Questioning Faith (premiered Full Frame & Hot Docs International Film Festivals, aired HBO/Cinemax 2002), The Killer Within (premiered Toronto International Film Festival 2006, aired Discovery Times 2007), and Hard Road Home (premiered South by Southwest 2007, aired PBS' Independent Lens 2008).

Alston is a partner with Sandra Itkoff and Christopher White in Reveal Productions. His awards include the Gotham Open Palm Award and Emmy nominations for three of his films and he has appeared in press around the world, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, and The New York Times.

Filmed by: Chris Barrett
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Special thanks: http://www.jumpinjammerz.com

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