Atlanta Story Partners LLC today formally announced the production of their first feature documentary film “The Games in Black & White.”
The emerging Georgia-based production company has engaged a diverse group of filmmaking talent to create socially relevant documentaries around inspirational narratives.
Conceived as the first comprehensive look at the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games, which were billed as “the largest peacetime gathering in history,” “The Games in Black & White” will assess the decades-long impact of “The Bid, The Games and The Legacy.”
Production on the documentary began in early 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic halted work that summer. Through corporate support recently secured, production resumed in summer 2022.
With 35 interviews and counting now complete, the film is now scheduled for a spring 2024 premiere as interest builds for the Olympic Games in Paris.
“The Games in Black & White” will highlight the untold story of how Ambassador Andrew Young and Olympic CEO Billy Payne harnessed the Centennial Games as an engine of social justice at home while mounting a remarkable humanitarian outreach abroad under the banner of the UN’s Olympic Truce.
The film will present a compelling narrative about what is arguably the single most successful Black and White partnership in the American South in the Civil Rights Era. Framed against the backdrop of Atlanta’s vibrant civil rights history, the documentary will detail the story of two men, Payne and Young, and the improbable quest they mounted to win and stage the Olympics in the city they loved.
“Given the state of race relations in our society today, it’s increasingly important to tell empowering stories of Blacks and Whites working together to achieve shared goals,” said George Hirthler, co-founder of Atlanta Story Partners who served in 1989/90 as the lead writer on Atlanta’s successful Olympic bid campaign. “Atlanta is uniquely equipped to tell such stories, particularly through its Civil Rights Movement and Olympic history, which is what we’ve set out to do.”
Founded in 2019, Atlanta Story Partners is the co-creation of Hirthler, an Atlanta-based writer/producer, Olympic campaign strategist, author and amateur sports historian, and Emmy winning veteran filmmaker/producer/director Bob Judson.
Along with Payne and Young, the Atlanta Story Partners team has completed interviews with 35 people associated with the 1996 Games or the Olympic Movement, including former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Martin Luther King III, Bob Holder, Charlie Battle, Cynthia Jones Parks, David Moody, Michael Ross, Linda Stephenson, Ginger Watkins and Susan Watson, among others.
In March, the team interviewed U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland as well as LA28 Board Chair Casey Wasserman, five-time Olympic medalist and LA28 Chief Athlete Officer Janet Evans, and LA28 Chief of Games Management Doug Arnot, who was also managing director of venues and operations at the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.
The Atlanta Story Partners team also travelled to Europe in April, securing interviews with five-time Norwegian Olympic medalist Johann Olav Koss, who emerged from the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics as the leader of Olympic Aid, an international humanitarian outreach that became one of Ambassador Young’s passions in the lead up to Atlanta 1996. The team also interviewed veteran Eurosport journalist and producer Christian Seychal, who covered the Centennial Olympic Games over the course of six years.
Hirthler served as a lead writer for 10 international Olympic bids over the past 30-plus years and is author of “The Idealist,” a fictionalized biography of Pierre de Coubertin, the French founder of the modern Olympic Movement.
Judson’s film career spans over 45 years and includes the production of hundreds of independent, network or corporate films, including “The Treasure Seekers,” a 10-hour series that launched the National Geographic Channel. Among numerous industry accolades, he has earned six Southeast Emmy Awards.
In addition to Hirthler and Judson, the diverse Atlanta Story Partners team for “The Games in Black & White” and its planned spring 2024 premiere also includes Emmy winning producer Rohan Backfisch, producer Alahna Lark, editor Nyla Henderson, production manager Addi Laros, associate producer Mark Lannaman, production assistant Joël Lunguana, and Nicholas Wolaver as publicist, plus more than a dozen additional crew members. Producer Margaret Anthony was part of the team from early 2022 to March 2023 but departed to accept a position as creative director for NewsNation in April 2023.
In tandem with “The Games in Black & White” Atlanta Story Partners also continues its work on two other film projects including “Genius of Sport,” detailing the life of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the Modern Olympic Movement, as well as “Shu—The Story of Florence Knoll.” While in Europe in April, the team secured interviews with Norwegian Olympic Museum consultant and Coubertin expert Sebastian Kühn, as well as Alexandra de Navacelle and her father Yvan de Navacelle, current and former head, respectively, for the Coubertin Family Association in Paris. Additional details for both projects will be announced later in 2023.
About Atlanta Story Partners LLC
Co-founded in 2020 by George Hirthler and Bob Judson, Atlanta Story Partners LLC is a Georgia-based production company engaging a diverse group of filmmaking talent to create socially relevant documentaries around inspirational narratives. “The Games in Black & White,” a documentary about the Atlanta 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, is one of several films in development. It will feature the untold story of how the organizing committee’s leadership—championed by Ambassador Andrew Young and a team led by Olympic CEO Billy Payne—harnessed the Games as an engine of social justice and economic opportunity for their community. Thanks to funding provided by a major corporation, the film is on schedule to premiere in spring 2024. Visit AtlantaStoryPartners.com to learn more.
