Atlanta Story Partners (ASP) today announced its debut film “The Games in Black & White” achieved two distribution deals thanks in part to the 2025 Atlanta Film Festival.
The Olympic feature doc will be available to air passengers via the Delta Air Lines Delta Studio® in-flight entertainment system Sept. 1 to Dec. 31. The film also will enjoy a statewide audience when Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) airs a prime-time premiere of the film in July, with specific air dates and times to be announced.
GPB will also make “The Games in Black & White” available on GPB’s digital platform while championing the film for national distribution via Public Broadcasting System (PBS). Both deals were unveiled during the pre-screening remarks at the festival’s world premiere Special Presentation of “The Games in Black & White” at the Rialto Center for the Arts.
“The Atlanta Film Festival is about bringing the latest and greatest stories in independent film from around the world to Atlanta and sharing our city’s stories with the world,” said Christopher Escobar, Atlanta Film Society executive director. “Our festival also helps independent filmmakers like Atlanta Story Partners to find larger audiences for their work, and news that ‘The Games in Black & White’ will be watched on Delta Air Lines’ in-flight entertainment and via public broadcasting across Georgia—reaching over 11 million viewers—means we achieved important facets of our work.”
“The Atlanta Film Festival team’s decision to include ‘The Games in Black & White’ as a Special Presentation directly advanced our conversations with potential distributors,” said ASP Co-Founder George Hirthler, the writer and co-executive producer/co-director of the film with ASP Co-Founder Bob Judson. “Getting the film’s important story to a broad audience with Delta Studio® and GPB is our filmmaker team’s dream come true … almost as big as Atlanta’s team winning its Olympic bid!”
Centered around the inspirational friendship of icons Andrew Young and Billy Payne—the most successful Black and White partnership in the American South in the civil rights era—“The Games in Black & White” presents the first comprehensive look at Atlanta’s Olympics from bid to legacy and the city’s transformation that followed.
The Centennial Olympic Games of 1996 were billed as “the largest peacetime gathering in history.” “The Games in Black & White” summarizes and assesses the decades-long impact in three acts: “The Bid, The Games, and The Legacy.” Production on the documentary began in early 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic halted work that summer. Through anonymous corporate support, production resumed in summer 2022, with filming completed in fall 2023 and editing/rights clearances in process through spring 2025.
Along with Payne and Young, ASP completed interviews with over 45 people associated with the 1996 Games or the Olympic Movement, including former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Martin Luther King III and former First Lady of Atlanta Valerie Jackson, among others. The team also interviewed U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland, five-time Olympic medalist and LA28 Chief Athlete Officer Janet Evans, and LA28 Chief of Games Management Doug Arnot, who was managing director of venues and operations at the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. During Sept. 2023, ASP interviewed 1996 Olympic decathlon champion Dan O’Brien and completed a two-day on-location shoot involving over 30 crew members at Centennial Olympic Park.
In a statement, GPB leadership said “The Games in Black & White” is a natural for their statewide audience via nine Georgia television stations.
“The inspiring partnership and stories unveiled in ‘The Games in Black & White’ closely align with GPB’s mission, vision and strategy to unite and uplift every Georgian in every corner of the state,” said GPB President & CEO Bert Wesley Huffman.
