PAXTON WINTERS
Paxton’s first documentary, SILK ROAD ALA TURKA, was made while traveling the Silk Road by camel caravan for 18 months through China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey. His feature film debut, CRUDE, about two opportunistic American backpackers who stage their own kidnapping, won the Best Feature Narrative award at the Los Angeles International Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival. His next script, an Iraq based story entitled OUTSIDE THE WIRE, was developed in the Sundance Institute Writer’s Lab. Additional credits include directing the final season of the hit Turkish crime drama series, ALACAKARANLIK (Twilight). Fluent in Turkish and Portuguese, Paxton has shot news features around the world from the Middle East to the Amazon rainforest for BBC, Arte, Al Jazeera, CNN, TIME and Dutch NOS. Paxton developed his latest film PACIFIED with community members from ‘Morro dos Prazeres’, a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where he’s resided for the past 8 years.

Director's statement
"I first met Maga Wellington, a charismatic and quick witted fixer, while shooting news features my first days in Rio. It was before the World Cup, as the Brazilian government was invading hundreds of favelas with the intention of occupying these massive communities controlled by heavily armed drug gangs. Soon, Maga was dragging me into his notoriously rough favela for their famous barbecues and 24 hour parties. When he firstfloated the idea of me moving there, I thought he was nuts. Then my relationship ended and I needed to find a new home in the economic boom that preceded the Rio Olympics. I decided to face my fears and relocate ‘up the hill’ for a few months until rents returned to earth. The first months weren’t easy, but Maga, his family and friends were always there to help me find my footing. As the community slowly opened to me, I found myself living in a highly functioning network of relationships where I felt welcomed and ironically, safe. Maga and I along with Joseph Carter, a journalist friend of ours who’d been diving deep into this area for decades, decided we wanted to design a workshop to teach basic film production and perhaps produce a documentary. As we proceeded, however, we realized it made more sense to build a fictional story based on an amalgam of real life stories from our community. The idea for the production of Pacified was not only to tell a compelling story, but also to creatively collaborate with my friends, neighbors and their children. It was also imperative for us that the favela’s violence not be glamorized nor its residents rendered as stereotypes. As more supporters and producers came on board, it was essential for us to maintain the authenticity of the story and keep the project grounded within the community".