Producer/Director Carolyn Projansky was inspired to make Breaking the Rules while living in South Africa from 2000-2003. As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, she believes passionately that individuals of conscience can make a difference. Experiencing life in South Africa and studying its troubled history, Carolyn found herself wondering, "What would I have done if I had grown up in apartheid-era South Africa? Would I have stood up against the injustice or remained silent?"
Production of BREAKING THE RULES began in 2004 with a grant from a South African consortium of funders and continued in 2005-2007 with grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and individuals. In 2009, a major grant was received from the Atlantic Philanthropies to complete all production. We have received a generous grant from Atlantic Philanthropies towards the completion of the film.
Distribution plans include international television broadcast and well as non-broadcast educational, festival and online distribution. We are committed to using the film and the issues it raises as the foundation for educational outreach projects such as seminars, workshops and curriculum materials for the classroom and the web. We are reaching out to NGOs internationally to use the film to examine universal concerns such as the interplay between race, identity and ideology, the role of violent and non-violent resistance and methods to achieving post-conflict reconciliation. In South Africa we are building partnerships with prominent educational institutions that can facilitate programming and dialogue on these issues.
All interview footage shot for the film will be donated to a research institution in South Africa and made fully accessible to scholars for future research.