We are excited to introduce you to Theo, a media company and producing partner with Hurdle, on the blog today.
Theo is an educational multimedia brand that creates compelling and engaging content in order to connect audiences to interesting and sometimes challenging subject matter. It was formed in 2016 as a collaboration between Hurdle director/producer Michael Rowley and producer Remoy Philip.
Theo has played an important role in helping amplify the story of Hurdle, so we wanted to share a bit more about Theo (and how it aligns with Hurdle) in the form of a post written by Remoy.
We built Theo to create media that we believed was important. We wanted to tell stories that come from the fringes—stories of people and experiences that aren’t regularly seen or heard. In this way, these stories effectively become bridges. They connect people to underserved stories, help cross a divide that was previously thought uncrossable and, ultimately, could take us all somewhere new.
We developed an online magazine called Rover where we published stories about being stopped and frisked, about being a queer novelist, about being a young woman who doesn’t want to have kids and so much more. We developed a holiday outreach for the homeless called Cookies for Homies Without Homes where we not only shared a small bit of the holiday spirit with the homeless nationwide, but simultaneously told the stories of the homeless outreach workers who made it their job to support the homeless each and every day. We built so many robust bridges, but we were still looking to find and tell more challenging stories that could give you access to something unseen and unexpected.
Hurdle exemplifies exactly what we want our bridges to be. Through Hurdle, we get to cross into a complex world that our daily news cycle often paints with too broad of a brush. We get to watch as young Palestinians navigate a complex world of rubber bullets, sniper towers, and military occupation. We can watch and be inspired by these young men who face walls and respond with creativity to determine their freedom. They teach us that freedom is something you can practice.
Stories are so much a part of our everyday lives. But all too often, important stories fall through the cracks and we miss out on the opportunity to see the world from a broader perspective. At Theo, we don’t want that to happen. And that’s why we’re so proud to play a part in bringing Hurdle to a screen near you. We know this film tells an important story and we also know this story can bridge a gap. We’re excited to bridge that gap with Hurdle and with you.