It's been a while since I wrote a blog post or posted on Bitlanders. I've been incredibly busy editing my latest feature documentary entitled, Mixed Match. The film explores the need to find more multiethnic donors (one of the fastest growing demographics in North America) to join bone marrow registries and cord blood banks around the world.
The goal of the film is meant help save lives by raising awareness and educating people about the need to register more diverse donors and encourage people to donate their baby’s umbilical cord blood to public cord blood banks.
So far we have filmed with subjects across North America including patients and transplant doctors at various hospitals such as the City of Hope in LA, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, Dana Farber in Boston, and Cedars-Sinai in LA. We even had the incredible opportunity to interview 85-year-old, Dr. Paul Terasaki, developer of the microcytotoxicity test used to identity HLA matching.
I've spent the last two months so far editing the almost 200 hours of footage captured over 4 years of filming. It's a daunting task but things are coming together. I have about 45 minutes of rough clips edited together and I look forward to sharing some new content soon! I'm hoping to have a rough cut of the film done by the fall of 2015. If all goes well, I hope to release the film in Spring 2016!
Until then I'll keep you updated periodically here on Bitlanders!
Wishing all my Bitlander friends a great summer!
-Jeff
