RWANDA: DO THE SCARS EVER FADE PART 3 OF 3

-Paul Freedman: Producer, Director, Writer-

Paul Freedman began his film career as an editorial assistant for television commercials. As an editor and director, his list of commercial credits spans a decade, and includes spots for Nike, Diet Coke, Southwest Airlines, Nissan, Lexus, Budweiser, and numerous others.

His first documentary gig came as an editor on a film about minor league baseball. In 1994, Paul teamed with fellow director Greg DeHart on the historical military documentary, "The Tears of Peleliu," a survivor's account of a brutal and controversial battle in World War II.

Soon thereafter, Paul decided to dedicate all of his energy to the documentary world, and, in 2001, teamed with DeHart and Bill Brummel Productions to edit "Pol Pot's Secret Prison," a History Channel doc about the infamous Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Phen. The piece went on to win the International Documentary Association's (IDA) top honor for "Best Documentary in a Continuing Series" and was also nominated for two Emmy Awards.

However, his career would be jolted and re-defined when he was sent to Rwanda by Bill Brummel Productions and The History Channel to chronicle that country's genocide and its aftermath. The resultant documentary, "Rwanda—Do Scars Ever Fade?" would go on to earn a Peabody Award, two more Emmy nominations, and the IDA's prestigious ABC News/VideoSource Award for best use of news and archival footage.

Somewhere in Rwanda's "killing fields," Paul found the focus of his career: the documentary as a tool for social change. It since has become Paul's impassioned goal and commitment to tell the immediate story of the "next Rwanda"—Darfur, Sudan—before it, too, becomes the tragic subject of yet another historical documentary.