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Code 9: Officer Needs Assistance

CODE 9: OFFICER NEEDS ASSISTANCE

The Documentary

Law enforcement and PTSD: A deadly combination

You’re a police officer. You dedicate your life to fighting crime, fighting the war on drugs, putting the bad guys away, while trying to keep society safe. You wear your uniform and your badge proudly.

After several years on the job you see the worst that the human race has to offer. Your skin thickens and you become desensitized. You witness things that no human being should ever witness. Disconnecting from your feelings, is the only way to protect yourself.

Your job eats away at your soul........The days grow darker......

Your family and friends watch as you fade away. The nightmares are endless. You think back to the beginning, when you were told that you would be putting your life on the line. They said there was a possibility that you could get killed.

As you slowly pick up the gun to your head, did you ever once think that this is what they meant?

This powerful documentary explores the darker side of law enforcement as it documents the stories of police officers and their families who are now suffering the mental anguish of the careers they chose, which has led some to suicide.

 

Directors note:

I am the wife of a retired state trooper. When my husband retired from his 22 year law enforcement career all of our dreams of how his retirement would and should be turned into our nightmares. Little did we know that his years on the job would transform into the demons he battles today. I did not understand what was happening to him and watching his downward spiral was heart wrenching and it has torn our family apart. We now know that he suffers from job related Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

His story has inspired me to write a screenplay titles The Greater Good which in turn has inspired me and my producing partner Lisa Edwards to shoot this documentary about the men and women and the family members who love them. It saddens me to know how little our society knows about the struggles these brave men and women face during their years on the job and must carry with them into what should be their hard earned joyful retirement. What I find infuriating is how little the departments themselves do in order to help these men and women. This cannot continue. Their voices have to be heard in honor of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice - suicide.

Deborah Louise Ortiz

 

The Production Team

Dangerous Curves Productions:

Deborah Louise Ortiz -Executive Producer

Lisa Edwards -Executive Producer

Dangerous Curves Productions was formed by Lisa Edwards and Deborah Louise Ortiz. Lisa graduated with a BA in Theatre Arts from Whittier College and continued her theatrical and on camera/film education in New York City. Deborah studied at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Lisa and Deborah have extensive careers in film and theatre, both in performing and behind the scenes.

Lisa and Deborah met over 15 years ago on a film set and quickly realized that they wanted to form a production company that would help women writers/performers/artist, create and share their visions and voices, exploring the roles and real issues that face women today all over the globe.

Deborah has written three stage plays that were produced by Dangerous Curves Productions: Dirty Laundry, Changing Violet and Love in New York– How Do You Know? All three plays were performed on several New York stages including the Midtown International Theater festival. In 2007 Dangerous Curves was nominated for an IT Award (New York Innovative Theatre Awards -- celebrating Off Off Broadway ) for Outstanding Performance Art Production.

Code 9 – Officer Needs Assistance is Dangerous Curves Productions debut into the Documentary field.

 

Milka Stanisic – Producer

Milka Stanisic has been working in the film industry for the past 15 years. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Political Science, she set off to the war torn region of Bosnia to document the war that was taking place. Over the next year and a half, she traveled the region, in hopes of deciphering, without the bias of what the western media was reporting, the true state of events. Her resulting documentary, Dr. Dove: International Involvement in the Balkan Crisis, was positively received at several festivals and helped open the world’s eyes to some truths that were previously unspoken.

In 1997, Milka moved to New York City to attend the New York Film Academy and pursue a career in filmmaking. She quickly began to find work in film production. Starting as a production coordinator and then graduating to a production manager, she has worked on well over 50 commercials and promos for all of the major networks.

In 2003, Milka started Em & Me Productions, a film and commercial production company with her sister Millie Stanisic. That same year they made the critically acclaimed, cult horror film Satan’s Playground. Em & Me Productions raised the $600,000 budget and was able to attract a well known cult director, Dante Tomaselli, as well as a cast of 1980’s horror icons. The film was on Amazon.com’s best seller list for months and has found a large audience through both rentals at Blockbuster, Netflix, etc. and purchases at all the known retailers, including Walmart, Best Buy, etc.

In 2006, Em & Me Productions acquired the rights to a book based on a true story called Winter of Frozen Dreams. After raising $2 million to shoot the film and to attach stars such as Thora Birch and Keith Carradine, they began principal photography in early 2007. The film can currently be seen on Lifetime in the US as well as Netflix and other major DVD outlets. It has also been acquired by 20th Century Fox for foreign distribution.

In between these two films, Milka continued working on independent feature films for other companies usually in the role of production manager or line producer. She has been involved with 10 independent films and has worked with many acclaimed actors.

Milka is currently working at CBS News in New York, while continuing to develop several TV shows including an hour long scripted drama, and a half hour comedy, which will be shot in New York and Toronto. Milka currently resides in New York City.

 

Kurt Engfehr – Film Advisor

Kurt Engfehr grew up next to a steel mill in a working class suburb of Detroit. He settled in New York City where he worked at HBO, MSNBC and National Video Center (among other places) as a staff Avid editor. He edited promos and programs for Lifetime, CBS and ABC; he also created a series of short films featuring Chernobyl, the guitar playing penguin. Kurt was senior editor on Michael Moore's Emmy nominated show "The Awful Truth" (1999).

Kurt then segued from TV to film by working on Bowling for Columbine (2002) for which he won the American Cinema Editors award for best documentary editing. Kurt was co-producer and editor for the documentary A League of Ordinary Gentlemen (2004), that won the Audience Award at the 2004 SXSW Film Festival. Kurt then decided he didn't need any rest and worked on Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). It turned out ok.

Kurt then worked on Seamless (2005) a movie about NY fashion directed by Doug Keeve, who previously made, Unzipped (1995) which most people found ironic considering just how much Kurt knows about fashion. He followed that up by editing Angelina Jolie's directing debut, the documentary, A Place in Time (2007). He was then co-producer and editor on the documentary Trumbo (2007) based on the off-Broadway play about Dalton Trumbo which uses his letters as the basis for telling the story of his being one of the blacklisted writers in Hollywood during the 1950's.

A string of producing roles followed, starting with Taking Liberties (2007) a UK doc about the erosion of civil liberties under Tony Blair that just had a theatrical run and garnered its director, Chris Atkins, a BAFTA nomination. He followed that up with a doc about the selling of beauty called America the Beautiful (2007) and Bigger Stronger Faster (2008) a documentary about steroids, cheating, and excess in America, and which was surely a big hit in the Selig and Clemens households. Kurt has also produced and edited the documentary No Manifesto (2009) about the band Manic Street Preachers, who Rolling Stone magazine called, the best band you've never heard of.

A slight career change appears to be under way as Kurt has accidentally begun to direct. He's just finished up co-directing duties on the film The Yes Men Fix The World, which was just on HBO.

Please Join Us in Supporting

The Badge of Life

An organization dedicated to helping officers suffering from PTSD and their Families.

Operation Warrior Wellness

An organization dedicated to helping Veterans with PTSD.


David Lynch Foundation