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THE PROJECT profiles the precarious, real-life story of the Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF), a shadowy group of pirate hunters. Taking after the hijacking of the world’s waterways and the kidnapping of innocent citizens with its under-trained hands, the PMPF faces mutiny, murder, and diplomatic mischief in its dangerous quest to rid a country and its coastal waters of terror. The mercenaries’ epic battle makes for an intense, gripping, and groundbreaking ride.

TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dztRjtoaAr8

ADAM CIRALSKY (Director/ Producer) Adam Ciralsky, co-director of THE PROJECT, is the recipient of journalism’s highest honors, including three Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, a Polk Award, and other awards. Having begun his career as an attorney, Ciralsky spent over a decade producing for CBS’ 60 Minutes and a variety of NBC platforms, and writing for Vanity Fair magazine.

Ciralsky’s reporting has effected change at the highest levels of government, resulting in criminal probes, congressional hearings, the passage of new laws and the elimination of loopholes in existing law. His Emmy-winning series on body armor helped prompt the recall of thousands of defective plates issued to U.S. forces.

Peeling back the curtain on the national security establishment, Ciralsky has helped viewers as well as policymakers better understand transnational threats and our nation’s response to them. Few documentarians are better poised to do so.

“A wünderkind of the national security establishment,” to quote National Public Radio, Ciralsky served as an attorney with the Central Intelligence Agency, where he provided counsel on a variety of international matters, and before that at the Pentagon where he helped combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

SHAWN EFRAN (Director/ Producer) Shawn Efran, co-director of THE PROJECT, has garnered two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, two Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Awards, an Overseas Press Club Award, and other commendations during twelve years producing and writing for CBS’s 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II.

Notable stories he produced include an Emmy-winning look at the genocide in Darfur, an Emmy-winning CBS documentary following the Iowa National Guard through a deployment cycle in Iraq, and a Peabody-winning interview with the U.S. Marine accused of murdering civilians in Iraq. Efran’s Emmy-nominated story on a cancer clinic in Las Vegas and his OPC award-winning story on a deadly canal in California are credited with leading to changes being made that saved lives.

In 2010, Efran formed the production company Efran Films with the mission of creating high-quality, unscripted content for the web, cable, broadcast, and theatrical release. The company’s clients include AOL, Huffington Post, Current TV, HDNet, AxsTV, Plum TV, Weather.com, and others.

Efran Films' debut web series, a collection of first-person stories for AOL titled “Home of the Brave,” has garnered some 5 million views and is currently short-listed for a Webby Award.

THE PROJECT: Directors: Shawn Efran & Adam Ciralsky Producers: Adam Ciralsky & Shawn Efran Editor: Alyse Spiegel Co-Producers: Roger Carstens & John Forté Principal Cast: Fasil Ashraf, Matthew Bryden, Roger Carstens, Sharmistha Dutta, Rudolph van Heerden, Lafras Luitingh, Erik Prince, and Michael Shanklin Cinematographer: Ian Robbie Composer: John Forté

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Edited by Vanessa McMahon