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Independent Documentary ‘Street Gang’ Explores Origins of ‘Sesame Street’

New documentary feature from Macrocosm Entertainment and Citizen Skull Productions to include archival materials from Sesame Workshop and The Jim Henson Company.

AUSTIN, TX -- Macrocosm Entertainment and Citizen Skull Productions have announced the production of Street Gang, a feature documentary based, in part, on the 2008 New York Times best-selling book by Michael Davis profiling the creation and history of Sesame Street. The producers have launched an Indiegogo campaign to help fund the ambitious project with truly one-of-a-kind rewards.

Street Gang will be directed by Marilyn Agrelo, director of the festival award-winning Mad Hot Ballroom. Agrelo will have access to Sesame Street archives through Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, and The Jim Henson Company. Using new animated sequences, new character and cast interviews, and exclusive archival materials, Street Gang will tell the origin story of the show and how creator Joan Ganz Cooney, director Jon Stone, and visionary Jim Henson came out of the ideals and the societal unrest of the sixties to make something that changed history.

“I am both honored and excited to tell the story of Sesame Street’s beginnings, and the brilliant group of people who set out to radically change the way TV shapes our lives,” said Marilyn Agrelo, Director Street Gang.

Sesame Street set out to educate a nation of children. In the process it changed the world,” said Trevor Crafts CEO of Macrocosm and Executive Producer of Street Gang.

One of the film’s Indiegogo campaign goals, in addition to creating new animation and new music, is to raise funds to rebuild the Season One Sesame Street set, taking the audience back in time. Additionally, the filmmakers will donate 15% of the net proceeds of the crowd funding campaign to Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational media organization behind Sesame Street, through its Yellow Feather Fund which helps the world’s most vulnerable children grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.

Some of the featured perks that Street Gang’s producers will be providing for Indiegogo backers include:

  • Reproductions of original animation cells from the early seasons of the show.
  • Original artwork by Sesame Workshop Creative Director Louis Mitchell that includes a drawing of the backer with Sesame Street Muppets.
  • An exclusive “GREEN” Grover figurine as he appeared in the original pitch film for Sesame Street.
  • Reproductions of classic Sesame Street children’s books illustrations.

Street Gang will be in production in late 2016.

Source: Macrocosm Entertainment