Former CNN Anchor Prepares for Bittersweet World Premiere

On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 23rd, New York-based filmmaker Nick Louvel delivered a print of his new documentary The Uncondemned to the headquarters of the 2015 Hamptons International Film Festival. A few hours later, just past 1 a.m. Thursday, he veered off the road in East Hampton and was pronounced dead after being airlifted from the scene of the single-car accident to a nearby hospital.

Needless to say, this changes everything.

What was to be a joyful world premiere screening at the Hamptons festival this coming Friday at 3 p.m. must now, necessarily, serve as a memorial for Louvel, who co-directed the film with Michele Mitchell, a former anchor on CNN Headline News and one-time correspondent for NOW With Bill Moyers. From the note posted on the Film at Eleven website in the wake of Louvel's passing:

The loss of Nick's spirit and presence is profound and we will do everything we can to bring his work to widest possible audience. We always knew that we had to make this film for the women who risked everything and lost so much on the road to justice. Today we add to that the great honor of making this film known around the world for Nick. The community of people whose lives have been touched and changed by Nick Louvel will only continue to grow.

The Uncondemned's look at how a courageous group of Rwandan women came together to help designate rape as a war crime is anchored to an historic trial in the International Criminal Court. Following the October 9th world premiere screening, Mitchell and the film's principal subjects will take part in a "Conflict and Rape" panel discussion moderated by Al Jazeera America's Patricia Sabga. The documentary is the recipient of this year's $5,000 cash prize from the We Are Family Foundation:

The key players in this groundbreaking trial — Sara Dareshori, Pierre Prosper, Binaifer Nowrojee and Patricia Sellers — will reunite for the first time in almost 20 years for the post-screening panel. All have continued their passionate and career long commitment to international justice. They will join co-director Michele Mitchell for an in-depth discussion of the stirring events captured in The Uncondemned, the impact of that trial on judicial trends and global perceptions and the implications and possibilities for the future.

Louvel, born in Santa Monica and a graduate of Harvard, also took filmmaking courses at NYU and Boston University. A short he made while at Harvard, Domino One, featured Natalie Portman and Steve Guttenberg. RIP.