Shine Global

Shine Global Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit media company that was founded in 2005 by Susan MacLaury, a licensed social worker and former health professor at Kean University, and her husband, Albie Hecht, an entertainment executive and founder of Worldwide Biggies and current head of HLN (TV channel). Shine Global has produced or helped produce 7 films including War/Dance, a 2008 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary and Inocente the Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary Short Subject in 2013.

Shine Global Inc. was founded in 2005 by husband and wife Albie Hecht and Susan MacLaury after learning about the plight faced by thousands of children in the war zone of northern Uganda. Shine Global’s mission is to give voice to children by telling stories of their resilience to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change. Shine produces inspiring films and compelling content about at-risk children. Through tailored distribution and outreach, they aim to connect with audiences in communities, classrooms, museums, and on capitol hill as part of their engagement campaigns to encourage social change. Since its founding, Shine Global has taken action on child labor, child abuse, and child soldiering, shared moving stories about the effects of war, parental incarceration, undocumented immigration, and homelessness on children, highlighted the power of music, dance, and sports to overcome intolerance. In all its films, Shine Global celebrates children’s resilience.

Shine Global’s first film War/Dance tells the story of three northern Ugandan children who grew up in the war zone. It debuted at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Documentary Directing Award and went on to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary in 2008.

War/Dance was produced in partnership with Fine Film Productions, Rogues Harbor Studios, and distributed by ThinkFilm and Image Entertainment.

War/Dance Returns is the 15-minute follow-up documentary to War/Dance. It depicts the journey back to the Patongo camp by the director of War/Dance, Sean Fine, Shine Global’s Executive Director, Susan Maclaury, and the original War/Dance film crew in the summer of 2008. Approximately 7-10 thousand people came to see the film in the Patongo camp making a lasting impression on the entire crew as well as Rose, Nancy, and Dominic. War/Dance Returns premiered on the Sundance Channel in May 2009.

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