Location United States Owner AOL
(Verizon) Founded 2012 | Origins Los Angeles Employees 25 Parent organization The Huffington Post | |
Key people Bryn Mooser, David Darg, Molly Swenson, Martha Rogers, Gareth Seltzer Subsidiaries RYOT Studio, RYOT Films, RYOT Foundation Headquarters Los Angeles, California, United States Founders Bryn Mooser, David Darg, Martha Loretta Rogers, Martha Rogers Profiles | ||
Ryot news the power of immersive media
RYOT is an immersive media company founded in 2012 based in Los Angeles. As humanitarian aid workers, first responders and filmmakers, RYOT founders Bryn Mooser, David Darg and Martha Rogers spotlight the world’s key global and social issues, creating innovative 360° and virtual reality experiences for viewers. From being on the ground in a Syrian war zone to profiling the destruction of the Nepal earthquake, their films span five continents and profile countries in need, bringing new and innovative stories back to the stateside audience. They have received numerous awards for filmmaking, including an 2016 Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Short.As of 2016, it a unit of Huffington Post, a subsidiary of AOL, a division of Verizon
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Bryn mooser s ryot org is using vr to transform journalism let us live global stories
Background
Bryn Mooser and David Darg, the two co-founders of RYOT, met in Haiti during the weeks after the earthquake of January 2010. Both were in the country doing humanitarian work, Mooser with Artists for Peace and Justice, to build a school, and Darg with Operation Blessing, to build water and sanitation systems. After working alongside each other and becoming friends, Mooser and Darg had the idea to create a baseball league for the young boys of the Tabarre neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.
Soon after, Mooser and Darg returned home to America and launched RYOT News. The founding investor is Canadian Martha Rogers, who is also a Board Member and co-founder. Gareth Seltzer funded RYOT at its origination as well and serves on its board.
“Our work in Haiti over the last three years has been really important to us and our hearts will always be there,” Mooser said. “We return often and plan to in the future, but now we’re ready to use the power of the news to effect change all over the world.”
Celebrity activists Olivia Wilde, Ian Somerhalder and Sophia Bush are all supporters of RYOT and endorse their efforts worldwide.
Subcategories
RYOT Studio is an in-house agency, dedicated to creating media campaigns. RYOT Studio produces virtual reality / 360 video, documentary films, events, and social media strategy for nonprofits and brand partners including The New York Times, NPR, The Associated Press, Huffington Post and Sierra Club.
RYOT Films creates award-winning documentaries, web content, and narrative feature films about important world issues. RYOT Film Body Team 12 was nominated for an Oscar in 2015.
RYOT Foundation works in post-disaster zones all over the world, running youth sports programs in Haiti and Senegal, rebuilding fishing villages in the Philippines and fostering music education in the Arctic.
Filmography
Mooser and Darg documented their work with the young boys in Haiti in their Tribeca award-winning film Baseball in the Time of Cholera, which follows the rise of the Tabarre Tigers and the concurrent outbreak of Cholera in Haiti. The film played at film festivals around the world and finished with a special Congressional screening in Washington, D.C.
A year later, Mooser and Darg, debuted their third film at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, a documentary short titled The Rider and The Storm, which chronicles a New York surfer who lost everything in the Breezy Point fires during Hurricane Sandy.
Executive-produced by Olivia Wilde and Paul Allen, RYOT's Oscar-nominated Body Team 12 profiles a young Liberian health worker who collects the bodies of the dead in Monrovia at the height of the Ebola outbreak in 2014, and won Best Short Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival 2015. It will debut on HBO in February 2016.
The Painter of Jalouzi was the first documentary to be shot entirely on an iPhone 6s Plus.
Awards and nominations
RYOT Films was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for Body Team 12 in January 2016. Body Team 12 was also honored at the Tribeca Film Festival, the Mountainfilm Festival, the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and the Austin Film Festival for Best Documentary Short.