Patrice O’Neill
Executive Producer, Not In Our Town; Filmmaker, Founder, The Working Group
2021, 2022, 2023
Patrice O’Neill is a filmmaker and founder of the Oakland-based non-profit strategic media company, The Working Group and leader of Not In Our Town, a movement of people across the country working to build safe, inclusive communities for all. Her film Not In Our Town, began as a half-hour PBS special and turned into a dynamic movement that thrives in communities across the U.S. and around the world. For twenty years, O’Neill has fostered a network of “Not In Our Town” activists and helped lead screenings and town hall meetings in hundreds of communities nationwide
O’Neill is Director and Executive Producer on the documentary feature Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life, which highlights the powerful actions of the Pittsburgh community in response to the antisemitic massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue. She is leading a public media and community engagement campaign around the Fall 2023 broadcast of the film. O’Neill’s previous films include the PBS film Light In the Darkness, Waking in Oak Creek about the transformation of a community after hate crime killings at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin.
Recognized as a pioneer in impact media producing, she served as a Sundance Media Advisor at the Skoll World Forum. O’Neill was an advisor to the National Summit on Preventing Multiple Casualty Violence, and has presented her films and the Not In Our Town model, sparking anti hate action in Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia.
It is a tragic reality that hateful ideology has found fertile ground online and offline, with consequences affecting not only Americans but people around the world. We cannot stand idle in the face of bias, bigotry, and extremism. Together, at the Eradicate Hate Summit and beyond, the collective will of individuals and organizations is needed to galvanize all people of good will to protect and defend our communities.
