Patrick Sammon
Patrick Sammon has a mix of experience in filmmaking, broadcast journalism, and LGBT political advocacy. He is President of Story Center Productions, LLC, a film production company based in Washington, DC. He is the Creator and Executive Producer of CODEBREAKER.
Sammon turned his idea for CODEBREAKER into a highly acclaimed film that has reached all corners of the globe. He put together an award-winning international production team (including Great Britain-based Furnace Ltd.), secured financing, and helped oversee both the business and creative side of the production. Sammon also developed and implemented a creative and comprehensive grassroots distribution strategy for CODEBREAKER, combining traditional distribution channels with a unique outreach campaign to connect with the target audience. More than three million viewers around the world have seen the film through television broadcasts (including a premiere on Channel 4 in the UK), a limited 12-city U.S. theatrical release, film festivals, digital outlets (such as Netflix and iTunes), DVDs, and more than 250 non-theatrical screenings (including at The British Museum, the United States National Archives, The Organization of American States, and the FBI).
Currently, Sammon is the Co-Director and Co-Producer, with Bennett Singer, of a documentary about the remarkable and little-known story of the LGBT activists who successfully battled the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. Until 1973, the medical establishment considered every gay person mentally ill. CURED tells the David-versus-Goliath story of the activists who challenged this diagnosis — and won. Combining eyewitness testimony with newly unearthed archival footage, the film reveals how a small group of impassioned activists achieved this unexpected victory. In-production now, Sammon and Singer aim to release the film in the late summer of 2019. Watch a three-minute preview of CURED.
Before founding Story Center Productions, Sammon served three years as President of Log Cabin Republicans. Log Cabin advocates for LGBT rights in the Republican Party on behalf of its 20,000 members. As President, he coordinated Log Cabin’s lobbying efforts, developed and implemented the organization’s political strategy, and oversaw media outreach and fund-raising. Sammon started his career as an award winning television news reporter. He worked three years at WJHL Newschannel 11, the CBS affiliate in the Tri-Cities (Johnston City and Kingsport, TN & Bristol, TN/VA). In 2002, the Tennessee Associated Press Broadcasters Association gave him an award for Best News Writing in the state. Sammon also spent three years as a television news reporter at WWNY-TV, the CBS affiliate in Watertown, New York. He received awards from the New York Associated Press Broadcasters Association for best feature reporting and the Syracuse Press Club for best investigative reporting. A summa cum laude graduate of Syracuse University, Sammon is a native of Seattle.