The short film "White Bitch Down" by Atlanta based Boondogglers Productions has won national honors: Best 48 Hour Film Project of 2002, defeating more than 120 films from around the country, including other award winning films from New York, L.A., Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Austin, TX. "It's an incredible honor to receive this national award with so many talented filmmakers competing from all over the country," said Producer Richard Sampson, who teamed up with Co-Producer Leigh Hill and Director Jon Hill of Jon Hill Pictures to pull together the Boondogglers production team. "Atlanta has a substantial and growing group of extremely talented filmmakers. We look forward to creating many more award winning films in the future." Last year during the local Atlanta competition, "White Bitch Down" took home awards for Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound Design, Best Director and Best Cinematography, as well as an Atlanta Audience Award. The 48 Hour Film Project was started in Washington D.C. in 2001 by independent filmmakers Mark Ruppert and Liz Langston. Rupert and Langston then took the Project to New York and Atlanta where "White Bitch Down" was produced. After Atlanta the Project continued to Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and completed the year in Austin. During the competitions, 22 to 44 teams in each city consisting of some of the industry's leading talents competed by writing, producing and editing short films ranging in length from 5 to 12 minutes. On Friday night at 7:00pm each team pulled the required film elements from a hat including: genre, line of dialog, a prop, and a character. 48 hours later the finished films had to be turned in. Written by Atlanta based screenwriters Robert Lee and Debbie Locker, "White Bitch Down" utilized state of the art editing techniques, including a "rewind" effect, to tell the story of a group of individuals who unexpectedly find themselves in a perilous situation. Only in the last scene is the dark comedic mystery solved. "We wanted to do something that really stood out as a quality, creative short film," said Jon Hill. " The whole team was totally in sync throughout the process, and it shows on screen." Members of the top tier crew incorporated a post production team from Crawford Communications, including Editor Les Umberger, Sound Designer Greg Crawford and Colorist Dave Pickett. "The editing team at Crawford Communications did a phenomenal job of taking our footage and helping us turn it into something incredible," Hill said. The film stars Leigh Hill, Jim Issa, Kenny Alfonso, Melissa Ponzio, Carol Tveit Clarke and Adam Holder. Other cast members include Camille Pacht, Buster Johnson, Carmen Shands, Chris Halloway and Javier as The Dog. The film has also been accepted by the Sarasota Film Festival and the Cleveland Film Festival. The team plans to submit "White Bitch Down" to additional film festivals. The Boondogglers already are planning their next project, a full length feature film that has some of the same dark, comedic elements.