Last week Working Films, The Fledgling Fund and Chicken & Egg Pictures hosted a 3 day workshop where 6 filmmakers came together to create audience engagement plans so that their films result in Reel Change.  All of the films tell the stories of and touch on issues that affect girls and young women. During the first 2 days, the filmmakers worked on their “community engagement mission statement” so-to-speak. Each filmmaker answered the question “What impact do you want your film to have?” We challenged filmmakers to get specific about the outcomes they wished to see from their film, prompting them to also answer the question, “So what?… So what if your film is broadcast and many people see it? Or, so what if you have community screenings? What will the measurable difference in the lives of girls and young women be when you film is used strategically?

By the end of the two days filmmakers had drilled down to much more specific answers to these questions. Here’s a sampling of some of the concrete ideas.

Jesse Epstein of Body Typed wants to use her series of short films on body image to engage men and boys in a conversation and shift their attitudes about the role of the media in shaping our perspectives on beauty. She believes that we not only have to build girls’ media literacy skills and self esteem by deconstructing false images of themselves but that boys and men have to be challenged to do the same. One idea she has for reaching this audience is to hold community screenings in neighborhood barbershops.

Stephanie Wang-Breal’s film Wo Ai Ni Mommy is about more than just Chinese adoption, it is about questions of identity as well as a redefinition of exactly what is the new  Chinese American family. Through Fang Sui Yong (who is renamed “Faith” by her Jewish-American family) we see how quickly shifts in culture and identity can happen for young adoptees and other immigrant children immersed into a completely new culture. Stephanie wants to use her film to educate adoptive and potential adoptive parents of the cultural gains and losses that result from their adoption and their impact so they are better prepared to work through the questions of identity that their children face. She also wants to work with organizations to set up workshops for adult adoptees based around the film. Interestingly over the course of the residency Stephanie began to think about immigrant families as an additional potential audience for her film that could also benefit from structured workshops or Q&As around cultural and ethnic identity questions facing their children.

Selena Burks, of the film Saving Jackie, used her time at the residency to focus in on how her film can be a tool to serve youth who have experienced many of the same abuses that she did growing up in a home with parents addicted to drugs. To date Selena has had success using the film as an educational tool for foster parents, social workers and other adults that work with youth in these situations. But at Real Girls, Reel Change she came up with some solid ideas about creating a screening toolkit that organizations working with youth in the foster care system or other at-risk groups could use so that the film becomes a prompt for young people to share their own stories of hardship and resiliency and to get access to resources that they might not have known existed. In particular Selena was introduced to the idea of targeting youth that are aging out of the foster care system and using the film as a jumping off point for them to learn about resources available to them. Selena had a chance to test out this model of using the film with youth immediately after Real Girls, Reel Change, with a screening for young women at the Lower Eastside Girls Club in Manhattan on the same night as the workshop.

These are just a few examples of ideas that came from the Real Girls, Reel Change workshop. And this is only the beginning of a much larger collaboration among these films and NGOs. You would think with all these filmmakers in the room there would be competiveness, but the 3 days were nothing but a supportive and encouraging environment. All of the filmmakers shared their experiences of what works and hasn’t worked for them and learned much from one another. There were talks of how all of the films can be used in one big collaborative effort, an idea that was also championed by the NGOs and foundations that participated on the final day of the residency.

On the last day held at 92YTribeca, the filmmakers did a marvelous job of presenting their ideas and pitching their films to numerous NGOs and foundations. A group of young women from NYC based writing program Power Writers were also present to observe and compose poems to summarize the things they learned over the course of the day. The poems were extremely powerful and were a testament to the impact that these films can make in the lives of girls.

Everyone left the day with concrete ideas on how to incorporate media and film into the current work they are doing and with some specific goals to start working towards with these films and filmmakers. And the best part of it all is that this is only the beginning!

More Real Girls, Reel Change:

All related posts about Real Girls, Reel Change on Working Films’ blog
Facebook Photo Album
Twitter #RealGirls
Chicken & Egg Picture’s blog: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3
Chicken & Egg’s YouTube Channel
Katherine Broendel from the American Association of University of Women’s blog
Kathleen Sweeney from Reel Grrls’ blog

There’s something stirring here in Chappaqua on day two of REAL GIRLS REEL CHANGE as six filmmakers begin to move beyond the brainstorming sessions we held yesterday in order to create some very concrete, specific asks to pose to potential partners on the final day of our 3 day workshop tomorrow.

When asked how their approach had evolved thus far, the Seneca Falls team exclaimed: “you can outreach all you want but I realized that the people you are talking to will say “so what?”, outreach is about reaching – not grabbing.”

The growing, stretching, learning and confidence-building we have been doing over the last two days will culminate tomorrow at the 92Y Tribeca where non profits and funders will have a chance to meet, learn and get on board with these brilliant projects with extraordinary messages.

Tomorrow we will:
• Introduce and illustrate to non-profits and funders working on girls’ issues the effectiveness of film as a tool for advancing their organizational priorities and mission, emphasizing the wide range of ways in which film can be used and viewed.

• Explore partnerships between filmmakers and non-profits, and between non-profits that are not yet working together, that will result in real change in the lives of girls.

• Learn from non-profits about the incentives and barriers that exist to their use of media to advance their organizational priorities.

Selena is ready to bring it on. Click on the picture above to watch the video or view it on Chicken & Egg’s blog.

Saving Jackie is a snapshot of a recovering addict’s attempt to strengthen her damaged relationships with her two estranged daughters. Over the course of the documentary, daughter/director Selena Burks revisits life changing events and examines the long-term side effects of abusive behaviors on family relationships.

Selena recently shared with me, her thoughts on the residency:

I left MASS MoCA feeling focused, re-energized, and confident in the fact that not only had I become an activist filmmaker but that I had the strong support from Working Films and my filmmaker peers to back me up.

She explained how the residency prepared her and focused her ideas:

At the residency, each filmmaker is allotted a block of time to develop creative ways to enhance their film’s impact on its particular social/political subject matter. Robert, Judith and the rest of the filmmakers all participate in this discussion. It was during my session when the idea for developing a website as my outreach tool became a unanimous decision by the group. A stylish, informative, organized, and user-friendly website would be the most effective way to introduce myself, the film, the campaign and the work that I do to the organizations I hope to work with.

I recently worked with Selena to develop the online presence for her film campaign. Thanks to generous support from the Chicken & Egg Pictures, we were able to work with some cutting edge graphic designers to make a site that will serve as a robust tool for the campaign. Having strategized the development of websites for film campaigns in the past, including those for Everything’s Cool, Pray the Devil Back to Hell (theatrical release), and Deadline (youth initiative), I was excited to be a part of the collaboration.

Our vision for the Saving Jackie site included:
• A website for the grassroots community that offers audiences a way to get involved
• Highlighting Selena’s public speaking role and how it serves the needs of the field
• Supporting the work of Selena as a filmmaker, including a strong marketing function

Selena reflects:

The most rewarding aspect of this process is that I’ve been able to strengthen and reconnect to the themes of the outreach work that I want to do, which is to help children-at-risk and recovering substance abusers. One of the lessons that I learned while I was developing my website is that the process is similar to filmmaking in that the devil is in the details and that collaboration yields a solid product. Every page, image and word needs to be intentional.

The best piece of information that I can share with my fellow filmmakers on creating a website is to enjoy every step of the process. This will be one of the most memorable experiences you’ve ever had as a filmmaker. Be open and accepting to the new friends who are about to enter into your life and to find comfort in the fact that you are not alone in your specific process. And…Have a great time!

A website can seem like a huge undertaking for most filmmakers, but can be easily managed if the process is broken down into bite-sized chunks that are produced in tandem with the development of the campaign. I can’t emphasize enough that the best websites are connected and integrated into the project as a whole. If you are in production, or are developing a campaign, I urge you to check out the informational resource Tools You Can Use: Maximizing a Film’s Outreach with Web 2.0 and modify it to fit your plans.