Who better to speak about Reel Change than someone who’s already gone through it? I checked in with a few of the alumni from our first Managing Social Issue Film Campaigns workshop to find out what they gained from the training. Here’s what they had to say:

When I attended the 3-day Reel Change workshop last November, in New York City, I expected an intensive crash course in conceptualizing and executing a successful outreach campaign for my documentary, DAMELO TODO. Luckily, I got that and more. I met smart and thoughtful filmmakers who not only had amazing projects, but who also were generous in providing their feedback and sharing their skills and expertise. Coupled with the experience and generosity of the staff at Working Films and Fledgling Fund (co-organizers of the event), the insight I gained on those three days was invaluable. I especially appreciated the immersive element of the workshop — what a true luxury it was to spend an entire weekend fine-tuning audience-building strategies. Also truly transformative was our conviction that our films could make a difference and — coupled with grassroots collective organizing — help to effect change for a just world.
Felix Endara
Manager of Filmmaker Services, Arts Engine, Inc.
Producer, DAMELO TODO (IFP Documentary Rough Cut Labs, 2010)

Since taking the Reel Engagement Workshop, I have been able to expand “The Engage Media Project,” a resource portal and professional service I founded for filmmakers and other media producers, as well as activists, educators, outreach and engagement coordinators, interested in using media as a tool for social change. I am very proud to say that we will be coordinating the campaign for a Sundance documentary about the criminal case of seven queer women of color who fought back against sexual harassment on the street, resulting in a media firestorm and unjust prison sentences. Our campaign is an ambitious one that includes having the felony convictions overturned and empowering countless others who have loved ones incarcerated due to similar bias and over-sentencing. The workshop was both informative and inspiring, and has galvanized my efforts to use media as a concrete tool for social change.
Sabrina S. Gordon
Executive Director, The Engage Media Project

The Managing Social Issue Film Campaigns workshop was an eye-opening experience. I not only learned the conceptual framework behind community engagement, but was given concrete tools I could take back and use in our engagement efforts. Since taking the workshop, we have fostered vital partnerships with social issue activist groups, overhauled our website to increase audience engagement, and have worked with national advocacy organizations who will use the film as a tool to effect policy change. This training is a must for anyone making or involved with a social issue film.
Shira Potash
Co-producer and director, Food Stamped
Associate producer, Crime After Crime

The NYC workshop on social and community engagement helped to guide how we have structured the current Interrupters campaign. We’ve focused on gauging the right partnerships not just to raise public awareness but also to reach and affect audiences that are reflected as subjects in films. The workshop and the tools supplied have helped me and my team frame more finite and intentional goals for the campaign.

The NYC seminar also helped build on a foundation and added new tools to implement an impactful campaign…The three day seminar helped me reflect on unused competencies that I could apply in building a successful social engagement campaign.

I am positive that there is room to build much stronger and meaningful campaigns using not only documentary films but other forms of media as well. The Working Films’ and Fledging Fund’s Reel Change training is excellent for expanding this important and necessary work.
L. Anton Seals Jr
Community Engagement Specialist
The Interrupters Campaign, Kartemquin Films

We asked our friend Steph Bleyer, founder of Six Foot Chipmunk, about her favorite tech tools that help clients reach and activate new audiences. Here’s a peek inside her toolbox:

Call2Action – Customizable, sharable widget. It’s like a mini-website. Trumps YouTube for embedding films trailers on Facebook (and every other platform). It’s a must-have for every film engagement campaign. Five stars.

Vokle – Want to do your next post-screening Q & A from your living room?  I’ve produced many panels using this call-in/text-in/tweet-in video platform, which works particularly awesome if you have multiple panelists in disparate locations. You can embed the video player on your site and your partners’ sites and folks can call in like they’re on a video-radio-web show.  Big love.

Mailchimp – To keep in touch with our audiences, I ditched lame Constant Contact years ago for Mailchimp. The e-newsletter templates are tighter and less non-profity looking, it’s easy to administer and there’s a cartoon monkey that will crack you up.

Textmarks – I’ve searched high and low for the best texting tool. I haven’t found it yet. If you want to text your audience an occasional call to action, Textmarks will do the trick (for free, w/ ads). We all want to collect email addresses at every screening without using a clipboard, right? Well the only service I can find that will let you do this with mobile requires that you have a minimum operating budget of $500k.

Eventbrite – When organizing a one-off national community screening event, I recommend centralizing RSVP’s using Eventbrite. This will guarantee that you will collect the e-mail addresses from most screening attendees without having to hassle your screening organizers to send you their lists (which they rarely do).

Ushahidi – Free, open-sourced crowd-mapping that will show people where your screenings are taking place around the world. Yes, Google Maps can do this but Ushahidi can do it better because your screening organizers/audience members do the work. They can text, email and tweet in screening info. BAVC created this sample.

Salsa – Their tagline “ingredients for organizing” is spot on. I used Salsa to register and collect info about people participating in a week-long film engagement project that The Huffington Post co-hosted. Salsa is one-stop shopping (from donation collection to Click2Call) but I can’t vouch for all of the features, just the easy peasy registration function.

Just Give – I’ve used this multiple times to collect on-line donations for film campaigns. They skim off 3%. You have to be a 501c3 or have fiscal sponsorship. Can’t remember why I got hooked on them, maybe they’re just cheap and easy.

Change.org – I’m no fan of petitions. In fact I hate them. They’re the least creative approach to engagement.  Don’t get me started.  If you really need one, I recommend using Change.org’s free petition tool.

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Steph Bleyer is the founder of Six Foot Chipmunk. She is currently working with Purpose on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and BBC’s Why Poverty? film series,  as well as Eugene Jarecki’s upcoming doc about the war on drugs, The Documentary Group’s ground-breaking doc 10×10, Rada Film Group’s doc, An American Promise, about the black male achievement gap and the lovely Ben Niles on his new flick about music education.