Filmmakers and organizations are coming up with creative ways to incorporate a spectrum of social media into film campaigns, including interactive websites and games, issue-based social networking communities, podcasts and web TV shows. Filmmaker Dawn Valadez joins us as a guest blogger to share how she and her partners created their own social networking community just for girls.

Going on 13 began in 2000 and was an ambitious journey to capture the transformation of 4 pre-teen girls as they became young women. We shot the film for four years and edited for two and have spent the last two promoting the film and sharing the film with audiences all over the world! We have been blown away by the positive responses and how the themes of the film–puberty, relationships, culture, identity, self-love–have been universally received in so many communities across cultures, genders and age groups. Our website shares the specifics about the film: www.goingon13.com.

We wanted to create a girl community online that goes beyond the typical fashion and fan pages that currently exist. We were looking to create something that really allows girls to be themselves and share what is most important to them. We are still fine tuning the site and hope to fully launch it in the early spring of 2010. This site will take the film out of the DVD and into the lives of girls and the people who care for them. It will allow us to extend the themes and ideas of the film far beyond the film to the national and international communities of girls. We have to work out some of the challenges with it–safety for one–before we really launch it so keep your eyes open for the launch of the site.

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Although we wrapped up the Content +Intent Documentary Institute just under a month ago, I wanted to take a moment to share some photos from the event in the hopes of giving you a glimpse into the inner workings of the residency and, if you are a filmmaker, peak your interest in participating in future Working Films’ residencies and workshops. The 5 days that we share with filmmakers at MASS MoCA each year is re-energizing for me because I get a chance to interact with both the folks making these powerful films and with people who put them to good use. It’s an intense time of hard work and discussion, but as you’ll see from the pictures below it’s lots of fun as well.

Everyone fueled up with an array of breakfast choices at our home away from home in North Adams, The Porches.

Every filmmaker had an hour of the residency dedicated solely to the discussion of her (or his) outreach plan. Here, filmmaker Luisa Dantas and Robert West, Working Films' ED, discuss her project Land of Opportunity.

Filmmakers got to see Working Films' model in action at this community event built around the film The Hunger Season. Filmmaker Beadie Fenzi and Judith Helfand, Working Films Co-founder, discussed how the film could be used to make change with representatives from the local food bank in North Adams.

At The Hunger Season event audience members got to sample the corn meal that is depicted in the film and is sent to Swaziland as Food Aid.

Several funders of creative media and outreach campaigns were generous enough to spend time answering our residents' questions.

All of the filmmakers at the residency, including Marcia Jarmel pictured here, spent time working on their individual outreach plans with input from Working Films staff, like Deputy Director Molly Murphy.

In the midst of all of this work residents got a chance to check out the art at MASS MoCA.

Thanks so much to participating filmmaker Ashley Yorkfor these photos!

We are excited to announce the 8 film projects selected to be part of the 2009 Content + Intent Documentary Institute, Working Films’ Residency at MASS MoCA. We reviewed a number of extraordinary projects and faced a difficult decision narrowing it down to the 8 films that will be part of the residency, which takes place March 11-15^th in North Adams, MA.

Of the many amazing entries we selected those projects that we believe have the greatest potential to benefit from a collaborative workshop focused on creating intentional and strategic audience engagement; factors under consideration included submitted film footage, the written application and the diversity of subjects and timeliness of the issues. The following are the films selected and the members of the filmmaking team that will be representing each project:

The Campaign,  Christie Herring
Cape Wind,  Robbie Gemmel
In the Balance,  Ashley York and Susana Ruiz
Land of Opportunity,  Luisa Dantas
Made in India,  Rebecca Haimowitz and Vaishali Sinha
New Muslim Cool,  Jennifer Maytorena Taylor
Speaking in Tongues,  Marcia Jarmel
Split Estate,  Debra Anderson

We will announce more information on the program and Projections Film Forum shortly.

You know how much we love watching and reading about new films, so please don’t deny us the opportunity to learn about yours.

Send in your application today for the 2009 Content + Intent Documentary Institute, Working Films’ residency at MASS MoCA.

If we have your application in our inbox by January 28, and your project is selected you will spend 5 jam packed days with the Working Films team in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. From March 11-15, 2009 we will guide you through the creation of an outreach plan for your film project.

One more time, here’s the info:

Who: You
What: Your application for the 2009 Content + Intent Documentary Institute
When: January 28th is the final deadline to submit applications via email.
Where: In Anna Lee’s inbox, alee@workingfilms.org
Why: So that you are in the running to be one of 8 film projects accepted to the Institute.

If you have any questions please contact Anna Lee. 910-342-900 or alee@workingfilms.org

Filmmaker Selena Burks left the 2006 Working Films Content + Intent Documentary Institute at MASS MoCA feeling charged and armed with the know-how to develop the community engagement campaign for her documentary Saving Jackie.

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.

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As we gear up for the Content + Intent Documentary Institute, Working Films Residency at MASS MoCA for 2009 I have been in touch with alumni of the residency to see what they are up to and find out about ways the residency has influenced their audience engagement efforts. I was very excited when I received an email from ’06 Mass MoCA alum Paula Consolini sharing with me a new educational website that she has built using clips from her film Breaking the Mold.

When Paula was at the MASS MoCA residency we brainstormed with her about how to freshen up her material and help it make a real educational impact by using an online distribution platform. Now she has made that happen.The site, www.breakingthemold.org, is billed as a study in workplace democracy. (more…)

As we begin taking applications for the 2009 Content + Intent Documentary Institute, Working Films’ Residency at MASS MoCA we wanted to give you a sense of what the experience was like for other filmmakers. In March of 2008 Sean Flynn joined 10 other documentarians for our 5 day workshop in the beautiful Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. The following are reflections on the residency that Sean so graciously agreed to share with us. If Sean’s experience sparks your interest in the Institute click here for more info and download the application.

“There are a handful of experiences I look back to as turning points in my career as a filmmaker. The five days I spent at the Content + Intent Documentary Institute at Mass MoCA was certainly one of them. Like so many other documentary filmmakers, I was originally drawn to this art form through a combination of my passion for storytelling, my love for capturing beautiful images, and most importantly, my desire to do something with meaningful social impact. But also, like so many other documentary filmmakers, the process of actually making a film, promoting it and simply getting it seen had become so all-consuming that I began to lose sight of that last critical part of the equation. Social impact!

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