LATEST NEWS

Things are heating up at the Working Films’ firehouse this summer – literally, the heat index has hovered around 100 degrees the past month. I recently arrived to Wilmington in June as a 2011 George Stoney Fellow from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. I’m really excited and passionate about my work so far to help racial justice advocates across the country use the new Two Towns of Jasper Education and Outreach DVD. We’ve started partnering with an array of organizations so far, each one looking to host their own distinct event to inspire discussion and action that combats racial bias that continues to appear in our communities today. Early last week, we were invited to brainstorm with chapters of the National Federation for Just Communities (NFCJ), a grassroots social justice organization whose former chapter memberships were known as the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ). The former NCCJ was a key partner around the original launch of Two Towns of Jasper in 2003 so it was great to reconnect these allies with the project. In our conversation, representatives from eight current NFJC groups in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska and New York each saw potential in either screening the entire film or presenting selected clips from the film to youth and adults in their respective communities. Lana Benatovich, from NFJC of Western New York, brought major energy to the call, reflecting on the powerful impact Two Towns of Jasper had on her region in Buffalo, NY when they used the film for when it was first released. In the special DVD feature Two Towns of Jasper: Move Hearts, Minds and Policy (below), you can see firsthand how the film had the ability to push the Western New York citizens and government officials to consider the visible and all too dangerous “invisible” racial divisions in their area. Proving that Two Towns of Jasper is timeless tool for activists, Lana told us last week that she is eager to host another screening event with the new education and outreach DVD of Two Towns of Jasper. She noted that there is still much work to be done as her city of Buffalo was just named the 6th most segregated city in the U.S. I couldn’t agree more with Lana and everyone on the NFCJ call that the issues the film brings up are just as relevant today as ever. That’s why we are working so hard to get the Two Towns of Jasper DVD into the hands of educators, community organizers and racial justice activists across the country. If you're interested in hosting a screening, you can buy the DVD here. This Education and Outreach DVD includes a host of resources that will help facilitators and audiences work through the essential but often difficult conversations that the film brings up. Two Towns of Jasper covers a city’s reaction to a horrible hate crime. At the same time, it uncovers the racism that can lead to this kind of tragedy. I found it difficult to get my head around. I thought to myself, “Why?”, “How?”, “And could this happen again?” The new resources on this DVD, including the educators guide written by Facing History and Ourselves and the interactive community discussion guide helped me process those questions, and I know they will provide screening hosts which a starting point for individual or group reflection and action. Two Towns of Jasper truly does have limitless audience reach. Once only available on VHS and at film festival screenings, now you can feature Two Towns in:

• local leadership development institutes
• public forums on racial reconciliation
• college campus discussions
• civic response team workshops
• educational film series
• grassroots training sessions
• youth leadership programs
• town hall meetings
• high school classrooms
• diversity and inclusion training sessions

There is no better time than right now to bring Two Towns of Jasper to a community near you. Purchase the DVD and organize a screening today! Christina Bryant is a George Stoney Fellow at Working Films for Summer 2011.

"Being part of this collaboration is saying we can work together to affect a larger issue; to affect change." - Peter Bull, filmmaker of Dirty Business As Judith Helfand states in the video, "There’s no silver bullet that is going to fix climate change." If that was true, An Inconvenient Truth would have stopped climate change. We need many compelling stories from lots of different places to convey a comprehensive picture of the problem and solutions we can pursue. Reel Power films weave together the narratives of the different communities they feature to show the interconnectedness of the issues. Together they give the environmental movement a full picture of our opportunities for a just future. “What the natural gas industry would like to do is split this movement. The natural gas industry would like to drive a wedge straight through environmentalism. Don’t let them fool you! As filmmakers, we have to make sure that we’re working together as one force because the whole point is to move to renewable energy.” - Josh Fox, filmmaker of Gasland This spring Reel Power participated in Power Shift, the nation’s largest youth climate conference, where the films were screened throughout the weekend culminating in a filmmaker panel. A discussion on the ways film screenings can be used to generate action at the grassroots level energized both the crowd and the directors. The Reel Power team left inspired by commitments from some of our country’s brightest youth leaders and are now working with college campus organizers to bring screenings and actions that support the movement for a sustainable and just energy future. Working Films is continuing to build alliances among related issue filmmakers and NGO’s . We are opening up new opportunities and foster stronger communities. Learn more about our thematic field building or connect with Reel Power and learn how to set up screenings on your campus or in your community: https://www.workingfilms.org/reelpower. “What an amazing thing to join forces, and to share our ideas and to share resources and get that message out there.” Jennifer Redfearn, Sun Come Up

The Good Pitch San Francisco starts off with an intensive two-day campaign development workshop led by Working Films for the selected filmmakers September 24-25. A day-long event on September 27 will bring together the filmmakers with NGOs, foundations, philanthropists, brands and other stakeholders to forge coalitions and campaigns that are good for all these allies, good for the films and good for the world. Below are descriptions of the six selected projects and their award-winning directors: American Village (Dir. Mary Posatko, Emily Topper) 1972: a father of thirteen is murdered in Baltimore, Maryland. Three boys are arrested, represented by a famous civil rights attorney, and acquitted. Traumatized and confused, the victim’s family flees, and never looks back. Now, amidst a family crisis, his granddaughter returns - to uncover the era’s brutal history, meet the men involved, and begin to heal her family. Gardens of Paradise (Dir. Bernardo Ruiz) A veteran reporter and his colleagues at an embattled news weekly challenge the drug cartels and corrupt local officials during a wave of unprecedented violence against journalists in Mexico. God Loves Uganda (Dir. Roger Ross Williams ) In a journey that spans two continents, African-American director Roger Williams, son of a Baptist minister, explores the nature of belief – in America, where congregants search for spiritual meaning, and in Uganda, where American missionaries and Ugandan evangelicals struggle for the hearts and souls of a people facing dire poverty and tumultuous social change. How To Survive A Plague (Dir. David France) Using never-before-seen archival footage, How to Survive a Plague is the intense story of how AIDS stopped being a death sentence, and the improbable group of young HIV-positive activists who, though lacking scientific training, infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry to help develop effective, breakthrough medications. They saved millions of lives – including many, though not all, of their own. The Invisible War (Dir. Kirby Dick) The Invisible War is an investigative and powerfully emotional documentary about the epidemic of rape within the US military, the institutions that perpetuate and cover up its existence, and its profound personal and social consequences. Turkey Creek (Dir. Leah Mahan) Turkey Creek tells the story of a group of determined Mississippians who struggle to save their endangered Gulf Coast community in the face of rampant development, industrial pollution and disaster. Bridge the Gulf is a citizen journalism and new media initiative designed to help the Gulf Coast’s most marginalized communities convey their stories and their vision for the future. The Good Pitch was created by Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, in partnership with the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program. Support for The Good Pitch comes from Chicken & Egg Pictures, The Fledgling Fund, Ford Foundation, Impact Partners, Wyncote Foundation, CrossCurrents Foundation, Amnesty International and anonymous donors. Campaign support for filmmakers is provided by Working Films.

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 10x10, 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.

After starting in festivals in Europe and the US, Our School finally had its premiere in Romania - a homecoming of sorts for the film and an event that we have been anticipating for almost six years. We shot in a small town in Transylvania, a very real place in Northern Romania. Our intention was to begin to understand, and hopefully improve, race relations between majority Romanians and the Roma ethnic minority by showing under a magnifying glass the story of three spirited Roma children involved in a school integration project in Targu Lapus. After four years of production and two years of editing we ended up with a paradigmatic story of hope, squandered opportunities, and infuriating cultural and institutional inertia. And racism, quite a bit of racism. Some intentional, some merely reflexive, yet all of it profoundly familiar to all Romanians (ourselves, the filmmakers, included). This is precisely why we were bracing so hard and for so long for the Romanian premiere. We knew that in Romania, even more than in other places in Europe or the United States, Our School would be holding a mirror up to its audience - an unflattering one at that. And there are few things as counter-productive and virulent as unexamined, defensive racism. We did what we could to prepare for the premiere in terms of press, NGO partners on the ground, and the main characters themselves. The NGO partners were as nervous as we were and chomping at the bit to use the film for their own purposes. The characters got to see the film on their own terms before the festival premiere, on the principle that it is cruel and unusual treatment to see your own story projected on a very large screen with a large audience before absorbing it privately. The kids had never been to the cinema before, so they were extra nervous. Our youngest participant, Alin, helped to lighten the mood by eating three ice-creams in rapid succession and contently throwing up right before the screening. The press was lukewarm, understandably, since they had not seen the film, and the international success of the new Romanian cinema over past ten years has made them unimpressed with projects with the kind of international festival success that Our School has had). The online comments to the advance press coverage came exclusively from people who had not seen it, but assumed that no film on Roma would ever help. They made violent threats and personal attacks against our team for “destroying Romania’s image abroad.” We imagined they were people who had too much time on their hands, but we were still put on notice: Our School had the potential of generating a strong backlash, and that was the last thing we wanted to happen. Matters were not helped much by the great folk at the Transylvania Film Festival who programmed us in the largest cinema they had: 750 seats. We worried that the seats would remain empty or would be filled with people who do not like what they seen on the screen. We worried about everything. Whatever fears we had were dispersed in the first five minutes of the screening. The huge audience laughed loudly at even the smallest jokes in the film. They clapped after particularly poignant lines, making the projectionist worried that they would not hear the soundtrack. They started sniffling, visibly moved towards the end. And, when the credits ended and we all lined up on the stage, we found them giving the children a standing ovation. For five whole minutes. Alin turned to me and whispered: “Are all of these guys Romanian?” Yes, they were. And they were applauding the courage, resilience, spirit and sass of Alin, Dana, Beni - and all the Romanian friends they managed to make, despite all odds, along the way. The audience had connected to the kids, managing to see themselves in our film without defensiveness or rancor. They found ways to process and understand what they could change in themselves by the time the credits stopped rolling. After the film… A teacher confessed to treating her Roma students as inferior. I wanted to put her in touch with the New York teacher who confessed during our Q&A at the Tribeca Film Festival that she had been tracking immigrant children in special education programs because she herself lacked support and know-how to integrate them. A local mentioned a case of segregation next door to the screening venue - an activist invited the audience to investigate the case, right then and there. A journalist mused about what the Ministry of Education should do with the film - we referred him to the principal in Our School, who despite an awareness that the film showed him in a light that was “a little too true” (his words), ended up generously saying that it is an extraordinary tool that should be used to train and inform people not only in Romania, but abroad. There were also hugs - lots of them. Alin, Beni, and Dana said that they were treated, for that one night, better than they had been treated, cumulatively, their entire life. The press reaction that came in response to the screening was no less enthusiastic. A journalist confessed an allergy to issue films and declared herself not only surprised, but cured. An editorial talked about how Our School is not only a film about Roma, it is a film about us. A reputed blog said the audience had come in with fixed ideas and had come out with the urge to apologize to Roma children on behalf of all Romanians. We know this was an ideal audience in many ways - progressive, trained by ten years of challenging festival experiences, and moved by the presence of the children in the room. But having an initial reaction like this from hundreds of people gives us confidence in what this film can do. It gives us trust that the film can accomplish what we always intended: Point to a systemic problem, make us understand it in the most direct, human way, and do the hardest things of all - change hearts and minds and open up a some hope for the future. Guest post by Mona Nicoara, Director of Our School. Our School is part of Working Films Reel Education collaborative. The film screens at Silverdocs this Saturday, June 25th at 5:30pm.

After starting in festivals in Europe and the US, Our School finally had its premiere in Romania - a homecoming of sorts for the film and an event that we have been anticipating for almost six years. We shot in a small town in Transylvania, a very real place in Northern Romania. Our intention was to begin to understand, and hopefully improve, race relations between majority Romanians and the Roma ethnic minority by showing under a magnifying glass the story of three spirited Roma children involved in a school integration project in Targu Lapus. After four years of production and two years of editing we ended up with a paradigmatic story of hope, squandered opportunities, and infuriating cultural and institutional inertia. And racism, quite a bit of racism. Some intentional, some merely reflexive, yet all of it profoundly familiar to all Romanians (ourselves, the filmmakers, included). This is precisely why we were bracing so hard and for so long for the Romanian premiere. We knew that in Romania, even more than in other places in Europe or the United States, Our School would be holding a mirror up to its audience - an unflattering one at that. And there are few things as counter-productive and virulent as unexamined, defensive racism. We did what we could to prepare for the premiere in terms of press, NGO partners on the ground, and the main characters themselves. The NGO partners were as nervous as we were and chomping at the bit to use the film for their own purposes. The characters got to see the film on their own terms before the festival premiere, on the principle that it is cruel and unusual treatment to see your own story projected on a very large screen with a large audience before absorbing it privately. The kids had never been to the cinema before, so they were extra nervous. Our youngest participant, Alin, helped to lighten the mood by eating three ice-creams in rapid succession and contently throwing up right before the screening. The press was lukewarm, understandably, since they had not seen the film, and the international success of the new Romanian cinema over past ten years has made them unimpressed with projects with the kind of international festival success that Our School has had). The online comments to the advance press coverage came exclusively from people who had not seen it, but assumed that no film on Roma would ever help. They made violent threats and personal attacks against our team for “destroying Romania’s image abroad.” We imagined they were people who had too much time on their hands, but we were still put on notice: Our School had the potential of generating a strong backlash, and that was the last thing we wanted to happen. Matters were not helped much by the great folk at the Transylvania Film Festival who programmed us in the largest cinema they had: 750 seats. We worried that the seats would remain empty or would be filled with people who do not like what they seen on the screen. We worried about everything. Whatever fears we had were dispersed in the first five minutes of the screening. The huge audience laughed loudly at even the smallest jokes in the film. They clapped after particularly poignant lines, making the projectionist worried that they would not hear the soundtrack. They started sniffling, visibly moved towards the end. And, when the credits ended and we all lined up on the stage, we found them giving the children a standing ovation. For five whole minutes. Alin turned to me and whispered: “Are all of these guys Romanian?” Yes, they were. And they were applauding the courage, resilience, spirit and sass of Alin, Dana, Beni - and all the Romanian friends they managed to make, despite all odds, along the way. The audience had connected to the kids, managing to see themselves in our film without defensiveness or rancor. They found ways to process and understand what they could change in themselves by the time the credits stopped rolling. After the film… A teacher confessed to treating her Roma students as inferior. I wanted to put her in touch with the New York teacher who confessed during our Q&A at the Tribeca Film Festival that she had been tracking immigrant children in special education programs because she herself lacked support and know-how to integrate them. A local mentioned a case of segregation next door to the screening venue - an activist invited the audience to investigate the case, right then and there. A journalist mused about what the Ministry of Education should do with the film - we referred him to the principal in Our School, who despite an awareness that the film showed him in a light that was “a little too true” (his words), ended up generously saying that it is an extraordinary tool that should be used to train and inform people not only in Romania, but abroad. There were also hugs - lots of them. Alin, Beni, and Dana said that they were treated, for that one night, better than they had been treated, cumulatively, their entire life. The press reaction that came in response to the screening was no less enthusiastic. A journalist confessed an allergy to issue films and declared herself not only surprised, but cured. An editorial talked about how Our School is not only a film about Roma, it is a film about us. A reputed blog said the audience had come in with fixed ideas and had come out with the urge to apologize to Roma children on behalf of all Romanians. We know this was an ideal audience in many ways - progressive, trained by ten years of challenging festival experiences, and moved by the presence of the children in the room. But having an initial reaction like this from hundreds of people gives us confidence in what this film can do. It gives us trust that the film can accomplish what we always intended: Point to a systemic problem, make us understand it in the most direct, human way, and do the hardest things of all - change hearts and minds and open up a some hope for the future. Guest post by Mona Nicoara, Director of Our School. Our School is part of Working Films Reel Education collaborative. The film screens at Silverdocs this Saturday, June 25th at 5:30pm.

Recently, I spent two days at the Communities for Public Education Reform (CPER) convening, an amazing gathering of grassroots education organizers and the foundations that support their work. I went to support the Reel Education filmmakers and others who were leading a panel discussion, "Moving Hearts and Minds: Connecting Filmmaking and Organizing." Because of their experience at the Reel Education convening in February, Ly Nguyen of CPER and Roberta Furger of PICO CA, organized the session. They pulled together a great team that included filmmakers, Roland Legiardi Laura of To Be Heard and Marcia Jarmel of Speaking in Tongues, as well as filmmaker Susan Zeig who made a powerful film about education organizing called A Community Concern. Marcia, Susan, and Roland spoke about the concrete impact their films have had so far. Check out this video to hear how Speaking in Tongues has already advanced multilingual education programs in a variety of school systems. The panel was rounded out with organizers and advocates who have also used film and video and even created it. Cesar Castrejon of Californians for Justice and Liz Guillen of Public Advocates spoke about the video that they and allied grassroots organizers in produced to get the word out about a lawsuit they filed against the state of California. The suits demands that the state revamp its school funding formula and make other changes to assure equitable access to quality education for all kids. Rosie Grant of the Paterson Education Fund also shared how their organization used A Community Concern and opened the eyes of the superintendent of Schools in Paterson, N.J. about the possibility of parents and communities having extensive power and influence over decisions made in the schools. Here’s a video of her sharing other ways their organization has used film recently. The response from the education organizers in the room to these stories was incredible. They were energized and wanted to know more about where they could access great films like these. Hello Reel Education… (more to come on that below). What I found most interesting was that while many folks in the room had produced their own short videos to advance campaigns, many had never hosted screenings or used clips of full length documentaries in their work. As someone who is engrossed in the work of using film on a daily basis it was a good reality check to know that for some organizers this is a new approach and that they might need direction and resources both on how to access films and how to set up successful events. Their feedback will definitely help to inform how we continue to roll out the Reel Education collaborative. We also put together a mini film festival at the CPER convening featuring trailers and clips from all seven of the Reel Education projects and A Community Concern. The room was packed with folks who enjoyed a late afternoon break from workshop sessions to watch these high energy and emotional trailers. When the lights came up, hands shot up from folks asking how they could access all of the films. It felt good to have confirmation in yet another setting of the power of bringing this cadre of films together as a tool to make change. In addition to the great responses to these films, just being at this conference was completely inspiring. I heard amazing speeches and presentations by leaders in the fight for educational justice. Here’s just a snippet of one by Pedro Noguera. On top of that I had great conversations with individual organizers and with the filmmakers about ways that we might collaborate to strategically position the Reel Education films and others as resources for communities to plug into their organizing efforts. I left incredibly energized about our work on Reel Education.