LATEST NEWS

2011 has started with a bang, as we celebrate our 10th anniversary with a new grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The grant will support a new residency open to the field of filmmakers and non-fiction media makers, intended to support strategic collaborations between non-profit/non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and story-driven documentaries. This one-year grant of $300,000 will enable us to research, design and facilitate a week-long residency built around one urgent theme. Following the residency, and supported by the grant, we will launch a high profile campaign between the filmmakers and NGOs dedicated to the thematic issue at hand. The goal is to turn “competition” for space in the media landscape into unprecedented collaboration. These new partnerships will leverage multiple opportunities for audiences of social issue films to contribute to civic engagement and progressive public policy shifts. Stay tuned; we will be announcing details of the residency in the coming months. Press Release in PDF.

2011 has started with a bang, as we celebrate our 10th anniversary with a new grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The grant will support a new residency open to the field of filmmakers and non-fiction media makers, intended to support strategic collaborations between non-profit/non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and story-driven documentaries. This one-year grant of $300,000 will enable us to research, design and facilitate a week-long residency built around one urgent theme. Following the residency, and supported by the grant, we will launch a high profile campaign between the filmmakers and NGOs dedicated to the thematic issue at hand. The goal is to turn “competition” for space in the media landscape into unprecedented collaboration. These new partnerships will leverage multiple opportunities for audiences of social issue films to contribute to civic engagement and progressive public policy shifts. Stay tuned; we will be announcing details of the residency in the coming months. Press Release in PDF.

Dates and Venues 2011 Session 1: May 15-21, Romania Session 2: July 3-9, Italy Session 3: September/October, venue t.b.c. APPLICATION DEADLINE: MARCH 4, 2011 ESoDoc (European Social Documentary) is now accepting applications for their 2011 trainings. ESoDoc is a training initiative that takes up the challenge of bringing together the demands of different players now involved in documentary film-production. Their focus is on a special genre of documentary production that is particularly suitable for the new multi-platform world: documentaries that draw attention to human rights, social justice and environmental protection. Last year, Working Films participated in two extraordinary ESoDoc trainings. At the Italy training in October, Robert opened the session with a look at how filmmakers can ensure their films have authentic impact. He was also among a group of experts that trained 22 participants on how to best present their project during pitching forums and at markets. The session ended with an actual public pitching forum held in cooperation with the University of Catania and with the financial support of the Regional Province of Catania. At ESoDoc India in Naukuchiatal last December, I led European and Indian filmmakers in a session on creating a dynamic film campaign to increase the film’s distribution, financing, and impact. This cross cultural and cross market retreat aimed to develop documentary projects that have a potential for the Indian and European audiovisual market and which succeed to respond not only to the distinct market needs of the broadcast industries in both regions but also – and especially – to respond to the communication needs of the NGO sector worldwide. Learn more about ESoDoc’s upcoming opportunities and apply through their site.

The Reel Power Film series kicks off the New Year with the Emmy-award winning film, Split Estate - a film every American should see this year! Get Involved!: 1) Host a House Party of Emmy-award winning Split Estate in January.  You can purchase a DVD of Split Estate here. Note that bulk pricing is available if you’d like to use this film with your organization. 2) Take Action with Split Estate by contacting your state legislators to express your concern over oil and gas drilling. A list of resources to help further inform you and your representatives are available here. 3)  Stay Informed of breaking news, national legislation and more action steps- including contacting the EPA- at the Split Estate website. You can also follow the action with Split Estate on Facebook and Twitter. 4)  Stay Connected to the Reel Power Film series. Our February featured film will be Dirty Business. About Split Estate Imagine discovering that you don't own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. Imagine having little recourse, other than accepting an unregulated industry in your backyard. Split Estate maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health. Zeroing in on Garfield County, Colorado, and the San Juan Basin, this clarion call for accountability examines the growing environmental and social costs to an area now referred to as a “National Sacrifice Zone." Split Estate helped break the story of health risks associated with hydraulic fracturing to a national television audience on the Discovery Channel’s Planet Green. The film was the first of its kind to give voice to a few of the courageous families, among thousands, struggling to protect their health, civil rights, and land before the ever encroaching oil and gas industry. Exempt from federal protections like the Clean Water Act, the oil and gas industry has left landscapes and rural communities pockmarked with abandoned homes and polluted waters. One Garfield County resident demonstrates the degree of benzene contamination in a mountain stream by setting it alight with a match. Many others, gravely ill, fight for their health and for the health of their children. Important for all Americans to see, Split Estate is especially timely given our country’s renewed interest in natural gas and the escalated drilling now proposed throughout the Marcellus Shale region of the Eastern United States and will serve as an urgent wake-up call to your community. More Than A Movie: Connecting Communities & Creating Change From Harvard to the EPA to living rooms, churches, community centers, and high school classrooms, Split Estate has been shown in hundreds of communities and has been at the forefront of a grassroots movement to stop reckless drilling. Citizens across the country have used the film broadly to educate their friends and neighbors, the media, and local, state, and national policy makers. Since it’s release, Split Estate team members have been answering emails and calls from landowners, farmers and ranchers needing to understand their rights and how to protect their land; from students seeking information for projects and papers; and from women and men who are sick and needing leads to health care and support. The Split Estate Community Engagement Campaign has been innovative in it’s approach to connecting people to information and resources — and to each other. Community organizers in battlefield states are hosting screenings and drawing upon Split Estate to raise awareness and mobilize action for clean energy and water.  Check out this piece by Agit-Pop which used excerpts from the film, to help build support for the moratorium on gas drilling in the New York City watershed: And teachers are bringing Split Estate to classrooms at the secondary and university level and to charter programs for youth-at-risk. Launching in the Spring semester of 2011, the film and related curriculum will be featured on WGBH's Teachers' Domain, a free digital media service for educational use from public broadcasting and its partners. But natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing is not just a U.S. problem. In August, director Deb Anderson traveled to Sweden to support a growing grassroots movement against new natural gas development. The film has also had a presence in Tunisia, Singapore, Australia, Canada, and, most recently, the Southern Cape of South Africa where Split Estate was featured in a report about fracking on a news program called 50/50 on the South African Broadcasting Corporation Channel 2. In addition, Split Estate has been the subject of more than 100 print, radio, and television articles and interviews, as well as hundreds of blog posts on the web.  It was featured in three broadcasts of Democracy Now! focused on hydraulic fracturing and water contamination.  In addition, the film has been featured on NBC Nightly News, ABC News and 60 Minutes Australia. The film’s media outreach has been instrumental in helping to inform a worldwide audience and in shaping public opinion. Split Estate Wins an Emmy! In September, Split Estate was honored with an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Research, at the 31st Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards.  Congratulations to Deb Anderson, Mitchell Marti, Matt Vest, and the entire Split Estate film team! Join this movement by hosting a screening of Split Estate in your community this January and engage with the fight for a clean and just energy future!  Visit our website for a complete listing of the films and months they are being released for the Reel Power series.

The I am Norm campaign was envisioned during a Spring 2009 summit Working Films co-hosted with Filmmaker Dan Habib and the National Education Association. Our goal for the meeting was to develop an advocacy campaign using the documentary Including Samuel to advance the full social and educational inclusion of people with disabilities. At the summit, we all agreed that youth have to be at the table in devising the strategies needed to engage their peers. The campaign was 'born' when twenty teenage leaders from across the country came together at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Maryland last January for a National Youth Inclusion Summit. Before coming to the Summit, each teen held an Including Samuel viewing party and discussion in their community. The I am Norm campaign is now working to: • Raise awareness about inclusion through a viral video campaign and website. (The campaign is giving away 2 free HD video cameras to the best I am Norm videos submitted. One will go to an individual and one to a class/club. Details are on the website.) • Provide opportunities for youth and adults to share their ideas about inclusion • Promote inclusive practices in schools and community organizations This week the campaign is partnering on outreach with the Inclusive Schools Network on Inclusive Schools Week (December 6-10). There are lots of ways you can get involved in supporting this incredible new, youth-driven campaign for inclusion and disability rights! Help launch the campaign: • Watch the 3-minute compilation video at either of these sites for a quick sense of the campaign’s content and personality. I promise you’ll enjoy it! Website: http://www.iamnorm.org YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/IamNorm2010 • Post the I am Norm website and YouTube video on your Facebook page. Sample text: Meet Norm! Check out the 3-minute video for the new youth-led, national inclusion campaign: I am Norm! Website: http://www.iamnorm.org • Put the word out through other social media (MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, etc…) • Ask organizations you are involved with or know to put information about I am Norm into newsletters and websites. • Arrange an interview with I am Norm youth and adult organizers for a story in your publication. To do so [email protected] • Are you a teacher? If so, download the free I am Norm Educational Guide and use it to promote disability awareness and inclusion in your school Look for Including Samuel and the I Am Norm campaign to be featured as part of Working Films’ Impact Series in 2011!

On November 11th, Working Films, Chicken & Egg Pictures and The Fledgling Fund screened The Fence (La Barda) for November's Story Leads to Action. Natalie Difford of Chicken & Egg gives us some highlights on how activism and art are working together: A new HBO film by Rory Kennedy, The Fence (La Barda), was screened and followed by an invigorating discussion with guest panelists Andre Segura, Staff Attorney, Immigrants’ Rights Project, The American Civil Liberties Union and Christina Baal, LMSW, Immigration Advocacy Field Coordinator, The New York Immigration Coalition and the audience members, moderated by Judith Helfand. Viewers came together with strategic advocates and educators to brainstorm and "design" on-the-spot community/audience engagement strategies for the films.

In October 2006, the United States government decided to build a fence along its troubled border with Mexico. 3 years, 19 construction companies, 350 engineers, thousands of construction workers, tens of thousands of tons of metal and more than $3 billion later – was it all worth it? That's the question posed in Rory Kennedy's latest HBO Documentary The Fence (La Barda) as it investigates the impact of the project, revealing how the fence's stated goals – containing illegal immigration, cracking down on drug trafficking and protecting America from terrorists – have given way to unforeseen consequences. The takeaway from the night was how important action is in order to change policies and get results. As Judith said, "A documentary is not a silver bullet" and an audience member expressed feelings of helplessness, "What do I do with all this disgust I feel?" We know the fence is already up, but that does not mean that everything is said and done. There are still issues on the table, like Arizona law, that can literally be changed by people getting involved and working to fight for legislation they believe in. How can this film be used in order to enable real change? --> Target the audience members; congresspeople, journalists, editorial boards, conservative citizens. --> Address some of the major issues; what is behind the actual crossing of the border, and what corporations are making money off of anti-immigration policies.

Judith & Molly facilitate a discussion after the screening

When doing outreach for a film like this, audience and panelists agreed that it is important to have a geographic focus, and to organize around a political landscape. For example, creating a campaign targeted around specific states where legislation is still subject to change or could seriously effect the lives of the citizens who live there. The film manages to have a comedic affect, largely because of the absurdity and inefficiency of the policies in place. However, for the panelists, Andre Segura and Christina Baal, the issues are very pertinent and painful. The discussion was greatly focused on the relationship between activism and art. Interestingly, Christina stated how important it was for these issues to be presented by artists, because it is hard for activists and lawmakers to present the issues in new ways. Be sure to mark your calendar for next month's Story Leads to Action featuring A Small Act by Jennifer Arnold on Thursday, December 16th at 7:30pm at 92YTribeca. Check out the trailer below:

We all know that coal is dirty. We know that burning coal releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. We also know that coal mining is a dangerous business, whether people get trapped under ground or the tops of mountains are blown to shreds. It is less widely known that coal burning actually creates poison - in the form of "coal ash," a by-product that contains chemicals like mercury, lead, and arsenic, known to cause birth defects and premature death. Bit by bit, as coal ash settles, it poisons our waterways, our fish, and the people who depend on these resources. Bit by bit, more people are getting sick. But you can do something about it. The Obama Administration needs to regulate coal ash as "hazardous waste." This classification would go a long way toward restoring the protections that the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act were meant to guarantee all Americans: The right to breathe air and drink water that will not poison us. The deadline for comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about toxic coal ash is today, Nov. 19th at 6PM. Tell the EPA you support cracking down on dangerous coal ash with this easy online form from 1Sky. And - if you aren't already involved, this is a great opportunity to use film to educate and inspire friends, family, or your colleagues. Screen Dirty Business: "Clean Coal" and the Battle for Our Energy Future in your home or community. The film is a major work of investigation into the 'Clean Coal' PR campaign waged by coal companies. Can coal ever be made clean? And, if more people knew the full environmental and human costs of this outdated fossil fuel, would we continue to make the same investments? Can we truly move toward a clean energy future? The film asks these questions and more.

Working Films’ hometown, Wilmington NC, is gearing up today for the Cucalorus Film Festival. Named one of the “25 Coolest Film Festivals” by Movie Maker Magazine, Cucalorus is always a great time with an incredible lineup of films. We’re especially excited that a film we have done some strategy development with, A New Kind of Listening, is going to be at the festival. A New Kind of Listening is the story of a visionary director, a one-of-a-kind theater group, and a young man who could not speak, yet found the voice he had been looking for all his life. A New Kind of Listening is both an advocacy call for the right of self-expression and a celebration of inclusive arts communities. Director Kenny Dalsheimer and Producer Polly Medlicott, who is also the mother of Chris - the central character in the film, will be in town for the festival and are bringing their Inclusive Arts Campaign and Polly’s nifty pop-up teardrop camper to Cucalorus. Polly (and her trailer) have been promoting inclusive arts as she tours with the film across North Carolina and other parts of the country. Look for the camper and Polly on Saturday morning in front of Thalian Hall in downtown Wilmington. At 9:30am at Thalian, before the screening of their film, Polly and Kenny are hosting a breakfast and conversation open to all about how to make the arts in Wilmington more inclusive for people with disabilities.  The film screens at 10:45. Following the film there will also be another half-hour panel discussion with community leaders from the arts and disability advocacy on next steps for more inclusive and accessible arts in Wilmington! We’re delighted to see great audience engagement strategy unfolding on our doorstep, especially when it’s going to help make our community more inclusive. Click here to purchase tickets to the screening!