LATEST NEWS

Don’t miss the deadline to apply for Reel Engagement: Managing Social Issue Film Campaigns. Upcoming next month, Working Films and the Fledgling Fund will lead a field building training aimed at the effective management of film campaigns. This 4 day hands-on workshop is designed for individuals who are interested in developing the skills necessary to be an Engagement Coordinator; designing and managing creative and meaningful audience and community engagement campaigns for independent social and environmental issue documentary films or media projects. Read more and apply now to Reel Engagement: Managing Social Issue Film Campaigns. Deadline is October 22, 2010.

We’ve had a great year of Good Pitches so far! From DC to the UK and most recently San Francisco, we’ve been covering ground and helping generate exciting partnerships among filmmakers, NGOs, funders and brands. Are you wondering what happens at these pitches? Fear not! Rachel Seifert (of the film Not on the Label) gives insight on what it’s like to be up on the pitcher’s mound. Last week I pitched at the BritDoc Good Pitch –my first ever pitching session! I was pretty nervous. Despite having interviewed a number of Presidents, trekked through the jungle with the Colombian army, and filmed on the streets of Juarez, this seemed to me to be a far more daunting experience! I suppose that is why I generally prefer to be behind the camera. But, when I got up to the table to give my presentation, spotlights shining, and a large number of faces staring down at me, I remarkably felt fairly relaxed (thanks to Jess for this), and to my huge surprise I actually enjoyed it! I suppose when it comes down to it, this is something I’ve been living and breathing for the past 18 months so I’m not short of things to say. Admittedly, I couldn’t have done it without the BritDoc/Working Films bootcamp training sessions earlier that week. Or without the amazing BritDoc/Working Films team who gave all of the pitchers so much support and encouragement. So a big thank you to all of them. See their amazing work here: http://britdoc.org/ and https://www.workingfilms.org/ The pitch went very well. I think I managed to just about fit into the 7 minutes time limit. The response from the table was very encouraging and supportive and they offered up a variety of suggestions and ideas. So I am now going from meeting to meeting to follow up on it. I will let you all know when we have some concrete outcomes! Aside from the obvious contacts and organisations which were brought together for the film, there were two other things which I really took away from the whole experience of the Good Pitch. Firstly, the collaboration of the other pitchers and the BritDoc/Working Films team on my film. This is my first film, and having spent a lot of time working on it pretty much alone from my study for the past 18 months or so, it was a breath of fresh air to have other people outside of my normal world (and aside from the cat in the garden) to talk to and comment and throw ideas out for the film – which was absolutely brilliant. And it was also a relief to realise that other filmmakers have the same problems and struggles that I do! The second thing that the Good Pitch really helped with was clearly defining and streamlining the film, its aims, what we want it to do, where we want it to be seen, and how we want it to be used. So, I am now ploughing ahead to get the film finished. We are hoping to launch our online space in the next few weeks so I will let you all know when that is up and running.

Don't you think a movement needs more than one good movie? We are excited to announce a new collaboration with ten groundbreaking filmmakers - Reel Power: Films Fueling the Energy Revolution!

The Reel Power film series tells the many stories of our energy crisis, and most importantly, community opportunities for sustainable growth. The series launches on November 23rd with the film Deep Down which premiers that night on PBS's Independent Lens. Here's how you can join the excitement: 1. Spread the word! Help us make our campaign go viral by sharing our new trailer with your friends through email and on your blog, Facebook page and Twitter. 2. Host a house party on November 23rd! Put this date on your calendar to host a house party or community screening of Deep Down. We'll send you more information on how to do this, shortly. 3. Stay connected! Be sure to join us on Facebook. Visit our website for more information on the series. We look forward to bringing Reel Power to your community!

Act Now! Join the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language to encourage your decision makers to support HR 6036. HR 6036, the Excellence and Innovation in Language Learning Act, was proposed by Congressional Representatives Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Paul Tonko (D-NY) on August 1, 2010. This legislation would allow every young American to become proficient in English and a second language within a generation. Learn more about the bill from the Asia Society.

Working Films, in collaboration with The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, is delighted to announce the first West Coast edition of the Good Pitch, hosted by the SOCAP10 conference at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco on October 3, 2010 12:00pm – 6:00pm. The Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP) is the world’s premiere social capital markets event. The conference highlights the growing field of social capital: people investing to create social change. SOCAP10’s goal is to make connections, to generate partnerships and to increase the acceleration of capital to social good. SOCAP10 brings together a unique mix of the world’s top social innovators – investors, entrepreneurs, donors and other thought-leaders – who are catalysts of change across the globe. With SOCAP10 and Good Pitch acting as both leaders and connectors in the thinking around impact and investment, establishing a formal relationship between the two initiatives capitalizes on the major strengths of both events. Eight fantastic projects have been selected for the Good Pitch at SOCAP10. These include three Good Pitch alumni, presented as case studies outlining what they have achieved since their first Good Pitch and pitching new project goals. The impressive lineup comprises the following filmmakers: Barefoot Revolution Dir. Jehane Noujaim Noujaim Films presents Barefoot Revolution , an intimate cinema verite film which follows the life-changing journey of six women from rural villages in Africa, the Middle East and South America to Bunker Roy’s Barefoot College in India where they will become solar engineers and return to install solar energy in their own and surrounding villages. Inocente Dirs. Sean Fine & Andrea Nix Fine In America today, one in fifty kids is homeless. For most of us, they are invisible. The documentary feature Inocente delivers a rare glimpse inside the inspirational life of a homeless, undocumented fifteen-year-old artist in San Diego and the extraordinary challenges she must contend with on a daily basis. Oil & Water Dir. Francine Strickwerda & Laurel Spellman Smith Oil & Water is the story of two boys coming of age in the middle of one of the world’s worst toxic disasters. Hugo fights for the survival of his Amazonian tribe, while David attempts to revolutionize the oil industry. Shot over four years so far, Oil & Water is a shocking and inspiring David & Goliath story. The Revolutionary Optimists Dirs. Nicole Newnham & Maren Grainger-Monsen Children are saving lives in the slums of Calcutta. Using dance and street theater, Amlan Ganguly empowers children to become change agents, transforming their neighborhoods with dramatic results. This film has inspired the multi-platform Map Your World, putting the power of mobile technologies into the hands of kids, enabling them to map, track, and improve health in their own communities. To Be Heard Director: Roland Legiardi-Laura & Edwin Martinez To Be Heard is the story of 3 high-school students who find their way into a dangerous poetry workshop in the South Bronx. It is a film about lives and language on the edge. The associated engagement campaign, Power Poetry, will be the world’s first mobile and online poetry community for youth where creative energies convert social networking into social activism. The three returning Good Pitch alumni are: 25 to Life Dir. Michael Brown William Brawner was infected with HIV before he turned two and kept it a secret for over twenty years. Now he struggles to confront his promiscuous past and embarks on a new phase of life with his pregnant wife, who is HIV Negative. 25 to Life is a startling and critical look at HIV and AIDS in America, through the intimate perspective of a family and community that has been affected by one man’s diagnosis. Green Shall Overcome Dir. Megan Gelstein Green Shall Overcome (working title) follows Van Jones, the controversial environmental activist. Jones has a dream for America: social justice through green jobs. Handpicked by the Obama Administration to help create a new “green” energy policy for the nation, his vision collides with the partisan politics of Washington. Set against the backdrop of hope and possibility that accompanied Obama into the White House, this film will offer a unique, first-hand vantage on the challenges of changing the status quo – even as a special advisor to the president. Out in the Silence Dirs. Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer Out in the Silence is more than a movie; it’s part of the growing movement for justice and equality in rural and small town America. Based on the story of a brutal gay bashing of a 16-year-old boy in the filmmaker’s small Pennsylvania hometown, the OITS community engagement campaign has emerged as a compelling, proactive model for grassroots activism and civic participation, helping to build bridges rather than walls on issues that have divided our communities for far too long.

On October 2 – 8th, I will be in Catania, Italy for the third session of the European Social Documentary training, commonly called ESoDoc, an initiative offered by ZeLIG School for Documentary and supported by the European Union’s MEDIA Program. ESoDoc explores wholly new terrain for EU filmmakers and brings together the demands of different players now involved in documentary film production and distribution, including directors and producers, non-government and non profit-making organizations (NGOs and NPOs), television broadcasters and the growing range of New Media professionals creating both web-documentaries and crossmedia productions. ESoDoc’s ambition is to prepare professionals for the markets of tomorrow and make them part of this changing world. The program focuses on documentaries that draw attention to human rights, social justice and environmental protection, particularly in the developing world. I will be opening the session on Sunday with a look at how filmmakers can ensure their films have authentic impact and will also be among a group of experts that will train the 22 participants on how best to present their project during pitching forums and at markets. The session will end 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.

Reel Power, a new collaboration of films on energy and natural resource extraction developed from our Reel Engagement residency, will be part of Appalachia Rising, a mass mobilization calling for the end of mountaintop removal mining to be held in Washington, DC, on September 25-27, 2010. We will co-host a resource booth with a number of other remarkable filmmakers, participate in a media workshop on Saturday, and host a Working Films workshop on how to use the collection of Reel Power films to engage communities in ways that lead audiences to action. Participants at Appalachia Rising will also be some of the first to be able to get Dirty Business: "Clean Coal" and the Battle for Our Energy Future early. This is one of the films in the collaboration for which we are coordinating the audience engagement campaign. Stay tuned for some exciting updates. We hope to see you there.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="(Photo by Robbie Gemmel)"][/caption] Are you interested in developing skills to effectively manage film campaigns on social justice issues? If so, you should apply to our latest Reel Engagement workshop, Managing Social Issue Film Campaigns, which we designed with the Fledgling Fund. This 4 day hands-on workshop is designed for individuals who are interested in developing the skills necessary to be Engagement Coordinators; designing and managing creative and impactful audience and community engagement campaigns for independent social issue documentary films or media projects. Read more and apply now! Deadline is October 22, 2010