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by: Lindsay Gibb, Reelscreen This past week the women behind Chicken and Egg Pictures, a New York-based hybrid film fund and mentoring production company for female filmmakers, were given the Loreen Arbus Award at the New York Women in Film and Television's (NY-WIFT) Muse Awards. Realscreen spoke with Judith Helfand, Julie Parker Benello and Wendy Ettinger (pictured, left to right) about the meaning of Chicken and Egg, what they're looking for in the projects they support and what plans they're hatching for the future. Last year the Loreen Arbus Award for Those Who Take Action and Effect Change was given to Kodak for its support of female cinematographers. This year Wendy Ettinger, co-founder of Chicken and Egg Pictures, says she's thrilled the NY-WIFT acknowledged her organization because it meant the awards show, which usually focuses on women in fictional films and television, was giving a nod to women who work on documentaries. To Judith Helfand, who also co-founded the company along with Ettinger and Julie Parker Benello, the honor made her reflect on the road she traveled to get to where she is today. When Helfand was 27 and working on her first film, A Healthy Baby Girl (which went on to win a Peabody), she went to Terry Lawler, now the executive director of the NY-WIFT but then part of the staff for Women Make Movies, for help with financing. "I had this meeting with her and she essentially said, 'You can do this. This is great. I really believe in this. I believe in you,'" remembers Helfand. Now, 18 years later, Helfand is on the other side of the table telling new female filmmakers she believes in them. "The only other thing that's better than having someone say, 'I believe in you' is being able to say that to someone else and really feel like you have the ability to help them." The core grant given by Chicken and Egg to women working on film projects is aptly entitled I Believe in You, and each year the organization gives out grants and mentoring hours to women filmmakers who are looking for assistance. In the almost five years the organization has been together, it has awarded over one million dollars in grants and has provided more than 2,300 hours of mentoring to 52 films. Ettinger, Helfand and Parker Benello hope to replicate these numbers within the next three years. The "egg" of Chicken and Egg Pictures was laid when Ettinger and Parker Benello were board members at Helfand's Working Films (which she co-founded with Robert West), an organization which helps filmmakers to develop outreach programs for their projects. At one of the board meetings the three of them put their heads together and hatched the idea to raise some money and start giving grants to women filmmakers. "Judith had the [idea] that it's not just about the money. It's about the mentorship and being in a community and not [making films] in isolation," says Parker Benello. "We launched a month or two later, and that first year [we] gave about $50,000 in grants." Another way they give back to the community is through awards such as the Emergent Women Narrative Directing Award they gave for the first time this year at SXSW, and their third annual Chicken and Egg event at Sundance where they bring together a mix of filmmakers and documentary industry members to showcase a few of the filmmakers they've supported and honor a woman in the field. Currently, Monica and David, a doc by Ali Codina which follows an adult couple with Down's Syndrome during their first year of marriage, is making the festival rounds and is currently awaiting word on its television debut, while William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe is currently in theaters and will be on 'POV' in the new year. Deep Down, a project by Sally Rubina and Jen Gilomen examines how the practice of mountain top removal in search of coal in the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky is affecting a local community, and will be screening in Copenhagen at the UN Climate Change Conference and later on PBS. The funds for the grants given out by Chicken and Egg come mainly from women filmmakers of means and some smaller foundations that the team has brought on board, the largest of which they call "Nesters" who commit for $50,000 a year for three years. As far as what they are looking for from letters of inquiry, Ettinger says that not only is storytelling a huge factor in their decision, but also, a clear vision, passion and a willingness to be with the film over a long term are vital. Helfand adds that the inspiration behind the story is also important. "We look inside what's being offered to us and look at what this person is sharing with us, and at their background and what their interests are," she says. "It's a whole package. It's never just the reel they send us."

The Age of Stupid hasn’t called it quits now that their film is finished and out in the world. They are broadcasting live from the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen with the aim to make “the most important meeting in human history comprehensible to people without degrees in hot air”. The filmmakers are working in close collaboration with NGOs to distribute the Stupid Show via the internet to a number of audiences and engage a number of global citizens in Copenhagen.

You can watch it live on the ageofstupid.net or view past shows. Tonight they will be talking to environmentalist, writer and founder of 350.org, Bill McKibben. The Stupid Show is hosted by oneclimate as part of their Copenhagen 24/7 webcast.

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. The team at What’s On Your Plate? join us as guest bloggers to share how they’re using gaming to engage young people in the campaign.

The What’s On Your Plate? games were designed to engage a broad audience, particularly visitors interested in having fun and exploring more themes of the film. We saw this as an opportunity to put the message of local and healthy food into a new medium that has the ability to feel less didactic, and more elective. We hope that the games are fun to play and that they empower players to make more active food choices.

Media is a powerful tool for social change that is exemplified by both documentary film and the interactive web. In our outreach, we worked to diversify our methods of delivering the message so that even when playing a simple game, users realize that they have choices, and that they can play an active role in what food they eat, what means of production they encourage, etc. In this age of aggressive growth in technology, we strive to encourage positive choices.

From the beginning of production, our partners have contributed opinions and examples that became content. When we developed our outreach plan, which detailed the aims of the website, we engaged our partners such as the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and Stone Barns Center. By the time we began building the site with the web design team, Future Farmers, we were very well prepared with a creative brief, statistics, and structural outline. Future Farmers’ specialty is creating educational but fun webgames so they were a natural fit for this project. In addition to the website, we partnered with Solar One to produce a curriculum that correlates to the film’s major themes. There is a synergy between the style of the curriculum lessons and the webgames, which allows for a cohesive overall public image of the project.

Now with the website launched, we are constantly tweaking the fine details, but we are proud of its execution. We have been able to get the games to a wider and strategic audiences through our partners who are spreading the word about the site to their own constituents, e.g., by linking to our site through theirs, by mentioning it in their newsletters, etc.

In 2009, Working Films helped coordinate and facilitated our first partner summit in the office of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. Based on the discussions at the summit, Working Films created a report with suggestions and action items which became part of the basis for our continuing strategies, including the webgames.

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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.

We collaborated with Girls Inc of Alameda County, Missing Pixel, Lower East Side Girls Club, and others. The girls and staff from these organizations helped us design the interactive website, gurlstalkback.com, and informed us about the content and design. We worked with a team of 15 middle school girls to see what they were interested in and what would make the site exciting to them. They loved the cell phone polls and the ability to post their stories and photos. We also have two high school girls from Girls Inc of Alameda County who are the moderators for the site -- making sure girls aren't bullying each other and making sure no creepy predatory adults are seeping in. They are awesome and have posted on our blog last summer.

Working Films has been a partner on this project since nearly its inception. Kristy and I attended a workshop that Robert West hosted at the now defunct Films Arts Foundation (RIP). He inspired us to partner with youth organizations and to think about community engagement all throughout production. Later I went to the Working Films' MASS MoCA filmmaker residency in 2005 (for my 40th birthday!) and really benefited from the training, support and analysis he, Judith Helfand and the other participants gave me on our film and our plan. We have utilized the contacts and relationships and ideas generated there and throughout the process of creating the film. We are truly honored to be part of and indebted to Working Films -- all of the staff have been great!

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. Associate Director of the No Impact Project, Stephanie Bleyer, joins us as a guest blogger to share how she’s using a widget as part of the No Impact Project’s campaign.

The No Impact Project and the Center for a New American Dream have joined together to help communities simplify the holidays this year. During the two-weeks of the historic UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (December 7th-18th), we’re bringing people together to talk about the impact of holiday spending on their lives and the environment. We organized 50 simultaneous community screenings and for this effort we needed one all-inclusive marketing tool that would be very easy for people to share and post on their blogs, websites, newsletters and e-vites. The No Impact widget is a terrific web marketing tool created for us by Call2Action. It is a mini-website that has the film trailer, film details, project details, event details and a space to make a pledge related to our film screening event. Our goal for the widget was to allow people to view the trailer, inspire them to RSVP for the No Impact Man Holiday Screening Spectacular and make a pledge to simplify their holidays, which is linked to the theme of the screening event. We definitely recommend this tool to other audience engagement film campaigns.

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 Nancy Schwartzman joins us as a guest blogger to share how she’s using popular social media tools to engage young people in her campaign.

@thelinecampaign: Sex. Consent. Power. Pleasure. The Line is a film. The Line is a movement. The Line is up to you.

"The Line is about building a world where people are free to be sexual beings without being used or mistreated. Hookup culture disempowers even its bravest soldiers with “dude, I’m gettin’ some tonight;” even when women play the game, we’re expected to obey someone else’s rules." From: “Next time, text me back: I was the Grrl du Jour” (Author: Carmen)

"I applaud Ronan’s speaking out about his struggle as a male person negotiating “Manhood” with a commitment to social justice… As a male person who grew up with and fully defensive about all but class privilege, I understand that coming to a place of recognition without defensiveness and learning from the discomfort is difficult and it’s a process that requires a courage and strength much more meaningful than the traditional “Manly” version." From: “Responses to: Sexist Boyhood in Urban New Jersey” (Author: Ronen, Comment Jonathon Grove)

The Line is a 24-minute documentary, challenging ideas about sexual consent, negotiation, and boundaries. It is told from a personal point of view in a compelling, engaging style suited for a college-age audience. It is the first film of its kind to address the topic of consent in a direct, sex-positive voice, while examining a sexual assault where part of the act was consensual and part of it was forced.  The film asks the question: where is the line defining consent? The biggest challenge for this outreach project, was taking the topic of sexual assault and creating a space for non-polarizing, accessible, and non-judgmental conversation that emphasizes communication, personal responsibility and pleasure. Our goal was to use The Line film to create an educational, interactive and multi-media campaign that fosters dialogue about sexual boundaries and consent, and empowers young men and women to discuss complex scenarios about healthy relationships and sex.

With support from The Fledgling Fund, and collaboration with Melissa Gira Grant we launched "where is your line?" a group blog on consent, sex, pleasure, and ways we all can ask for what we want. Through shared stories, photos, and comments, we invite the audience to become participants, and to dig deeper into the questions raised by the film. Using the online/social media tools popular with college students and activists – blogging, Facebook, internet video, and Twitter – we solicited entries from people with large networks, jumped onto message boards, and cross-posted our content as broadly as possible. Once we started generating stories, the thornier the better, we enriched the experience by soliciting comments from educators and sexperts, who will eventually become our non-profit partners. We wanted to launch the website with a splash, and the opportunity came our way in the form of Tucker Max and the release of his film I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. Facebook, Twitter and feminist blogs were lighting up in anger about the sexist, misogynist and racist content of the film, and the truly nasty ways his camp was responding to protesters using video and photoshop. In less than two days, we cut together a PSA-style video piece, sticking to our message that good sex is consensual sex, and reminding frat boys everywhere that Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. We posted the video on our site and throughout our networks, and it got picked up on feministing.com, which in turn got picked up on Tucker Max's site, which directed more folks back to us. Being part of the media response to Tucker helped us get established, and helped his film bomb at the box office!

Working Films has always emphasized long-standing and far reaching relationships with non-profit partners to maximize the impact of your film. We have tested the waters using our online networks, and have now identified the right organizations to collaborate with on a concrete level, with tangible and attainable mutual goals. Using the Working Films summit model, we look forward to bringing The Line and The Line Campaign into hundreds of classrooms and community groups nationwide.

In our consultations with filmmakers, at our strategic summits, in our workshops and residencies, and during informal conversations at film festivals we are always trying to hammer home for filmmakers the importance of forming solid, ongoing, mutually-beneficial partnerships with organizations working on the issues featured in their films. From the start of our work ten years ago, we found strategic partnerships – finding the right NGOs, funders, and even brands – to be the one key component for successful film campaigns. If we identified the right partners, the rest came easy. Built into these partnerships were mutually beneficial outcomes: You bring them CONTENT – the compelling narrative of your film, and they bring you INTENT – embedding your film into their reach and long term commitment, taking your film to crucial audiences, their members and constituents. Some NGOs have brilliant strategies for policy shifts or for new models for providing social services. Your film can be the catalyst that’s needed for a final push to make these things happen. A collaborative campaign maximizes resources and together you and the NGOs create IMPACT. By now, most filmmakers “get it” – they know partnerships between NGOs, advocates, on-the-ground activists, and policy strategists are the most likely means to build a robust audience engagement and alternative distribution campaign for their film, but often they tackle the problem from the wrong direction. We tell filmmakers: The question to your potential partners is not “How can you help my movie?” but “How can my movie help the movement?” A Filmmaker Who Knocked It Out Of the Park Filmmaker Dan Habib has done an incredible job of collaborating with organizations working for full inclusion – a movement that has had a profound impact on how educators and others think about services for children and people with disabilities. Habib’s Including Samuel chronicles his family’s efforts to ensure their son Samuel – who has Cerebral Palsy – is included in all facets of his school and community. The film features four other families with varied inclusion experiences, plus interviews with dozens of teachers, young people, parents and disability rights experts. Through a strategy summit with Working Films, Dan created a collaborative campaign with key partners in the inclusion movement including the Council of Administrators of Special Education, Girls Scouts of the USA, Kids Included Together,  National Education Association, National Inclusion Project, TASH, United Cerebral Palsy, VSA arts, and many others. This is a mutually beneficial effort using the film for the long haul; not just lip service or a one-off one time screening. Among other forms of collaboration, Dan solicited input from many of these partners when putting together his screening toolkits and all of them have used Including Samuel in conferences, trainings, and other special events. In return they have gotten word out about the film’s PBS broadcast and screenings to their membership. “OK, OK,” you say, “but I am not a member of this movement, how do I even start to talk to NGOs about my movie?” There are some key lessons in starting these relationships: Do your homework. Identify the organizations that are doing leading work on the issue featured in the film. Look for a mix of large membership organizations that could bring you potential audiences and small scrappy strategists who will ensure your film is embedded in cutting edge activism by NGOs focused on policy and change. We’re not talking 20 or 30 organizations, but maybe 5 to 7. What are their current programs and priorities? How might your film fit into these existing efforts? ASK THEM; don’t guess. Authentic partnerships start with your allies identifying for you how and when your film might be useful and even crucial to their efforts. Start Early. Begin forming relationships with organizations while you are still in production. Of course, one obvious place to start is the organizations either featured in your film or otherwise already connected to your production. They can help you navigate what may be unknown territory, and they can help you identify other partners and how your film could fit into and advance their work. They are also likely to have great ideas for DVD extras, online tools, and other resources that could both serve the film and the movement. “How can I help you?” Not, “How can you help me?” Again, this is the most important piece of advice when approaching new potential partner organizations. Non-profits often tell us they get approached by filmmakers who want them to help get their film out, but don’t understand that while they may be connected to the issue in the film, they don’t have the time or resources to act as a distributor. It is important that right off the bat the non-profit knows that you have ideas about how to work collaboratively, including, shockingly enough, even sharing revenues with them in co-hosted screenings. We call it calculus for change: Strategic reach to audiences + strategic shared resources + strategic multi-year direction = strategic outcomes. Perhaps most importantly partners bring you audiences and IMPACT: Their co-hosted screenings with you will range from large “town hall” public screenings to house parties hosted by their members, to closed door screening with decision makers. Your Take Action steps for audiences should be linked to their ongoing efforts. And in the end your audience is fully engaged and your movie is making a difference. OK, you’re invested in partnerships with a NGO, now what? In the next blog in this series, we’ll share a key methodology that has successfully created ongoing strategic partnerships with NGOs and funders: strategy summits. Stay tuned!

The Media That Matters Film Festival is now accepting submissions for their 10th Annual Film Festival. The festival showcases short films on various social justice issues. This year they are particularly interested in films on Media Literacy, Human Rights, LGBTQ & Sexual Identity, Youth Activism and International issues. Each year, Working Films presents the Changemaker Award to the film with the most potential to inspire activism. Last year, we presented the award to Exiled in America,  a film about five siblings struggling to support their American livelihoods after their mother is deported to Mexico. Check out the Media That Matters website to review their criteria and submission guidelines. Deadline is January 22, 2010.