Outreach for Cause: Discussion on Social Entrepreneurship and Documentary Filmmaking

http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/marketing-communication/stories-of-change

I participated in a thorough and valuable discussion-- Stories of Social Change-- at the Skoll Foundation's discussion platform, about the intersection between social entrepreneurship, systemic change and filmmaking.

Quoting a post on web platforms for documentary distribution/marketing, "from the perspective of a nonprofit, social entrepreneur or activist, there is a distinction between marketing for a film and marketing for a cause. What I've found from consulting primarily on the nonprofit/cause side of the fence is that filmmakers, distributors, marketers, etc., don't always pay enough attention to marketing/outreach on cause. Outreach for film and for cause are related but different-- and should involve different strategies for information dissemination and audience engagement... [and] it's the responsibility of the social entrepreneur/activist to make sure the cause is marketed and awareness-raising is tied to a film (which is true for any distribution vehicle)."

Article about Filmanthropy

http://www.entrepreneur.com/worklife/successstories/article195142.html

I wish the authors had spoken a bit more about investor returns and effective business models (particularly given the publication) beyond the need to limit budgets and conserve resources. But there are still kernels of wisdom here-- particularly for non-filmmakers who are not used to film budgets. Film financing is often a conundrum for non-industry people who are trying to figure out their use of media.

Republished from The Art of Social Change, at ArtTribesNetwork.com

Article from AIVF's The Independent Magazine

From http://www.independent-magazine.org/

Getting Perspective: AIVF interim executive director's view from the inside

When I came to work with AIVF in February, I don’t believe the Board or staff could have predicted that AIVF’s situation would spark a debate about the possible meltdown of an entire industry. AIVF’s Board retained me through a referral from the Support Center for Nonprofit Management, charging me to maintain the organization’s operations following a change in leadership and to rebuild systems that had fallen into disrepair. Being a newcomer to this industry (I am a lawyer and nonprofit management consultant, not a filmmaker or media arts professional), I was able to assess AIVF’s viability as a business in isolation from larger industry questions. After working with the Board and staff for a few weeks, we all quickly learned how deeply troubled the organization really was. Its operational systems, accounting and financial support, and technological capacity were all outdated and barely functioning.

Although aware of the internal and external difficulties facing the organization, neither the Board nor the staff wanted to go down without a fight. So we’ve searched for long-term solutions and necessary resources, and we started on the task of devising necessary changes to AIVF’s service model. We also sought an influx of cash via donations or earned revenue, to help us finance necessary changes in infrastructure as well as programs and services. More importantly, additional financial resources would enable us to lay the groundwork for a long-term plan to revitalize the organization in a way that engaged the community and articulated AIVF’s mission—namely, to service and improve the professional lives of independent media artists. Reaching these goals, though not impossible, has proven challenging.

As Brian Newman, Jim McKay, and Anthony Kaufman have discussed, AIVF’s problems viewed against larger industry problems look even more challenging. Nonprofit organizations regardless of their service area are facing leadership, staffing, and budgetary problems— and a push to act more like their for-profit counterparts. Nonprofits must protect the “bottom line” in terms of maximizing the quality of beneficiary services while meeting standards of efficiency, fiscal soundness, and innovation in their fields. Any nonprofit focused on improving its performance must possess the foresight to adequately size its budget, retain qualified personnel, and enter into worthwhile partnerships in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, all the while keeping an eye on income opportunities, industry trends, and technological innovations. A tall order. Now throw into the mix the fact that only a few donors will fund a nonprofit’s efforts to improve its organizational capacity, preferring to fund programs alone.

The nonprofit media arts industry is dealing with its own challenges, which complicates AIVF’s task, but has made the question of the organization’s survival that much more crucial. The field has changed radically in the last 5 to 10 years. Independent media artists are working in the midst of a cultural chill brought on by repressive, pro-consolidation media policies. One of the most recent and disturbing examples of this has been the creation of Smithsonian Networks and its alliance with CBS/Showtime, an alliance that threatens artists’ access to primary source materials [see page 39]. On the other side, the for-profit media sector has made a successful foray into the field. That’s not inherently a bad thing: Responsible for-profit players bring a great deal to the table for artists, primarily in terms of distribution and access to technological innovations and artists and nonprofits alike could benefit greatly from exploring collaboration. But for-profit companies are not set up to support independent creators of art or media. Truly independent media and film is already hard to find.

If the nonprofit media arts movement does indeed “die,” who will protect the makers of the medium? No matter how much foundations and activists push to reform media policy, it won’t mean anything for the American cultural landscape if artists can no longer fund or disseminate their works. If there exists a compelling reason for AIVF to survive and reinvent itself— or for any other organization that works in the realm of nonprofit media arts—it is to protect independent media artists and their ability to do their work.

Born into Brothels, The Film, Seeds Kids with Cameras, the Organization

Originally published at MediaRights.org

The theatrical release of the film Born into Brothels (ThinkFilm) on December 8, 2004, presents Kids with Cameras with an opportunity for outreach and exposure most young nonprofit organizations may never enjoy. The organization, dedicated to the empowerment of children through the art of photography, fulfills its mission through a model that was initiated with children of prostitutes in Calcutta. Born into Brothels is about the fascinating creation of this model.

The Sundance-award winning documentary, co-directed by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski, recounts Zana�s inspired journey to the red light district of Calcutta. She went to India to take pictures of the prostitutes and ended up teaching their children photography. The film captures Zana’s work with the kids over a number of years as they learn how to tell their own stories and reach their dreams for an education, the only way to escape the crime and poverty of the red light district.

Zana did not come to the project as a social worker or activist in the traditional sense, but her work led to change at the most intrinsic level. The film therefore serves as a powerful tool for inspiring education and action.

Kids with Cameras: A Film Gives Birth to a Nonprofit

Born into Brothels is a call to action. Most of us who have joined the Kids with Cameras cause as board, staff, volunteers and donors did so after one viewing of the remarkable film. We have committed ourselves to activism that uses media on many tiers. Kids with Cameras realizes its potential and responsibility to inspire transformation in children around the world growing up in zones of conflict or dire poverty. We also understand that we can raise awareness and effect change in our audiences using the creative media of photography and documentary filmmaking.

Kids with Cameras therefore develops and uses media projects to spark social change with our beneficiaries, our audience, the world, the children’s communities, our photographers and ourselves. We aim for empowerment on both sides of the camera.

Kids with Cameras delivers the services that fulfill our mission through a three-pronged approaches:

1. Photography Workshops
The photography workshops provided over a period of time serve as a point of entry into the children’s lives. We enable professional photographers to travel to troubled parts of the world to teach children how to create photographs, how to edit their photos and how to select the best images. We promote artistic excellence in the children and work with them one-on-one to maximize the long-term effects of our work. We are currently providing workshops in Israel and Haiti, and we are planning to launch another in Cairo. Workshops will be held in two to three locations per year.

2. Media Projects
Progressing from the photography workshops, we develop media projects that highlight the children’s accomplishments. These media projects include film, photography, websites, books and exhibits. Through these projects, we inspire our audiences to observe, learn and act.

3. Legacy Projects
Finally, we develop educational “legacy” projects to continue our impact on the communities we’ve touched. In Calcutta, that means building a school exclusively for the children of the brothels that promotes leadership skills and the arts, as well as general education. In other communities, we hope to assist schools and community centers that already exist.

This three-tiered model was derived directly from Zana’s work in Calcutta as documented in Born into Brothels. This year, Kids with Cameras has moved towards formalizing the model and building our services around it. Kids with Cameras was created from the work shown in Born into Brothels, and the film now exists within our model as a Kids with Cameras media project. This cycle of work stages a unique opportunity to present Kids with Cameras as an effective social change organization that uses arts, media and education.

Using the Film to Garner Support

This year documentaries have become the hottest film genre. In a year when nearly every other successful documentary has concerned the American political horizon or the Middle East, Born into Brothels stands out as global in scope �- a piece of humanist filmmaking at its finest and, this year, most unique. The film is distinct not only in subject matter, but also in its key role in the formation of a dynamic, effective social change organization.

As I write this article, the Board and staff at KWC are brainstorming on how to use our “right-place, right-time” opportunity to deliver our message. Our chance to publicize our work rests, to a large extent, in our ability to get people in theaters or to see the film when it broadcasts on HBO in 2005. The challenge comes in trying to create an outreach campaign for the organization that works in tandem with the film’s publicity campaign, while continually working on outreach efforts that will move us beyond the film.

Our publicity strategy involves using the film and related media projects to educate audiences about Kids with Cameras� model and our successes, and to demonstrate what the children in the film and kids like them throughout the world are capable of producing. We are working towards developing a media campaign that capitalizes on the film’s publicity — with one eye on opportunities to move beyond the film as an outreach tool as our organization grows larger.

To that end, we are currently using the documentary to garner media attention for the organization itself. The film provides a hook for publications to write about Kids with Cameras and our efforts. We are visiting film festivals around the country (where the film has won over 20 awards), mounting photo exhibits and providing literature at the festivals and screenings themselves. We have held a few private screenings at which the organization can present itself and raise funds. We will endeavor to have press articles that speak about the film as well as the organization.

As we move beyond the film’s theatrical release, we will use Born into Brothels to inspire future action in an educational release or for private screenings. For the moment, in the buildup to the theatrical release, we are using the distribution and publicity processes to encourage networking, outreach and fundraising.