Funders, Filmmakers, social media-ites, activists or even engaged audience members? The next week is devoted to you. Selected grantees of Chicken & Egg Pictures and The Fledgling Fund are getting the Working Films treatment as part of an interactive retreat powered by bold non-fiction filmmaking and strategic, on-the-ground organizing locally, globally and on the web. My mission over the course of the week-long workshop? To bring this, via the C&E blog/twitter/FB, to a wider audience so that you too can be excited, enraged and certainly engaged. I'll be sharing the journeys of the filmmakers, revelations, innovative ideas, strategic sessions anything that will help you think about how you can apply the Working Films methodology to your own projects/funding/campaigns.
Working Films has developed this innovative, week-long workshop to nurture the work of seven Chicken & Egg Pictures and Fledgling Fund supported filmmakers, all of whom are focused on the impact of unchecked natural resource extraction and/or innovative solutions for turning things around before it is too late.
This opportunity is designed for filmmakers, on-the-ground activists, policy shapers and foundation funders to creatively explore and strategize about how they can effectively leverage the launch of the respective films and their distribution venues.
Participants will focus on the design of community engagement campaigns for non-fiction films that explore the consequences of our relentless demand for energy and natural resources and that reveal glimmers of hopeful change from the emerging energy revolution. The selected films will tell character-driven stories that personally take us into these issues. Some will be based in the U.S. and others will take place in continents where the same issues are "hot" and in flux. On the ground activists will serve as truly "natural resource" people over the course of the retreat.
The underlying concept: Grassroots organizers who are in it for the LONG HAUL need more than one great film about their issue to catalyze real sustained social change.
The workshop will be held May 24-28, 2010 in the San Francisco Bay Area. We have developed an exciting format for the week long event. Filmmakers will spend the first three days learning about audience engagement methodology, honing their individual audience engagement plans, and preparing a pitch for how their films could be a tool for the participating, allied organizations. Days One, Two and Three will also feature peer-to-peer education by participating filmmakers.
On Day Four, filmmakers will come together with representatives from several non-profits and funders. This group will be strategically selected to ensure that we have a cross section of organizations that are working on state, national, and international levels. Importantly, the group will be curated to include organizations that work on the specific micro-issues that each film addresses so that each filmmaker has at least one potential non-profit match in the group, though current partners will also be taken into consideration. Filmmakers will have the opportunity to present their ideas to non-profits leaders working on these crucial environmental issues who may become partners or are in a position to offer valuable feedback on the feasibility and impact potential of their plans.
Finally, on Day 5 filmmakers will come back together for a half-day to begin implementation of the ideas generated throughout the workshop.
Check out Working Films for more info: http://www.workingfilms.org/article.php?id=302
