Reel Engagement

How can filmmakers whose movies touch on similar issues collaborate? How can they not!?! I’m preparing to spend next week in the Bay Area with some amazing and dedicated filmmakers and audience engagement coordinators. We’ll be figuring out where the overlaps in their campaigns lie and how they can cover more ground together than they could alone. The films chosen for this innovative retreat are Cape Wind, Deep Down, Dirty Business, Gas Land, Split Estate, Sun Come Up, and When Two Worlds Collide. These projects are all focusing on the…

Last month’s Story Leads to Action

Last month, Working Films and Chicken & Egg Pictures hosted a screening of Nancy Schwartzman’s film The Line, for our Story Leads to Action series at 92YTribeca. After the screening, the audience discussed how the film could be used in high schools, college freshman orientation programs, sexual violence prevention programs and law school and criminal justice education. On the panel were: – Nancy Schwartzman (Director) – Michelle J. Anderson (Dean and Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law) – Neil Irvin (Executive Director, Men Can Stop Rape) – Don…

Toasts all 'round – Full Frame Film Festival

“Good work!” to our colleagues at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival The Festival kicks off this Thursday, April 8, with a stellar and rousing line up. We’re connected to a number of films and filmmakers at the fest; join us in celebrating their success! On Friday, April 9th at 4pm, at the Carolina Theatre’s historic Fletcher Hall is the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Dirty Business. Dirty Business demystifies “clean coal” and explores the extent to which increased energy efficiency and wind, solar and thermal power might make “clean coal”…

Judith Helfand to be honored at the SF Women's Film Festival

Judith Helfand, our co-founder, is getting her due honors all this week – a testament to her passion and commitment and downright brilliance. Honors start at the San Francisco Women’s Film Festival this Wednesday, April 7th, 2010. The night will open with a tribute to Judith featuring A Healthy Baby Girl, Ek Velt: At the End of the World, and excerpts from Blue Vinyl followed by a Q&A. On Thursday, April 8th at noon, Judith will be teaching a master class where she will share storytelling strategies that lead to…

Another round of the Good Pitch!

The call for submissions for the Good Pitch Forum at Silverdocs 2010 is open! The Good Pitch is a one-day forum set to take place during the Festival (June 22-27, 2010), bringing together specially selected foundations, NGOs, social entrepreneurs, brands and broadcasters to maximize the impact and create powerful alliances around groundbreaking films. The Good Pitch is a project of The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation in partnership with the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program. It is made possible by The Fledgling Fund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Tides Foundation and anonymous…

This season on POV…

POV’s Executive Director Simon Kilmurry announced their extraordinary lineup of films for 2010. Among them are many great films that we have had the honor to work with including former Working Films’ Park Scholar Jeremy Levine’s Good Fortune and more recently POV’s Adoption Stories series with Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy, Off and Running, and In The Matter of Cha Jung Hee. Only a few weeks ago we hosted a strategy summit in partnership with POV for the Adoption Stories series which will air in late August/early September.…

Here we go again! Working Films is excited about the Good Pitch @ Tribeca

Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Documentary Institute have announced the lineup for the Good Pitch @ Tribeca, hitting the screens in NYC on April 27 during the Tribeca Film Festival. For three years and running (we were there at the very first Good Pitch in Oxford UK), Working Films has provided a two day workshop on campaign development for the Good Pitch filmmakers. Our allies the Fledgling Fund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, the Tides Foundation, the Hartley Film Foundation and anonymous donors provide additional support. From an impressive…

IMPACT Series Launched Today

How do social issue documentary films do more than just raise awareness? Are you a documentary filmmaker looking for the formula to take your film to the next level? IMPACT is a new series of videos created by Working Films and The Fledgling Fund focused on building film campaigns that ignite social change. Assessing Impact: A Funder’s Perspective is the first video in our series. It features our partner The Fledgling Fund and gives you an insider’s look at how to assess the impact of a film, its distribution and…