DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
Born in Evin
Directors: Maryam Zaree
Producers: Ira Tondowski, Alex Tondowski
98 min | Germany, Iran, France, Italy
Born in Evin follows filmmaker and actress, Maryam Zaree, on her quest to find out the violent circumstances surrounding her birth inside one of the most notorious political prisons in the world. Exactly forty years have passed since the monarchy of the Shah of Iran was toppled and the Islamic Republic declared. In the 1980’s Ayatollah Khomeini,the so-called religious leader, had tens of thousands of political opponents arrested, persecuted and murdered. Among them the filmmaker’s parents who, after years in prison,managed to seek asylum in Germany. The family never talked about their persecution and imprisonment. Maryam Zaree faces the decades-long silence and explores her own questions about the place and the circumstances of her birth.
Dying for Gold
Director: Catherine Meyburgh & Richard Pakleppa
Producers: Catherine Meyburgh & Richard Pakleppa
99 mins | South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland
Billed as “the untold story of the making of South Africa”, this devastating documentary explores the numerous ways in which the mining industry was a key force in shaping apartheid South Africa. For more than a century, hundreds of thousands of black men from Sub-Saharan Africa have been leaving their families to dig for gold and produce South Africa’s key source of wealth. Featuring a rich archive of footage from the colonial and apartheid eras, along with interviews with gold miners whose lives have been decimated by silicosis and tuberculosis, the film clearly shows how Southern Africa’s indigenous societies were destroyed in order to create a pool of cheap surplus labour that mined some of the world’s richest deposits of gold at the cheapest possible price.
Gay Chorus Deep South
Director: David Charles Rodrigues
Producers: Bud Johnston & Jesse Moss
92 min | United States
Led by conductor Dr. Tim Seelig and joined by The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir; the award-winning Gay Chorus Deep South is the timely story of 300 brave singers who traveled from Mississippi to Tennessee through the Carolinas bringing a message of love and acceptance to those fighting intolerance.The ensuing conversations and connections offer a glimpse of a less polarized America, where the issues that divide us — faith, politics, sexual identity — are set aside by the soaring power of music, humanity and a little drag.
PUSH
Director: Fredrik Gertten
Producers: Margarete Jangård
92 mins | US, UK, Chile, Canada, Spain, Germany, Korea, Italy, Sweden
Housing prices are skyrocketing in cities around the world. Incomes are not. PUSH sheds light on a new kind of faceless landlord, our increasingly unliveable cities and an escalating crisis that has an effect on us all. This is not gentrification, it’s a different kind of monster.
2040
Director: Damon Gameau
Producers: Anna Kaplan, Nick Batzias, Virginia Whitwell, Damon Gameau
92 mins | Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, France, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Tanzania, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States of America
Award – winning director Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film) embarks on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them rapidly into the mainstream. Structured as a visual letter to his 4-year-old daughter, Damon blends traditional documentary with dramatised sequences and high-end visual effects to create a vision board of how these solutions could regenerate the world for future generations.
Freedom Fields
Director: Naziha Arebi
Producers: Flore Cosquer, Naziha Arebi
97 mins | United Kingdom, Libya
FREEDOM FIELDS follows three women and their football team in post-revolution Libya, as the country descends into civil war and the utopian hopes of the Arab Spring begin to fade. Through the eyes of these accidental activists, we see the reality of a country in transition, where the personal stories of love and aspirations collide with History. A love letter to sisterhood and the power of the team.
Always in Season
Director: Jacqueline Olive
Producers: Jacqueline Olive & Jessica Devaney
86 min | USA
As the film unfolds, Lennon’s case, and the suspicions surrounding it, intersect with stories of other communities seeking justice and reconciliation. A few hundred miles away in Monroe, Georgia, a diverse group of reenactors, including the adult daughter of a former Ku Klux Klan leader, annually dramatize a 1946 quadruple lynching to ensure the victims are never forgotten and encourage the community to come forward with information that might bring the perpetrators to justice.As the terrorism of the past bleeds into the present, the film asks: what will it take for Americans to begin building a national movement for racial justice and reconciliation?
Anbessa
Director: Mo Scarpelli
Producers: Caitlin Mae Burke, Mo Scarpelli
86 min | Ethiopia, Italy, USA
A young boy displaced by a massive condominium complex creates his own reality where as a lion (anbessa) he can face the forces beyond his control.
Radio Silence
Director: Juliana Fanjul
Producers: Philippe Coeytaux and Nicolas Wadimoff (Akka films, CH), Jose Cohen Ovadia (Cactus Docs, MX)
78 min | Switzerland, Mexico
Mexico, March 2015. Carmen Aristegui, incorruptible journalist, is fired from the radio station where she has worked for years. But Carmen continues her fight: raising awareness and fighting against misinformation. The film tells the story of this quest: difficult and dangerous, but essential to the heath of democracy. A story in which resistance becomes a form of survival.
The Feeling of Being Watched
Director: Assia Boundaoui
Producers: Assia Boundaoui, Jessica Devaney, Amel Monsur, Danieh El-harezi, Din Clarke, Anya Rous
87 mins | USA
When journalist Assia Boundaoui investigates rumors of surveillance in her Arab-American neighborhood in Chicago, she uncovers one of the largest FBI terrorism probes conducted before 9/11 and reveals its enduring impact on the community.
Advocate
Directors: Rachel Leah Jones, Philippe Bellaiche
Producers: Paul Cadieux, Joelle Bertossa
110 mins | Israel, Canada, Switzerland
Since the early 1970s, Jewish-Israeli attorney Lea Tsemel has made a career out of defending Palestinians in Israeli courts: from feminists to fundamentalists, from non-violent demonstrators to armed militants. As far as most Israelis are concerned, she defends the indefensible. As far as Palestinians are concerned, she’s more than an attorney, she’s an ally. ADVOCATE follows Tsemel’s caseload in real time, including the high-profile trial of a 13-year-old boy while also revisiting her landmark cases and reflecting on the political significance of her work and the personal price one pays for taking on the role of “devil’s advocate.”
Jozi Gold
Director: Sylvia Vollenhoven
Producer: Margarete Jangård
74 min | UK, West Bank/Israel
Grandmother and environmental activist Mariette Lieerink is up against the richest mining corporations in Africa. The golden era has left 1,6 million people living on radioactive grounds, but she is on a mission to force the gold industry to clean up.
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS
Women of the Gulag
Director: Marianna Yarovskaya
39 min | USA
The film Women of the Gulag tells the compelling and tragic stories of the women – last survivors of the Gulag, the brutal system of repression and terror that devastated the Soviet population during the regime of Stalin. The Gulag was first captured by Solzhenitsyn in his opus, Gulag Archipelago. Never before the stories of women and women’s experience in these camp was told in an international documentary film. A collection of unique and candid interviews with women who survived the Stalin’s repression of the 1930s.
Mothers of
Director: Ross Lai
Producers: Andrew Simon, Christian Tyler, Nicolas Houghton
21 min | Canada, El Salvador
‘Mothers of’ explores the hyper-strict abortion regulations in El Salvador through the story of Teodora del Carmen Vásquez, a woman forced to serve over 10 years in jail after suffering a stillbirth in her 9th month of pregnancy. Through Teodora’s perspective, we begin to understand how loss and motherhood are felt in the face of bitter social injustice.
Goodwill Dumping
Director: Teddy Cherim
Producer: Levi Wilbrink
26 min | Netherlands & Kenya
The stylized fashion documentary Goodwill Dumping brings the enormity of the industry surrounding donated secondhand clothing to light. The film showcases the journey that discarded pieces of clothing make and what kind of impact this has on local industries. Due to its globalized scale this immense industry has something otherworldly. The film shows the process and butterfly effect caused by the simple action of donating your old T-shirt. Creatures consisting out of mountains of discarded clothes add a layer of stylized and surrealistic commentary on the industry.
Stallions of Palestine
Director: Elise Coker
Producer: Mahalia Cohen
44 min | USA, Israel/Palestine
A young Palestinian breeder named Abdel Naser Musleh and his family navigate the difficulties of raising these delicate animals in the West Bank—where access to vets and training facilities always seems to be a checkpoint away.
Los Comandos
Directors: Joshua Bennett, Juliana Schatz
Producers: Joshua Bennett, Jessica Chermayeff, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre, Mira Chang, Juliana Schatz
28 min | USA, El Salvador
In El Salvador, gang violence has overrun the country, disproportionately targeting children and teenagers, and turning it into ‘The Murder Capital of the World’. The emergency medical unit, Los Commandos de Salvamento is one of the few institutions standing up to the gangs’ reign of terror, and is a place of refuge and community for young people. 16 year old Mimi is a dedicated Commando caught in the violence. When her friend and fellow Commando, 12 year old Erick Beltran, is gunned down while serving, she faces pressure to leave El Salvador and Los Commandos, and head north for a better life.
Scenes From A Dry City
Director: Francois Verster, Simon Wood
12 min | South Africa
What happens when a major metropolitan area runs out of water? In Cape Town, South Africa, residents fear the arrival of “Day Zero,” when the city’s taps will be shut off.
Waves
Directors: Jessie Ayles
4 min | UK, South Africa
Waves follows three young girls growing up in one of South Africa’s most violent communities. The film looks at the effects that high levels of violence, rape and femicide have on the psyche of young girls growing up amongst it, and how they learn to cope.
Haven
Director: Colin Askey
Producers: Robinder Uppal, Marc Serpa Francoeur
18 min | Canada
Lynda, an indigenous woman whose sons died tragically, and Max, the sole survivor of a horrific car accident, are heroin users in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, infamous as Canada’s poorest neighbourhood. As participants in a radical opioid-assisted therapy program, the first of its kind in North America, they are provided with medical-grade heroin and a safe place to inject. After years of turmoil on the streets doing whatever they needed to do to support their drug habits, Lynda and Max can finally focus on healing, free from the fear of overdose from the fentanyl-laced heroin that is devastating the community.
What Happened to Dujuan Armstrong?
Director: Lucas Guilkey
Producers: Lucas Guilkey
27 min | USA
When a young man mysteriously dies in a Bay Area jail, his mother begins a determined quest to find out what happened to him, but quickly runs into the opaque and powerful position of American sheriffs.This intimate, fast-paced documentary follows Barbara Doss’ search to discover the details of her son’s mysterious death in Santa Rita jail. In the summer of 2018, 23-year-old Dujuan Armstrong was serving weekends for a burglary conviction, but one weekend he never came home. Thus began Barbara’s journey for truth and justice. Through her grief and increasing activism, the audience travels with her to the county board of supervisors, the jail, the cemetery in which Dujuan is buried, rallies, and one climatic confrontation with the sheriff himself. What will it take for her to get the truth?
Nazi VR
Director: David Freid
17 min | Germany
The high-tech prosecution of a World War II war criminal. What may be the last WWII Nazi trial, was also the first to use virtual reality in the courtroom. As part of the prosecution against former SS guard, Reinhold Hanning, Germany deployed VR technology to re-create Auschwitz, and prove that Hanning would have seen the atrocities taking place all around him. Like many Nazis who never faced justice, the now elderly Hanning claimed he was not aware of what was happening inside the concentration camp. And like many, he had been living a normal life in Germany since the war — until a major war crimes policy review opened the door to try Hanning as an accessory to at least 170,000 deaths.
Green Gold?
Director: Nicky Milne
Producers: Nicky Milne, Valeria Cardi
25 min | Chile
Green Gold? tells the story of desperate water shortages faced by communities in Chile due to our global insatiable appetite for avocados.It includes government interviews, questioning policy and lack of regulation, bringing these issues to the key players in power. Corporations such as the Chilean Hass Avocado Board,Cabilfruit- the largest exporter of Hass Avocados from the region – andthe largest European importer of avocados refused to be interviewed for this film, but all were highly aware of the issues and inequities in Chile. There have beeninternational media reports about this issue and whilst this film alone may not bring key policy change, it is one strongbalanced, trusted, international voice putting pressure for change. It is an absolutely key part of the ‘war effort’ i.e. mobilising effort, to ensure impact.
R.A.W. Tuba
Director: Darren Durlach, Dave Larson
Producers: Darren Durlach and David Larson
28 min | USA, Baltimore, Albuquerque
This film is about a Baltimore child who experienced intermittent homelessness but went on to become a world-class symphony musician and professor. As a child, Richard Antoine White (R.A.W.) slept wherever he could, sometimes in abandoned rowhomes where he was chewed on by rats during his sleep. Now in his 40s, he still has the scars across his abdomen. But despite enormous challenges, he went on to become the first African American in the world to receive a Doctorate in Music for Tuba Performance .
VIRTUAL REALITY/ 360
The Uncomfortable Jeans of Pakhi Begum
Director: Ivan Mikulić
Producers: Ariadna Seuba, Asif Khan Ranan
4 min | Bangladesh, The Netherlands
How do you bring a far away reality closer to home? It’s an issue many NGO’s and businesses struggle with. 360° video is the next best thing to physically go somewhere and get to experience a new world. In collaboration with the Dutch labour union FNV we made a 360° video for one of their events. On that event Dutch citizens stepped into the world of Pakhi, 1 of the 8000 employees in jeans factory in Bangladesh. This way they found out how and by whom their jeans was made and how they can help these employees.
(in)Visible Sound
Director: James Khoo
Producer: Dione Tan
4 min | Singapore
Grace has Tinnitus so the way she perceives sounds can be radically different from the average person. Yet, appearance wise, Grace’s disability is invisible. Through virtual reality, the viewer experiences the world through Grace’s eyes and ears as she narrates in voiceover. That world is a fantastical recreation of how she perceives sound. A musician at the far end of a restaurant engulfs her with music whilst the person she sits opposite from, is inaudible. As a theatre practitioner, Grace also creates judgement-free spaces, through participatory arts, for people with and without disabilities to come together.
Anthropocene: Dandora
Directors: Nicholas de Pencier, Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky
Producers: Nicholas de Pencier, Nadia Tavazzani
6 min | Kenya
The Dandora Landfill is the largest of its kind in Kenya. It receives industrial, agricultural, commercial and medical waste, amounting to about 2,000 tonnes per day. It is estimated that more than a million people live in the vicinity of the landfill. Residents work informally, sorting scrap by hand and selling it to recycling plants on site. The plastic hills and canyons of Dandora represent not only an entirely human landscape but also an emerging microeconomy. Prolific and easy to obtain, waste plastic has become a resource on its own, to be mined and sold as source material. But so much of it cannot be re-used and will be left to congeal in landfills, spilling into our waterways and oceans, eventually forming a significant sediment layer in the strata of the planet, and marking the Anthropocene in geological time.
Ashe 68
Director: Brad Lichtenstein, Jeff Fitzsimmons, Rex Miller
Producers: Madeline Power, Beth Hubbard
8 min | USA
Fifty years ago, amid the turmoil of 1968, there was Arthur Ashe, an athlete who parlayed his fame as the first black man to win the US Open tennis championship into a lifetime devoted to fighting injustice.The ASHE ’68 Virtual Reality Experience brings viewers into the intimate moments right before Arthur Ashe’s historic 1968 US Open win, an event that changed his life and the course of sports history forever. From the internal pressures he felt during this turbulent cultural shift, to walking down the halls of Forest Hills’ all white West Side Tennis Club, to his historic pre-match press conference and winning match point – the viewer is right there, immersed in that historic day witnessing Ashe’s defining moment as an athlete and emergence as an activist on the world stage. This unique VR experience weaves together 360° video re-creations, archival material, and evocative, never-before-seen 360° sand animation to tell the story.
The Right Choice
Director: Avril Furness
Producer: Henry Stuart, Danny Saneh
2 min | Syria
The Right Choice is a virtual reality film about urban war fare. It is an interactive film that shows an average Syrian family as they come under fire in their home. The viewer is prompted to make choices to move the film forward – but in all cases the choices are futile – which reinforces the message that in war there are no right choices. The story idea is based on observations and stories from our colleagues working in conflict areas around the world – such as Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
The Atomic Tree
Directors: Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, Adam Loften
Producers: Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, Adam Loften
10 min | Japan
The Atomic Tree leads you on an immersive journey through the memories held within the Yamaki pine, a 400-year-old Japanese White Pine bonsai tree that survived the Atomic blast at Hiroshima. From its birthplace in the sacred island of Miyajima and ancient cedar forests imbued with Kami spirits, to the Yamaki family home in Hiroshima where it was cared for 350 years and witnessed and survived the atomic blast. Viewers will experience the intricate “living strands of relationship” woven between the human and non-human worlds in the places the tree has lived. What are the connections and conversations that exist within the memories of the tree? How can those memories help us regain a sense of kinship with the natural world?
The WayFinder
Director: Gail Evenari
Producers: Gail Evenari, Barry Pousman
10 min | USA
THE WAYFINDER immerses viewers in the seafaring adventure of Kamai, a young Hawaiian who dreams of voyaging in the wake of her ancestors. As she learns sailing, the art of wayfinding, and the importance of cultural and environmental sustainability, she discovers tools to protect her islands and navigate the voyage of her life.
Daughters of Chibok
Director: Joel Kachi Benson
Producers: Joel Kachi Benson
11 min | Nigeria
The first-ever virtual reality documentary that deals with the aftermath of the April 14, 2014 kidnappings of 276 teenage schoolgirls from their dormitories in a secondary school in Northeast Nigeria, and explores important topical global issues of gender rights and the right to education.
IMPACT VIDEOS
Facing The Myths
Director: Amanda Bailly for Human Rights Watch and the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality
Producer: Rasha Younes for Human Rights Watch and the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality
12 min | USA, Lebanon
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people living in the Middle East and North Africa share their responses to myths and stereotypes about LGBT people in the region on a new video and special feature released today by the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality (AFE) and Human Rights Watch. Although these myths can be harmful, activists who spoke to AFE and Human Rights Watch for this video face them every day with grace, determination, and humor. In the video, they debunk these myths and share their experiences with other LGBT people in the region, letting them know they are not alone.
La Casita Rosa
Director: Elvin Herrera
Producer: Elvin Herrera
12 min | Veracruz, Mexico
La Casita Rosa is a short documentary based on the humanitarian efforts of Las Patronas, a group of Mexican women determined to help feed the countless immigrants riding on top of cargo trains heading to the U.S.
Water is Life
Director: Sam Vinal
24 min | USA
On the banks of Louisiana, fierce Indigenous women are ready to fight—to stop the corporate blacksnake and preserve their way of life. They are risking everything to protect Mother Earth from the predatory fossil fuel companies that seek to poison it.
Director: Vanessa Quintero, In the Know
Producers: Malka Media
5 min | USA
Languages: English
Meet Ryan, a nine-year-old who started his own recycling company to save our earth and seas. He started recycling at just three years old – now, he’s helping tons of people all over the world get inspired to do the right thing.
Detroit Hives
Director: Palmer Morse & Rachel Weinberg
Producer: Rachel Weinberg, Palmer Morse, Matthew Mikkelsen
5 min | USA
Detroit Hives follows Tim Paule and Nicole Lindsey, a young couple from East Detroit, who are working hard to bring diversity to the field of beekeeping and create opportunities for young Detroit natives to overcome adversity. It is estimated that Detroit has with well over 90,000 empty housing lots to date. In an effort to address this issue, Tim and Nicole have been purchasing vacant lots and converting them into bee farms. Detroit Hives explores the importance of bringing diversity to beekeeping and rebuilding inner-city communities one hive at a time.
Black Girl Poem
Director: Daryl Paris Bright
Producer: Daryl Paris Bright, Ariel Zucker
3 min | USA
In ‘Black Girl Poem,’ black women take a surrealist approach in confronting the power dynamic of sexual harassment and catcalling within the African American community. The three women towering above the city act as a chorus, symbolizing a heightened representation of resistance and triumph over sexual objectification. While, the dancer journeys through a city much larger than her, struggling to find her ground with the men that she loves yet feels oppressed by at the same time. Through poetry, dance, and animation, these black girls explore self empowerment, community accountability, and choosing love above all.
We Unite
Director: Simon English
Producer: Oliver English, Jamer Bellis, Niamh Holland-Essoh
12 min | Germany
The 12-minute film ‘We Unite’ is a window into the lives of two organic farmers and the reasons they join the yearly ‘We are Fed-Up’ demonstration in Germany. Along with hundreds of other farmers, they drive their tractors into the heart of Berlin where they unite with thousands of citizens calling for a better food and farming system for all. Carlo Horn and Hanna Erz talk about why they farm organically, the impact it has on soils and yield, and how, even in times of drought, they are still able to harvest crops. They highlight the need for sustainable food systems that give farmers access to land, protect the environment, pay fair prices and provide good food for all.
Not A Pet
Director: Andrea Walji
Producer: Andrea Walji
4 min | United Kingdom
Every year hundreds of cheetah cubs are stolen from the wild, decimating the dwindling population of Africa’s most endangered big cat. For every 5 cubs that are taken, only 1 survives.
Refuge(e)
Director: Sylvia Johnson
Producer: Sylvia Johnson
15 min | USA
Refuge(e) traces the incredible journey of two refugees, Alpha and Zeferino. They each fled violent threats to their lives in their home countries and presented themselves at the US border asking for political asylum, only to be incarcerated in for-profit prison for months on end without having committed any crime. They represent thousands more like them who can’t tell their stories.
In It Together
Director: Filip Tellander
Producer: Jimmy Wåhlin
4 min | Sweden and Brazil
A poetic look at the dance between two lovers: consumer and producer.The meat industry is one of the biggest reasons for global warming. We are all in it together.
Justice on Wheels
Director: Shanshan Chen, (Reporter) Adela Suliman
Producer: Shanshan Chen
4 min | United Kingdom, Kyrgyzstan
Bus delivers legal remedies to women in rural Kyrgyzstan.
PRODUCTION COMPANIES
Maria Farinha Films
Founder: Estela Renner, Luana Lobo, Marcos Nisti
CEO/Executive Producer: Flávia Doria
Mission Statement: For more than 10 years telling stories with the goal of sparking great changes,
Maria Farinha Films has produced over 25 films, series and other formats that
have impacted millions of people around the planet. The first production company
in Latin America to become a certified B Corporation, MFF has developed projects
anchored around the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals such as Way Beyond
Weight (2012), Drops of Joy (2014), The Beginning of Life (2016), Not Even in a
Wildest Dream (2017), Be What You Are (2018), Aruanas (2019), among others.
Show of Force
Founder: Maro Chermayeff/Jeff Dupre
CEO/Executive Producer: Joshua Bennett
Mission Statement: Founded by Maro Chermayeff and Jeff Dupre in 2006, Show of Force is
behind some of the last decade’s most ambitious and innovative feature
documentaries, event television series and multimedia campaigns. Show
of Force is committed to producing premium and unexpected projects with
the aim of highlighting and bringing traction to stories that amaze and
inspire from around the world. The work places emphasis on maximizing
social and cultural impact, achieved both through the unique individuals
whose stories we tell and by diversifying their support, distribution and
engagement.
If Not Us Then Who
Founder: Paul Redman
CEO/Executive Producer: Paul Redman
Mission Statement: If Not Us Then Who is a US registered charity, 501(c)(3) that supports a
global awareness campaign highlighting the role indigenous and local
peoples play in protecting our planet. We work in partnership with
communities to make films, take photographs, curate content, commission
local artists and host events. Our work aims to build lasting networks,
target unjust policies, and advocate for greater rights for indigenous and
local peoples to bring about positive social change.
Medical Aid Films
Founder: Professor Eric Jauniaux
CEO/Executive Producer: Catherine McCarthy – Chief Executive
Mission Statement: To advance the education and training of health Care workers in regions of low resource health care such as Africa, Asia and latin America through film and other media. The focus of these films will be initially but not exclusively on the subject of women’s health and maternal health and child care. To distribute via film and related media educational material which improves the general knowledge and understanding of health messages and supports the sustainability of
Health care in developing regions around the world.
Makmende Media
Founder: Ivan Mikulić
CEO/Executive Producer: Martijn Janmaat
Mission Statement: Through effective strategy and visual content we make distant realities feel close to home. That’s how we strive to raise awareness on the issues of today, to move and activate audiences. Our stories come straight from the communities. We produce them with our local media professionals around the world. They help us to challenge our perceptions, and find the human core behind every narrative.
Multitude Films
Founder: Jessica Devaney
CEO/Executive Producer: Jessica Devaney
Mission Statement: Founded in 2016, Multitude Films (MF) produces award-winning films by underrepresented voices and prioritizes stories by and about people of color, LGBTQ folks, people with disabilities, and women. We’re committed to a representational storytelling model where the film’s core creative team has a stake in the communities that will be most directly impacted by the story. Multitude tells stories that shape issues and runs productions to shape the industry. We prioritize representation and equity on screen and behind the camera. We offer a production pipeline that fills the gap between mentorship and the market. The majority of our slate is directed by emerging voices – filmmakers within their first three features – because we believe this generation of storytellers should represent the world we live in, and that stories on screen should represent the complexity of our lives. We’re one of few production companies integrating a structural change lens and impact strategy into our projects, with a slate encompassing core issue areas to engage community partners over time and build impact cumulatively, from addressing racial terror, Islamophobia and gender-based violence, to lifting up LGBTQ and immigrant rights and dignity. We’re as committed to artistry as to impact, and aim to leverage critical and
commercial success toward social and political change.
Rake Films
Founder: Mo Scarpelli
CEO/Executive Producer: Mo Scarpelli
Mission Statement: RAKE FILMS produces non-fiction cinema. We observe the world, seek poetry in it, make movies out of it.
Historias En Kilómetros
Founder: Nicolas Cuellar
CEO/Executive Producer: Nicolas Cuellar
Mission Statement: We are an audiovisual storytelling laboratory with social impact. Our mission is to train communities in Colombia to tell their own stories. Our tool, connecting them with professionals from the film industry around the world to build with them an independent and sustainable cinema. Our goal, to generate original content, told by its protagonists.
Actuality Media
Founder: Robin Canfield & Aubrie Canfield
CEO/Executive Producer: Robin Canfield & Aubrie Canfield
Mission Statement: We create transformative educational experiences and connect an international community of storytellers through global documentary outreach.
Sarape Films
Founder: Juan Pablo Rojas / Hassan Oropeza / Alejandra Etchegaray
CEO/Executive Producer: Hassan Oropeza Risk
Mission Statement: We are Sarape Films, an independent production company based in Guadalajara, México, specialized in video and film focused on ecological, cultural or socially driven subjects, always from a perspective of human rights protection. Our motto is the communication of ideas with a human sense that can create a positive change in the surroundings of those who are mostly affected by the problems. Our portfolio comprehends many different projects, all of them oriented to a vision of what we call “responsible cinema”, which basically means giving voice to ideas and projects that intend to fight against inequalities, social injustices and that want to build instead a society where we all can fit and have access to the same opportunities. We’re legally constituted in México as a company compromised to always focus our work into improving the environment and making a positive impact in our surroundings through audiovisual innovation in storytelling. We’ve been around for almost 5 years and our work has transcended Mexican borders to be seen all over the world. With special experience in documentary films, we’ve had presence all over the country and in Latin America.
Good Chat
Founder: Tom Maclachlan
CEO/Executive Producer: Catherine Church
Mission Statement: GoodChat believe in purpose-driven storytelling. Unless the video serves people or the planet, we won’t take it on.
FUNDERS
Chicken & Egg
Founder: Julie Parker Benello, Judith Helfand, and Wendy Ettinger
CEO/Executive Director: Jenni Wolfson
Mission Statement: Chicken & Egg Pictures supports women nonfiction filmmakers whose artful and innovative storytelling catalyzes social change.
One World Media
Founder: Chris Rowley
CEO/Executive Director: Gemma Bradshaw
Mission Statement: One World Media’s mission is to support strong, vibrant and independent media coverage on developing countries that empowers citizens, promotes justice and creates social impact.
The Redford Centre
Founder: James Redford
CEO/Executive Director: Jill Tidman
Mission Statement: The Redford Center harnesses the power of film, video and new media to engage people through inspiring stories that galvanize environmental action.
Oregon Made Creative Foundation
Founder: Tim Williams, Jane Ridley
CEO/Executive Director: Juliana Lukasik (Interim ED)
Mission Statement: Our mission is to support storytellers, filmmakers and artists to attain sustainable careers in the arts, especially the digital arts. We do this through advocacy, grants, educational programming, intentional hiring and making connections to Oregon’s creative history, resources and partners. Our purpose is to help ALL people gain access to the media industry no matter who they are, where the come from or how they identify.
The Rogovy Foundation
Founder: Hugh Rogovy
CEO/Executive Director: Asher Rogovy
Mission Statement: The Rogovy Foundation invests in inspired people and nonprofit organizations that are working to help build a more enlightened and harmonious planet. As a small foundation, we favor highly targeted projects which will have a measurable impact. We believe in a more perfect world. The Miller/Packan Documentary Film Fund provides grants to feature-length non-fiction projects that address social issues and inspire others. Our planet is wonderfully diverse. We support film as an instrument for change, delivering greater knowledge, compassion and awareness. Listening and understanding bring us together.
Vision Maker Media
Founder: Frank Blythe
CEO/Executive Director: Shirley Sneve
Mission Statement: Vision Maker Media empowers and engages Native People to share stories.