Facilitating Social Change Through Film-making; It’s Happening!
When I say film-making, the only thing that first occurs to our mind is — Lights, Camera, and Action!
Well, most often that may sound cliched and glamorized facet of film-making. However, what we are talking about here is neither mainstream cinema, nor serious-toned documentaries. Today a branch of film-making has metamorphosed into a much deeper, cleaner and higher form of visual representation for social impact. We at Creatively Unsettled call it Visual Storytelling.
Film-making for Social Entrepreneurs
All social entrepreneurs are changemakers who impact a set of people, bring about a positive change and spearhead movements towards the betterment of society and the environment. Right from providing education and access to healthcare to disconnected rural areas to giving a livelihood opportunities to disadvantaged communities, changemakers interface with those sections of society who are in the shadows of the mainstream. There is not enough written or spoken about these sections. Hence there is a dire need to bring their challenges to the notice of everyone with a noble intent and problem solving capacity. Film-making is a great tool for changemakers to bring these stories to the limelight and solicit action.
Can Film-making Inspire Change?
Film-making has a transformative power which can be a beautiful and an eye-opening tool for bringing about social impact. Film-making unravels hidden stories and sheds light on the heroes who work silently, away from all the limelight. Film-making introduces us to people who are working towards achieving that with strong hopes in their hearts and with a smile on their faces. It also tells us about communities, people and individuals who need a helping hand from rest of the society.
Films incite a positive reaction and spur engagement from its viewers. Through films, the storyteller captures real life heroes, their vision, their work and spins them into a story for viewers to relate to, empathize and learn.
As quoted in a post by Ashoka,
The social impact of a small movie can be very strong. Social disruption through creativity and in this case film can be hugely inspirational, empowering and impactful to create positive change.
This form of visual art has recently garnered recognition, lending testimony to the importance of films to amplify the impact that the social entrepreneurs seek to deliver.
The Film Maker Fund (TFMF)
Film-making involves a substantial amount of capital during its entire production and post-production process phase. The Film Maker Fund recognizes the efforts that budding filmmakers put it and provides funding, pre, and post production assistance so that the filmmakers can make more such inspiring stories.
Stories of Change
Skoll Foundation is as an authority organization in the global social entrepreneurial space. Skoll foundation’s Stories of Change in partnership with the Sundance Institute is a tremendous testimony to the fact that storytelling through film-making is a necessary tool in the social impact delivery life cycle.
“In 2015 the Stories of Change initiative expanded with an additional $2.5 million grant from the Skoll Foundation to include support for narrative filmmakers, emerging media artists and continued support for documentary storytelling. In addition to funding the creation of new projects, the initiative brings together leaders in independent film-making and social entrepreneurship at key gatherings globally, including the Skoll World Forum (SWF), the Sundance Film Festival, and intensive workshops at the Sundance Resort.”
Stories of Change works with a clear focus to connect and engage independent storytellers and social entrepreneurs. It fosters networking, building impact-laden stories, garnering support for the good social brands and most important of all, addressing burning socio-economic issues by lending a voice and face to it. Films shot through Stories of Change give a slice of the reality of the social entrepreneur’s efforts, her zeal and the positive effect on her target community.
Conclusion
Film-making has evolved, and so has the filmmaker’s thoughts. Film-makers today, want to show the ground reality through impact stories and the take the viewers through the path of impact. These organizations and their initiatives have made social impact storytellers like us, dream of a new hope.
