This post is part of “The Pitch” series, which follows up with socially conscious creatives who submitted to the inaugural Benevolent Media Pitch Night competition in November 2012. At the event, held in Washington, D.C., 13 different projects and organizations presented 3-minute proposals on how to use storytelling and design for social good, for a chance [...]
Tag Archives: documentary
Film Review: In “The Square,” the Revolution Will Actually Be Televised
This post is part of Benevolent Media’s ongoing coverage of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. For more information, read “The Benevolent Guide to the Sundance Film Fesitval.” Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim‘s riveting firsthand account of the Egyptian revolution, “The Square (Al Midan),” took home the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary at [...]
New Film Shows Girls Rising from Plight to Power
This post is part of Benevolent Media’s ongoing coverage of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. For more information, read “The Benevolent Guide to the Sundance Film Fesitval.” “Educate girls, change the world.” That’s the simple and powerful mission of the new documentary film and social action campaign Girl Rising, which was [...]
Filmmakers Take a Stand for Social Justice
This post is part of Benevolent Media’s ongoing coverage of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. For more information, read “The Benevolent Guide to the Sundance Film Fesitval.” What would it take for you to put everything on the line? At the Sundance Film Festival’s Filmmaker Lodge, a panel talk called “Taking [...]
Winners Announced for $200,000 Focus Forward Filmmaker Competition
CYBORG FOUNDATION | Rafel Duran Torrent from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo. This post is part of Benevolent Media’s ongoing coverage of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. For more information, read “The Benevolent Guide to the Sundance Film Fesitval.” Spanish director Rafel Duran Torrent took home the $100,000 Grand Jury Prize [...]
Meet the Filmmaker: David France
This post is part of Benevolent Media’s ongoing coverage of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. For more information, read “The Benevolent Guide to the Sundance Film Fesitval.” When journalist-turned-filmmaker David France set out to make a documentary about the early days of the HIV/AIDS activist movement, he didn’t intend to start [...]
The Benevolent Guide to the Sundance Film Festival
Ah, Sundance. The premiere indie film fest, where people all over the world descend on Park City, Utah to partake in the parties, the talks, the free swag, the networking, the snow bunnies, oh yes, and the movies. This year, we are keeping our eyes peeled for films and panels that explore ways to drive [...]
Update: Vote for “Rags to Pads” in $200,000 Filmmaker Competition
We have an update from filmmaker Chithra Jeyaram, the Grand Prize winner of Benevolent Media’s inaugural Pitch Night: Chithra Jeyaram’s short film “Rags to Pads” is a semifinalist in the $200,000 Focus Forward Filmmaker Competition, a new series of 30 three-minute stories about innovative people who are reshaping the world through act or invention. Her [...]
Q&A with Kurt Engfehr: Creating an “Empathy Awakening”
At a December 2006 gala, President Barack Obama described how Americans must overcome the country’s “empathy deficit” to eradicate society’s biggest problems, like child poverty, AIDS, joblessness and homelessness. He was talking about society’s lack in “the ability to put ourselves in somebody else’s shoes, to see the world through somebody else’s eyes.” Following his call [...]
Q&A with Lance Kramer: Empowering Communities through Film
The Washington, D.C.-based production company Meridian Hill Pictures is on a mission to “create documentary films that educate, inspire and positively impact audiences locally, nationally and across the world.” We first heard about the company when joining forces to co-host a pop-up community film screening of the documentary “PLANEAT,” bringing people together to learn about how [...]
Q&A with Ryan Hill: New Media for Social Good
Ryan Hill is the co-founder of Still Life Projects, a film production company in Washington, D.C. that creates “new media for social good.” His growing team of cinematographers, photographers, producers and editors has produced work for clients like National Geographic, HBO and The New York Times. Hill said he got the idea to start his [...]
Media That Matters: Meredith Blake on “This Emotional Life” Documentary Series
Benevolent Media was a proud partner of Media That Matters 2012: Change for Good. Follow the conversation on Twitter: #MTMDC. This year’s Media That Matters conference, “Change for Good,” hosted by American University’s Center for Social Media, featured conversations about how independent social change filmmakers can execute integrated campaigns that are strategic, action-oriented, and have [...]
Upcoming Event: Media That Matters 2012
The Media That Matters conference is a two-day festival that brings together professionals, artists and students interested in making an impact through media. As a joint project of the Center for Social Media and Arts Engine, Inc., the conference provides a platform to showcase a year’s accomplishments in using media for social good, and it also encourages conversation and experience sharing to make things even better. [...]
Hip-Hop as Transnational Protest in “Furious Force of Rhymes”
Hip-hop has always been breaking down barriers. American hip-hop artists were among the first to have videos shown on MTV, with shows like Yo! MTV Raps, which brought them national notoriety, intertwining their music with the dawn of a new global era in music. The evolution of hip-hop has not been confined to [...]
Q&A with Greg Jacobs: Louder Than a Bomb
The uplifting and inspiring documentary film Louder Than a Bomb follows four Chicago high school teams in their journey to compete in the world’s largest teen poetry slam, created by local nonprofit Young Chicago Authors that empowers youth through writing, publication and performance education. The feature film begins at the start of the school year, six months prior [...]
Can Documentaries Change the World?
“It’s one thing to make a film; it’s another to make a film matter,” said Nina Seavey, director of the Documentary Center at George Washington University, at last night’s International Documentary Association’s Seminar Series at the West End Cinema in Washington, D.C. Seavey moderated a panel of filmmakers, changemakers and communication experts, who discussed [...]
