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Change the World
There is a long history of highly creative social issue documentary filmmaking but it is exploding at the moment, as
production and distribution become more accessible to more people than ever before, and as social issue films are
seen, not merely as fodder for school classrooms, but as potential box office hits with the power to make celebrities
out of their directors (if you are Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock at least).
By Ingrid Kopp
A
longside this filmmaking activity is an increasing
Parvez Sharma, director of A Jihad for Love
awareness of the power that these documentaries can have as
tools for fundraising and creating change in the world—with
the added benefit that these outreach campaigns also allow the
films to reach new audiences in new ways.
Michael Raisler from Cinereach, a grant-giving organisation
based in New York, refers to “the social and economic capital of
building communities around your film.” Outreach is a quantifiable
activity that can be linked to arts and culture funding and filmmakers
are devising increasingly sophisticated methods to tap into this
potential, as both a source of funding and to give their films life
beyond a single distribution window, creating sustained impact
across communities and across time.
This strategy is more common in the United States, where there
is a longer tradition of foundation support and outreach campaigns.
However, as documentary filmmakers in the UK discover that about the UK is a long history of excellent public service television
they can no longer rely on old models of funding and distribution, which has led us to believe that funding and distributing documentaries
the benefits of this approach are becoming clear here too. is the sole responsibility of television. At the foundation, we believe
Jess Search, chief executive of the Channel 4 British Documentary it is now absolutely necessary for new partners to get involved in
Film Foundation (www.britdoc.org), sees enormous potential in this documentaries, alongside the traditional public service broadcasters.
new landscape. “Films are more powerful when they become Things are beginning to change and it’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
movements, when they amplify the work of campaigners and charities One filmmaker who has become very aware of the power of
and when they engage citizens to become active participants rather forming coalitions around a film is Sandi DuBowski, director of
than passive audiences. The bottom line is that filmmakers need to Trembling Before G-d (www.filmsthatchangetheworld.com) and
have much closer, more strategic relationships with the NGOs producer of Parvez Sharma’s recent film A Jihad for Love (www.
who share their goals.” Search says that documentaries everywhere ajihadforlove.com). Trembling Before G-d, a film about gay
need new models for funding and distribution but “what is unique Hasidic and Orthodox Jews, was DuBowski’s first film and he was
surprised by the powerful movement it created: “We had no idea
what it would mean to take a film into the world. Every step
became a way to play with the platform and reinvent it. We did
outreach as an extreme sport with over 800 live events.”
DuBowski worked with Working Films (www.workingfilms.org),
who are experts in the field of building communities and campaigns
around a film, to create a Mormon-Jewish gay dialogue at the
Sundance Film Festival when his film screened there. This model
was then built upon during their theatrical run where screenings
were turned into meetings and debates. DuBowski talks about the
huge benefits that this approach reaped, as funders who gave money
to Trembling were then also willing to support A Jihad for Love,
a film about gay Muslims around the world. “The funders see their
grants have massive impact and then they’re with you for the long
A Jihad for Love
haul,” DuBowski notes, “You create a continuity of supporters.”
66 By FIlmmakerS. For FIlmmakerS.
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