| Center for Social Media workshop offers filmmakers engagement tools BY MATT GETTY
Photo by Jeff Watts
Center for Social Media director Pat Aufderheide poses with the workshop’s keynote speaker, Cynthia Lopez, vice president of P.O.V. |
“It’s not about asking the question, ‘How can you help my movie?’” said Robert West, the cofounder and executive director of Working Films, an organization that links filmmakers with activists. “It’s about asking, ‘How can this movie help your movement?’” Paraphrasing John F. Kennedy’s famous words was West’s way of advising documentary filmmakers to think about how to maximize the long-term social or political impact of their films—before they pick up the camera, not after. To help documentarians do that, the School of Communication’s Center for Social Media brought together more than 180 filmmakers, distributors, and activists last week for a day-long workshop on how to expand documentary film’s reach beyond the screen. Center director and SOC professor Pat Aufderheide introduced West and two dozen other panelists who urged filmmakers to build early relationships with activists and nonprofits and to view those relationships as more than publicity opportunities. In her keynote speech, P.O.V. vice president Cynthia Lopez offered insight into how the influential series has taken this approach with the 225 films it has aired on PBS. “We sit down with filmmakers and we ask them ‘What’s your vision? Who do you want to reach with this film? What do you want to change?’” she explained. “We try to foster relationships with organizations [who can help make that happen], and then we try to pass the baton from one organization to the next.” Lopez used the recent P.O.V. film, The Education of Shelby Knox, to show this process at work. The documentary explores the impact of an abstinence-only sex education program in Texas. After finding that the filmmakers wanted to spark discussions about the role of religion in public education, P.O.V. worked with organizations on both sides of the issue to hold discussions in 40 cities among groups as disparate as the United Church of Christ and the Peace and Justice Center. “This film was able to get these groups to the table, to start a conversation between people who normally would not talk to each other,” said Lopez. Academy Award–winning documentarian Gerardine Wurzburg, a panelist on the workshop’s “Innovative and Successful Distribution Partnerships” session, stressed that hatching a public engagement campaign after shooting wraps, is too often too late. In crafting Autism is a World, and Prostate Cancer: Are You at Risk? she revealed, her production company identified potential distribution partners before shooting ever began. “We looked at the people who were common conduits for that information,” she explained, “and we insured that they actually looked at scripts early on.” As a result, Prostate Cancer: Are You at Risk? earned the support of the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society, which enabled the short film to become part of a national public outreach campaign. “The fact that we included them early in the process was really essential,” Wurzburg said. “They were amazed that we would let them look at things. They weren’t used to dealing with the media like this.” To help foster working relationships, the event also offered media professionals, nonprofit leaders, and political activists networking time to continue building what Aufderheide sees as a growing movement. “This has become a community that is only now . . . visible to itself,” she said. “People who want to make media that matter can learn from each other in a moment of unprecedented opportunity.” According to SOC dean Larry Kirkman, the potential of that “moment” transcends merely helping documentary films thrive in the marketplace. “It’s a critical moment for a conference like this,” Kirkman said in his opening remarks. “Documentaries have caught the attention of the general public and networks of nonprofit organizations. With the power of new media, we can expand on the content of a film, involve audiences in discussions, and link them to opportunities for action.” |
