Moving Audiences to Action

Working Films is a new North Carolina-based educational organization dedicated to using independent documentaries to galvanize communities around the issues that affect them. Co-founders Robert West and Judith Helfand help filmmakers develop issue-specific models for fundraising and creating outreach campaigns for their films. Before starting Working Films, West was the film and video specialist at the Mint Museum of Art in North Carolina. Helfand's background is in independent documentary filmmaking. She is currently producing "Blue Vinyl," her sequel to her Peabody award-winning "A Healthy Baby Girl." "The best life for a documentary is one that's full, one where people are moved beyond the abstract," says West. They hope the films they are working with will ultimately affect policy as well as people.

Start Outreach Before Making a Film

Organizing an outreach campaign isn't usually the filmmaker's primary concern in preproduction, but maybe it should be. There are many advantages to thinking about how a film can be best utilized by community leaders and nonprofits, before production begins.

The first step to ensuring the social impact of your film is meeting as early as you can with organizations and institutions that could potentially become partners in your outreach campaign. For example, Working Films has been conducting the outreach for On Hostile Ground, a documentary about the stresses on both abortion clinics and abortion providers in communities across America. They organized meetings during preproduction between the filmmakers, abortion clinic workers and Planned Parenthood personnel. "For us, they identified that in North Carolina and throughout the southeast and in the Midwest, abortion training is not mandatory on medical school campuses. Even doctors who are specializing in women's reproductive health do not have to be trained in abortion procedures. What that means to future access is devastating," explains West.

Early meetings like this, West advises, can help focus the time and resources a project has available. If you want your film to be a tool for activists when it's done then you need to know what issues are important to them before you make the film. Additionally, the people the filmmaker seeks out for advice in the beginning will help them do outreach for their film in the end. These relationships will be stronger if a filmmaker has included outreach partners in research, development and production. "And don't forget," says West, "There are extraordinary resources available out there to filmmakers that are not always represented by a dollar figure. Outreach for a film is not saying to nonprofit organizations and activists, 'create a whole new grassroots campaign using this film,' it's saying how do we use this piece of media in the grassroots campaign you've already developed."

Many filmmakers fear that involving activists early on will compromise the artistic integrity of their documentary. Helfand worked closely with activists while making "A Healthy Baby Girl" and she testifies that, "Talking to organizations helped me realize that I could be true to myself as a filmmaker and still make a difference." You need to ask yourself during preproduction and throughout the filmmaking process, "Who is this really for, what is it really saying, who is going to use this, who's going to listen to it, what do I want to happen when the lights come up, who's going to be there to do the follow up?... if you don't think about all these things way in advance, I think it's very hard to be effective," advises Helfand.

Funding Outreach

Traditionally, in the not-for-profit world, funding from foundations goes to activists, not artists. Part of Working Films' mission is to help individual filmmakers fulfill the multiple roles of making a social-issue documentary - part artist, part activist and part organizer. The key to convincing a funder to support your work is illustrating the connection between your film and community action. "Funders don't want to fund a movie that's going to be on TV once, then go to a video distributor. They're asking [filmmakers] harder and harder questions," says Helfand. Funders support organizers who work in the field, so what you need to ask yourself is whether there is a clear connection between your film and the work of organizers: How will the film help them do their jobs better? Consider how the film is unique to the issue(s) you are addressing, and as a result, how it will be a powerful tool for organizers to reach a broader base and shift attitudes. For example, a film can act as a link between disparate communities when it touches on a common experience, and it can be used to raise public awareness about the work of particular organizations.

"Social change happens because people are moved, and because they're moved they want to do something."

When asked how much money a filmmaker needs to raise for outreach, Robert suggested a minimum of $30,000. "Part of what we're trying to do is create examples and models for the field that don't necessarily involve a million dollars worth of resources." Working Films does help projects they work with to raise the money.

Working Films helps their filmmakers understand how to build relationships with community organizers which can also lead to funding. Funders will want you to demonstrate the effectiveness of your outreach campaign. Working Films suggests conducting the evaluation with your community partners because they will help you plan a realistic evaluation strategy. West also says that "the idea of having a concrete evaluation keeps you on task to a certain extent," But he warns that "you're not always going to be able to evaluate the direct impact, it's hard to measure sometimes."