The Power Of Films To Effect Change
+ Get caught up on Funding Strategies Bootcamp
Hello and happy Friday!
A couple quick things before you slide into the weekend….
First if you missed my previous newsletter on Packaging as a Bottleneck In The Financing Process check it out here.
Next up….
My course Funding Strategies Bootcamp started this week and there’s still spots for you to join us if you’d like to. You can register at this link below, we’ll get you all caught up today and over the weekend, just in time for Lesson 2 to drop on Monday.
So far we’ve covered Evaluating Different Paths To Getting Your Project Made and Determining The Market Value Of Your Project, and next week we’ll get into your Finance & Production Plan.
🚀 Click here to register and join the fun
Finally….
I want to shout from the rooftops how much I believe in the power of impact films and broad distribution to effect change and influence conversation.
Some of you know about the film I was a Producer on called Kemba that BET co-financed and premiered on their network last year. This was followed by a long tail of impact screenings, Q+A’s with the subject of the film Kemba Smith, and basically a full-blown tour. It has since enjoyed distribution on about a dozen other streaming, AVOD, and CTV platforms.
This past week as President Biden was leaving office, he fully pardoned Kemba Smith (her record is expunged) and commuted Michelle West (Kemba’s close friend in prison from the film). You can read the press release here.
I do believe that the film played a part in making this happen as the Represent Justice campaign brought a lot of attention to their stories. A huge success for all the stakeholders of this film!
A film’s success can be defined in many ways, not only ROI. We set out to make this film with prison reform change on the mind. And we succeeded in our own way. Just a reminder to align your priorities early on and create your own metric for future success.
I was intending to include the power of impact films as one of my 2025 predictions and then this happened :) I’ll write a longer piece on it later.
*Michelle and Kemba portrayed in the film
On that note, I’ll wrap things up for today. I hope you have a fabulous weekend ahead and speak to you again soon.
Stacey
PS: Don’t forget to register for the Funding Strategies Bootcamp today so we can get you caught up from the week and ready you for Monday’s lesson. Click here.
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That's incredibly special, Stacey!
I agree heartedly that films have the power to effect change. That is why I am still working on my feature film, "Thank You Please." It is the story of a mother who is fighting her ex to release her son with autism from a large institution where he has been abused." The goals of the film are two: 1) To be sure people never agree to institutionalize people with autism as intellectually disabled and 2) that they can legitimately communicate starting with support to type, and some advance to typing independently. It was originally called facilitated communication and got a bad rap in the early 90s. Professionals and parents got wise who practice it with children and adults and, now refer to it as supported typing, which can be interpreted many ways - even as only emotional support. I am the parent of an adult with autism who uses "supported typing" but has never advanced to independence because he has tremors. He has, however, written a 20-page book about his life with my support. "Not being able to speak is not the same thing as not having anything to say," is the motto of Syracuse University that brought the concept of supported typing to the US. It was first developed in Australia. I wrote the original treatment for "TYP" - would you believe - 45 years ago and signed an agreement with my then friend who was a screenwriter and later professor of film to write it as a team and split any proceeds 50/50. That friend became my husband 20 years ago and died on New Year's Eve 2023. I've tried many avenues to develop TYP and now am considering investing in a UK movie with Bill Nighy in the lead, hoping the producer will take on my project as her next one. She has already succeeded with others like "The Kids Are All Right." Fingers crossed.