Making movies that make change
Today has been an interesting journey. That’s the great thing about the internet. You come across one thing and then, in a matter of moments it takes you somewhere else and then, a few minutes later you end somewhere you didn’t even know existed just that few moments back.
So it starts with a talk by Jeff Skoll at TED talks which, by the way, is a great place to spend a few minutes browsing if you want to learn something new about the world. Jeff Skoll was the first president of Ebay, but that’s not what his talk is about. His interest has always been having enough money to go and do something worthwhile that might change a few things. And, for Jeff, that meant starting a film company, Participant Productions (a name that you’ll probably recognise, or at least its logo). His idea was to produce films that inspire social change and has led him to make ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and ‘The Kite Runner’ among many others.
That’s cool, but that’s not where it ends. The commitment of Participant is to give people the tools to do something about the issue they’ve just learned about in the film. And that led Jeff to set up TakePart, a resource where you can find out how to do that. It turns out - and maybe I’m the only one not to have known this, but anyway - that they produce all kinds of stuff around the films they make.
So ‘The Visitor’, a film I liked very much in 2008, explore the US immigration system. TakePart has a host of links and resources to get people thinking deeper about that issue.
Of course, that issue is more relevant if you’re living in the US, or planning to try to, but there are others too: ‘The Kite Runner’ about Afganistan, ‘Darfur Now’ is about the Sudan, ‘Food Inc’ is about mass food production and the soon-to-be-released ‘The Soloist’ is about mental illness. All of these films, and others, have study guides, resources, links, ways to get involved and a blog to connect people who are interested in doing so.
What I like about this is not just that there’s someone putting money into films that has something to say - which having seen ‘Bedtime Stories’ this week is the kind of hope I could use - but that they are throwing out stuff which I, as a youth worker and schools worker, can use. If you work with teenagers or students, Take Part will be a cool discovery. I didn’t even know it existed until today, but that’s the great thing about the internet!
By the way, as an add on, the talk by Jeff Skoll is one the best examples of pitch-perfect use of Powerpoint I’ve seen in a long time. If you ever have to give presentations using Powerpoint or Keynote, watch and learn.
Its a good talk, I like TED.
But I still reckon the best ever ‘powerpoint’ talk I’ve ever seen is the comedian Dave Gorman and his show “Googlewhack adventure”.
He’s a powerpointing genius.