The Fledgling Fund and Working Films Launch Impact Video Series

IMPACT is a new series of videos created by Working Films and The Fledgling Fund focused on building film campaigns that ignite social change.

Assessing Impact: A Funder's Perspective is the first video in our series. It features The Fledgling Fund Founder Diana Barrett and Executive Director Sheila Leddy as they discuss the impact of Born into Brothels and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib. You'll get a close look at how these films supported the social change goals of their partner organizations and how they were tied to urgent actions. Diana and Sheila also lead you through The Fledgling Fund's transformation into one of the leaders in the field of supporting creative media and audience engagement.

Check out this video and learn the elements that will make your campaign a success.

The Fledgling Fund Announces Winter 2010 Grantees

The Fledgling Fund is pleased to announce our newest cycle of grantees. The winter application round was incredibly competitive with nearly 400 Letters of Inquiry submitted. We appreciate the effort that all applicants put into completing the process and wish each project success. We believe that each of the following 29 projects holds enormous potential for changing hearts and minds that will lead to social change. We congratulate them all on their grants! For more details about the selected projects please click here.

Monica and David
To Be Heard
An American Promise
The Warrior of Qiugang
IOBY
Deep Down
Gasland
Cape Wind: The Fight for the Future of Power in America
1000 Voices Archive
Firelight Media Diversity Producer's Lab
Media That Matters
The Line
Body Typed
All Of Me: A Story of Love, Loss and Last resorts
Engaging Young Women as Women's Health Activists
Made in India
The Silent Partner: HIV in Marriage
The Waiting Room
Faded
Basta: Ending Anti-Immigrant Hate in the Media
The Harvest
Speaking In Tongues
No Tomorrow
Project Gabriel
The Dhamma Brothers
The Mosque in Morgantown
Hungry in America
World without Walls
The Recruiter

The Fledgling Fund Outreach and Engagement Grant for Social Issue Documentaries

The Fledgling Fund congratulates Aron Gaudet's film, The Way We Get By, for winning the 2009 Fledgling Fund Outreach and Engagement Grant for Social Issue Documentaries.  This new award recognizes potential and achievement in community engagement with documentary film.  We believe that The Way We Get By has an enormous opportunity to engage new audiences in discussions around aging, loneliness, war and mortality.  We also congratulate the runners up for the award:

The Fledgling Fund and Industry Connect

The Fledgling Fund would like to invite you to IFP's upcoming Industry Connect, focusing on successful outreach methods for documentaries with a discussion of Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers' film LIONESS. The discussion will be followed by a networking cocktail hour in celebration of the panel and the awarding of our new outreach grant, IFP's The Fledgling Fund Outreach & Community Engagement Grant for Social Issue Documentaries.

Monday, October 26, 7:30 pm
Industry Connect: New Outreach Strategies for Social Issue Documentaries
New School, Wollman Hall, 65 West 11th Street, 5th Floor, New York
Filmmakers as Changemakers - A Panel on Documentary Outreach.

Speakers: Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers, Directors, LIONESS; Sheila Leddy, Executive Director of The Fledgling Fund, Joy Ilem, Assistant National Legislative Director, Disabled American Veterans; and Julie Cloutier, Publicist at Sunshine Sachs & Associates. Panel will be moderated by Barbara Abrash, Director of Public Programs at NYU's Center for Social Media, and Board Member, The Fledgling Fund. The panel will be followed by the awarding of a new outreach grant by The Fledgling Fund and a networking reception.

RSVP here. If you are not currently an IFP member, please RSVP to dgiacomo@ifp.org

Real Girls, Reel Change

The Fledgling Fund is proud to announce the films and filmmakers that have been selected for our Real Girls, Reel Change workshop. Real Girls, Reel Change is an innovative new platform that will nurture the work of filmmakers, non-profit organizations, and funders that are focused on supporting the physical, emotional, and social well being of girls and young women. We understand that real impact takes time and strategic use of many types of resources, and we've developed Real Girls, Reel Change in order to explore the idea that it takes more than one great film on a topic to support sustained social change.

Professional filmmakers and outreach coordinators representing the following five films will participate in Real Girls, Reel Change October 21-23, 2009 in New York City.

Saving Jackie Selena A. Burks
Body Typed Jesse Epstein and Trish Dalton
Going on 13 Dawn Valadez and Kristy Guevara-Flanagan
Wo Ai Ni Mommy Stephanie Wang-Breal
Seneca Falls Louise Vance and Libby Scancarello

These filmmakers will spend two days honing their audience engagement plans, learning from one another and from experts in the field of audience and community engagement, and crafting plans for possible collaboration in the future. This group will be joined by two teams of youth media makers and their mentors. The two youth media projects that will be part of the residency are still to be determined. Check back soon for additional information about the selected youth media projects.

On the third and final day of Real Girls, Reel Change the adult and youth filmmakers will be joined by funders and non-profits for a day long workshop. Together they will participate in workshops, panel discussions, and brainstorming sessions where they will learn about the effectiveness of film as a tool for advancing organizational priorities and mission. Filmmakers will have the opportunity to informally present their audience engagement ideas to non-profits leaders working on girls' issues. These organizations may become partners or may offer valuable feedback on the feasibility and impact potential of their plans.