March 2011 Archives

Tonight, March 31st, the Sundance documentary, To Catch A Dollar, will premiere in theaters nationwide. This one night only event will introduce thousands of viewers around the country to the promise of microfinance in this country and to stories of brave women entrepreneurs who show what they can do when just given the chance. It is a story of hope, of entrepreneurship, of inspiration and of women empowerment, and will kick-off a long term campaign to reframe perceptions of poverty in this country and to extend the reach of financial services to those in need.

In a special nationwide simulcast moderated by CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, Kiva.org President Premal Shah and special guest, financial powerhouse Suze Orman will explore poverty and financial literacy in America, and the role we all can play in creating a new American dream.

To find a screening near you, click here.

Today we released decisions to the 365 applicants in our spring funding round.  Out of those 365, we invited 73 to apply with a full proposal, and footage if appropriate.  Congratulations to those projects that were selected - we are eager to learn more about your work.  We looked at all letters of inquiry within the context of our overall mission and our strategy of using media to advance change on key social justice issues.   We consider a range of factors such as the stage of the project, whether a project has the potential to to engage individuals and communities in action that we believe will contribute to social change and how it compared to other projects under consideration. 

For those of you that were not invited to submit a full proposal, we genuinely wish you the best in securing the funding you need at this stage.  We recognize how difficult this process can be and that there are many many excellent projects that we were not able to invite for any of the reasons listed above.

Over the course of the next few weeks, invited applicants will complete written proposals and submit footage if appropriate.  We are excited to dive into these proposals and find the best matches for our mission and strategy.  For those of you completing the application process with us, do remember to read through our website carefully, and particularly our mission and guidelines.  I also strongly recommend that you take time to digest the written and video resources on our site.  These resources outline the way in which we think about using creative media for social change and how we measure our success, and the success of our grantees. 

Good luck everyone!

Condition One is a mobile media technology company developing the tools and platform for leading filmmakers, photojournalists and visual storytellers to create powerful immersive experiences for next generation devices to engage a global audience.  They have just released their first video that introduces this new technology. I am excited about the potential this company holds and how it might change the way we interact with media, and in turn, our world.  Check out Condition One, and this new video, here.

Do you receive our once-monthly e-newsletter.  We promise it is non-obtrusive and we don't send out any extra e-mails during the month.  The e-mail we do send out, however, is power-packed with information about how to see the films that we fund and others we recommend.  You can sign up for our e-newsletter on our home page.  The next one is going out in the next day or so, so, don't wait!

If you don't already know about Tribeca Film Institute's New Media Fund, you can read more here.  The fund will provide significant funding to 4-8 non-fiction projects that integrate cross-platform or new media components designed to engage and activate audiences in imaginative ways. The application process opens on April 4th, 2011.  We look forward to learning more about the projects chosen by the New Media Fund and are excited to welcome this new funding stream to the field.

I really appreciated this article in The New York Times' Opinionator Blog today.  In a sea of frustrating and challenging news, statistics and images, we all need a little good news.  The article highlights some of the recent positive trends that this country has seen in the food, agriculture and nutrition fronts.  The truth is that our food system is broken, unsustainable and unsafe.  However, there have been real innovations, movements and leaders that have emerged in the last decade that are beginning to lead this country to a solution.  Check out Mark Bittman's article to learn more about these developments.  Also, The Fledgling Fund has supported films in this area that we think really help to illuminate both the challenges and solutions as well.  They are:  What's On Your Plate?, Two Angry Moms, King Corn, Planeat and Lunch Love Community.

I loved Salman Khan's talk at TED this year. Check it out below and be inspired about what our classrooms could look like. I love the tools that The Khan Academy offers not only to students, but also to teachers, parents and administrators. I would have loved to learn in this way and I can imagine a lot of other students would benefit as well.

Catapult Film Fund has announced a new funding round that will open on March 21st. Catapult Film Fund provides early development funding to documentary filmmakers who have a compelling story to tell. They support powerful stories, and moving storytelling, across a broad spectrum of issues and perspectives. For more information about how to apply, click here. Good luck everyone!

One of my absolute favorite TED talks this year was Deb Roy's discussion of The Birth of A Word. Check out the video below - it promises to blow your mind. In the context of The Fledgling Fund, it made me think about the promise of new technologies in the future that will continue to help us measure the impact of creative media in all of its forms.

For the second year in a row, the One Percent Foundation is bringing a little social good to the fun of the March Madness basketball tournament.  Riffing on the American tradition of the office pool, OPF is running a pool called Grant Madness. It's a pretty simple concept. Just like a typical office pool, participants are asked to pay $10 and predict the winners of all of the games in the tournament. The twist? Rather than the winners winning money, they get to select organizations to receive sizable grants funded by the pooled donations.  To sweeten the pot, OPF has arranged for a sponsor to match all donations.

How often do you get the chance to give thousands of dollars to your favorite organization?  Even if you lose, wouldn't you rather your $10 go to a good cause than the strange guy down that sits down the hall? I hope you'll join the One Percent Foundation in wagering on good this March Madness. The deadline to sign up is Thursday, March 17 at 12:30pm (Eastern), so make sure to enter today.

I am back this week from TEDActive in Palm Springs where I was sufficiently blown away again by the creativity, energy, inspiration and brilliance of the people I met and heard. It's nearly impossible to sum up the experience because it is so dense and diverse. Let's just say that I learned everything from the importance of doodling to how scientists are figuring out how to print kidneys. As some of my favorite talks from the conference are posted online, I will also post them here with my thoughts on how they relate to the work of The Fledgling Fund and creative media's power to inspire social change. We can start with TED Prize winner JR and his talk about the power of public art to change the way people think and view others. You can watch his talk here:



His TED Prize wish is completely refreshing and innovative and I am excited to see how it may change how people view the power of art and creativity.

There are just 4 weeks remaining to apply for the PUMA.Creative Impact Award, a major new annual award to honor the documentary film creating the most significant impact in the world, with a 50,000 Euro prize to acknowledge the film's makers and help the continuation of the film's campaign work. The closing date is April 1st 2011.

The PUMA.Creative Impact Award will be selected by a jury which includes Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan; Morgan Spurlock, Academy Award-nominated Director of Super Size Me; Orlando Bagwell, Director of the Ford Foundation Social Justice Media Initiative; Emmanuel Jal, musician and activist; and BAFTA-Award winning actress Thandie Newton.

To find out more and apply go to: http://britdoc.org/impactaward

Yep, it's true.  Act-i-vate has summed up the work that Nancy Schwartzman has done with her film The Line and her Where is Your Line? campaign into a comic.  It's a beautiful illustration of the power of documentary film and well worth the read.  Find it here.