Blog

Children of Invention Theatrical Release March 15th

2010-03-09T16:18:34Z

On March 15th Children of Invention will premiere theatrically in NYC. The critically acclaimed independent feature film written and directed by Tze Chun will be shown at BIG Cinemas Manhattan. The film which is set in Boston and was shot in and around New York City, had its World Premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, played over 40 film festivals, and won 15 festival awards, 5 of which were Grand Jury or Best Narrative Feature prizes, including the top prize at the Independent Film Festival Boston and Newport International Film Festival. The film was named one of the "Top 13 Films of 2009" by Hammer to Nail and made several "Best Undistributed Films of 2009" lists. It has also gained notoriety for its hybrid DIY distribution strategy, including being one of five Sundance films to launch YouTube Rentals. The filmmakers were recently named in Ted Hope's list of "21 Brave Thinkers Of Truly Free Film". Check out this remarkable film about two young children who are left to fend for themselves when their mother gets embroiled in a pyramid scheme and disappears.

If you're not in New York check out the one week engagement of the film at The Downtown Independent in L.A. Click here for tickets and showtimes.

Brave New Foundation Gives Voice to Veterans

2010-03-09T16:17:07Z

From Fledgling

A Fledgling Fund grantee, The Brave New Foundation, which strives to create an open democratic society that encourages rigorous debate, opportunity and justice for all, is offering five veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars a chance to make their own documentaries about the consequences of the wars for them and for those around them. Read more about the project in the LATimes and visit the Brave New Foundation to learn more.

Sex::Tech 2010 and The Line

2010-03-09T16:13:40Z

From Fledgling

Recently, Nancy Schwartzman presented her film The Line at Sex::Tech 2010, a conference on Sex Ed, Technology and Youth culture in San Francisco sponsored by MTV, PopTech, Funny or Die and the National Campaign to End Teen Pregnancy. There, a very interesting intersection of sex educators, filmmakers, tech-geeks, public health officials, youth and activists convened to discuss issues surrounding sexual discourse and education and how discussion can be changed or is manipulated by rapidly changing technologies. Find out more on the Sex:Tech site and check out Nancy's blog post about the conference.

D.C. Environmental Film Festival

2010-03-04T19:29:20Z

The D.C. Environmental film festival is coming up. From March 16th -28th the festival will explore the vital connections between food and the environment. Films that focus on the production and transportation of our food will be the at the heart of this years festival, but other films will address the environmental implications of such diverse subjects as the current natural gas drilling boom, mountaintop removal and the mysterious disappearance of frogs. Additional films point to the success of businesses that are adopting green practices and stimulating the growth of clean, renewable energy.

Check out some of the fledgling supported films at the festival and learn more!

"Gasland" on the Festival's opening night: March 16 at 7 p.m. At the
Carnegie Institution for Science (1530 P St., NW, Washington, D.C.)

"Garbage Dreams" on March 27 at 4:30 p.m. At the AFI Silver Theatre in
Silver Spring, Md.

"What's On Your Plate?," the pre-Festival screening for DC public and
charter school students on March 9 at 10 a.m. At the Warner Theatre, 513
13th St., NW, Washington, D.C.

Help FRESH and Take Part in NYC Restaurant Week

2010-03-04T16:28:01Z

Fresh celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.To celebrate the theatrically opening of the film in the first week of April, Fresh is teaming up with restaurants that support responsible practices.

They are organizing a series of events and workshops in conjunction with the release to bring the soul of Fresh into tangible experiences for the audiences. Workshops and plans for a Fresh Restaurant week will highlight local farmers, food artisans and the local economy.

Help get this interesting outreach idea off the ground! Find out how you can become part of the Fresh team by becoming a Fresh Restaurant Week Intern or help spread the word. Contact Jamie Yuenger (Jamie@FRESHthemovie.com) or check out the film's website for more details.

Impact Video from the Fledgling Fund and Working Films

2010-02-23T18:06:02Z

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.

Design Can Make a Difference

2010-02-23T17:58:46Z

From Fledgling

Project H Design connects the power of design to the people who need it most, and the places where it can make a real and lasting difference. The team of designers and builders engage locally to improve the quality of life for the socially overlooked. Project H Design has a five-tenet design process: 1. there is no design without (critical) action, 2. design WITH, not FOR, 3. document, share and measure, 4. start locally and scale globally, 5. design systems, not stuff.

Their long term mission if to focus on improving environments, products, and experiences for K-12 education institutions in the US through level design thinking and deep community engagement. Check out some of the great work they have already done; we can't wait to see what they do next!

Pace University Screening of FF Supported Short Film Series Tonight!

2010-02-23T17:55:24Z

From Fledgling

One of Jesse Epsteins's short films will be screened tonight, February 23rd, at Pace University at 7pm. As it is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week this week, Wet Dreams and False Images will be shown along with another documentary by Liza Figueroa Kravinsky, Beauty in the Eyes of the Beheld. Both documentaries focus on modern perceptions of beauty. Wet Dreams and False Images is a Sundance award-winning documentary that uses humor to raise serious concerns about the marketplace of commercial illusion and unrealizable standards of physical perfection. Come see both films and take part in the Q&A with filmmakers and special guests. For more information contact: Brian Petersen at Pace University Counseling Center at bpetersen@pace.edu.

Learn more about Body Typed, Beauty in the Eyes of the Beheld, and how to get involved in NEDA.

Report back from TED

2010-02-18T18:02:41Z

I recently returned from the annual TED Conference. I had the most mind-bending, inspiring and inspirational time. Not only were the famous TED talks all that they had promised, the crowd was such a intellectual treat. Thank you TED for a magical time and for all of the energy you have infused into my work here at The Fledgling Fund. I will share some of my favorite TED talks here as they go online. The first one is TED Prize Winner, Jamie Oliver. Jamie is on a noble mission to change the way America thinks about and consumes food. Let's all cheer him on and lend whatever support we can. Check out his talk:

Impact Video From The Fledgling Fund and Working Films

2010-02-17T18:36:56Z

Gurls Talk Back

2010-02-16T21:13:15Z

From Fledgling

Producers of the documentary film, Going on 13, have created an interactive website, Gurls Talk Back. The website creates a space where young girls can share their fears, joys, and stories about becoming a teen. Girls can create their own blogs through the website and even play games. But the site is also a place for parents, family members, teachers, and people who care about the lives of young girls to learn more about how to support girls during the transition from childhood to teendom, puberty and beyond. The site was developed as a part of the film project Going on 13, which follows the lives of four pre-teen girls of color as they become young women. Check it out!

Made In India Screening this Thursday

2010-02-16T20:49:02Z

From Fledgling

The Story Leads to Action series, presented by Chicken and Egg Pictures, continues this Thursday, February 18th with a work-in-progress screening of Made In India. We especially hope you can catch the film as they are one of our recent grantees. Made in India is a feature documentary that follows the journey of an infertile American couple, an Indian surrogate and the reproductive outsourcing business that brings them together. Against the backdrop of an ever-growing international assisted reproductive technology industry we get a respectful up-close look at the phenomena of "outsourcing" surrogate mothers to India, a complicated clash of families, all in need and all in crisis, reproductive technology and "choice" from a global perspective. Please join us at 7:30pm at the 92YTribeca (200 Hudson Street) for a provocative film and discussion. Purchase tickets here and learn more about the film.

Is There a Master Metric for Evaluating Public Media?

2010-02-16T20:43:51Z

From Fledgling

Check out this interesting article on PBS' Website Blog MediaShift which tries to determine whether their Public Media 2.0 projects are actually moving toward a more dynamic, engaged, public media future.

A Letter from Recent Grantee Nancy Schwartzman

2010-02-16T19:01:11Z

From Fledgling

Hello fellow travelers on the filmmaking/social media super highway!

Sending out some Valentine's Day love, and I wanted to highlight something great that happened today, that took some Internet & twitter magic to come to fruition.

Since its launch, our team has been watching MTV's "A Thin Line," a campaign, dedicated to raising awareness of "Digital Abuse," and helping teens untangle normal versus unhealthy relationship dynamics. They focus on how cell phones can amplify and exacerbate abusive behaviors. Some of my favorite slogans are: It's a thin line between attentive/obsessive, curious/controlling, love/abuse. I was thinking that we over here at The Line Campaign, have a lot of things in common such as: young people, sexuality, violence, web-based media, and activism.

I initiated a twitter back and forth about Beyonce's "Video Phone" video (*ugh*) and then I asked our fab intern Ingrid to do some research and write a post about their campaign. It was a couple weeks before February, Teen Dating Violence Awareness month, so we took a look at Katie Couric's piece on the topic, too. Ingrid spent a lot of time on both initiatives, picking apart what was authentic, realistic, what felt scripted, what related to her demographic, and what fell flat. She posted Corporation: FAIL! Teens, Sex & Violence. I tweeted to @a_thin_line that they were featured on the blog and -Internet magic!- they responded. The takeaway here is your voice does matter.

MTV then invited us to a meeting at Viacom HQ to discuss their work and hear our feedback. Obviously, I let 18 year old Ingrid do the talking, her comments ranged from the show "16 & Pregnant" not showing struggles of lower income or homeless girls, "Jersey Shore" which entertains us with violence in every episode, and the PSA's for "A Thin Line" not showing real kids going through the issues. I mediated, waxing the benefits of reaching a wide audience, raising awareness, and the reality of working within a Corporate Social Responsibility framework.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, me and the home team shot and edited a short video using candy and some of our favorite responses to "where is your line?" Our hope was that with the video would go viral on Valentine's Day and drive more traffic to the site and generate interest in the film and campaign. Ingrid followed up our meeting at MTV with an email and a link to our video "ASK ME" -- and today they posted it!

What's really exciting is that we developed The Line Campaign with support from The Fledgling Fund in June, and only went live in September 2009. The trailer for THE LINE has been on Vimeo for less than a year, and already has over 12,000 views. We are learning as we go, and the results have been really interesting.

Where will it lead next? A broadcast on MTV or streaming broadcast on MTV.com? We sure hope so!

Babies and Chemicals Do Not Go Together

2010-02-16T18:51:16Z

Our babies are coming into this world pre-polluted with toxic chemicals. When EWG tested the umbilical cord blood of 10 Americans, they found nearly 300 chemicals, including BPA, perchlorate, fire retardants, lead, mercury, and PCBs. The best way to stop this pre-pollution is to enact the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act, which would require that chemicals be proven safe for children before they can be sold. The chemicals are in us. The risk of disease and illness is serious. The chemicals they found are increasingly linked to serious long-term health effects, from childhood cancer and autism to ADHD, learning deficits, infertility, and heart disease. We need a system for assessing chemicals so our children get the healthy start they deserve. The longer Congress waits, the more babies are exposed. Join the 1000's of other Americans who are telling Congress it's time for a real federal toxics law that will make chemicals in consumer products safe for kids. To watch the Environmental Working Groups "10 Americans" video, supported by The Fledgling Fund, click here. To help introduce the Kid-Safe Chemical act sign the petition here.
To see the remaining two parts of the video click here.