The Fledgling Fund supports innovative media projects that can play critical roles in igniting social change. We believe that film and other creative media can bear witness to the challenges faced by vulnerable individuals, families and communities in ways that statistics can not, and that it can create a broader understanding of social problems and inspire concrete action. We also believe that well-structured and creative community engagement initiatives can leverage media's ability to ignite social change by moving people from awareness to action. We strive for a portfolio of media projects that allows us to:
- Support projects that are timely, tell compelling and important stories, represent a unique perspective or an intriguing solution to an entrenched social problem, and have strong potential as a vehicle for social change.
- Demonstrate how films coupled with well-structured and measurable community engagement and outreach programs can raise awareness about complex social issues, encourage dialogue, share possible solutions, and move people to action.
- Encourage the innovative use of media, such as Web 2.0 strategies, and short form videos, to engage new audiences around important social issues.
- Leverage expertise in key issue areas including, Girls' Empowerment and Women's Leadership, Health Care, Mental Health and Homelessness, Migration and Immigration, and War and its Aftermath.
We work closely with our partners to advance these objectives.
Featured Creative Media Project
Critical Condition
Critical Condition, a feature documentary by Roger Weisberg, paints a disturbing and gripping portrait of what happens when you’re sick and uninsured in America. The unforgettable subjects of this cinema verite documentary discover that being uncovered can cost them their jobs, health, homes,...
Our Creative Media Projects
Girls' Empowerment and Women's Leadership
A Walk to Beautiful
A Walk to Beautiful is a feature length documentary that tells the stories of five Ethiopian women, who suffer from devastating childbirth injuries...
Lioness
Lioness is a documentary film about Army support soldiers who became the first women in American history to be sent into direct ground combat....
LightBox: Expressions of Hope from Young Women in the Kibera Slum of Nairobi
LightBox is a 132 page, full-color, hardcover coffee table book, comprised of photographs and essays by the teenage members of The Binti Pamoja...
Very Young Girls
Very Young Girls is a documentary film that chronicles the journey of young women through the underground world of sexual exploitation in New York...
The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo
Since 1998 a brutal war has been raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Over 4 million people have died. And there are the uncountable ...
Beyond Belief
Beyond Belief is a documentary film about the connection women find in the face of tragedy. Susan Retik and Patti Quigley are two ordinary soccer...
Body Typed
Body Typed is a series of four short films that deal with body image and self esteem, including Wet Dreams and False Images, The Guarantee, 34x25x36,...
Girl Trouble
Girl Trouble is a film that takes a personal look at the reasons why teenage girls are entering the juvenile justice system in greater numbers and at...
We Are Together
We Are Together is a stirring documentary film about the children of the Agape Choir in South Africa. The AIDS epidemic has had a profound effect on...
Kick Like a Girl
Kick Like A Girl is a feature documentary about the story of what happens when “The Mighty Cheetahs,” an undefeated all-girls soccer team,...Migration and Immigration
Autumn's Harvest
“Autumn’s Harvest” is a documentary film that explores the impact of AIDS on the migrant population, America’s food supply and the U.S....
Children in No Man's Land
Children In No-Man's Land is a documentary that will uncover the current plight of the 100,000 unaccompanied minors entering the United States. The...
Health Care
Critical Condition
Critical Condition, a feature documentary by Roger Weisberg, paints a disturbing and gripping portrait of what happens when you’re sick and ...
A Walk to Beautiful
A Walk to Beautiful is a feature length documentary that tells the stories of five Ethiopian women, who suffer from devastating childbirth injuries...
Autumn's Harvest
“Autumn’s Harvest” is a documentary film that explores the impact of AIDS on the migrant population, America’s food supply and the U.S....
Orgasm, Inc.
Orgasm, Inc. is a documentary film that provides a humorous and sobering look inside "big pharma" and the marketing campaigns that are literally and...
Body and Soul: Diana and Kathy
Body and Soul: Diana and Kathy is a documentary film that follows the story of two friends who have become advocates for themselves and for an entire...
The Accidental Advocate
The Accidental Advocate is a documentary film that expores the intersection of politics, science and health care. When Claude Gerstle, a surgeon and...
Beat the Drum
Beat the Drum is a contemporary South African film about the devastation of HIV / AIDS. Young Musa is orphaned after a mysterious illness strikes...
Coma
Coma is a documentary film that gives voice to people whose quality of life and very existence have been threatened. The film goes inside a top...
We Are Together
We Are Together is a stirring documentary film about the children of the Agape Choir in South Africa. The AIDS epidemic has had a profound effect on...
Denied: The Health Care Crisis in America
Denied: The Health Care Crisis in America is a feature length documentary about the systemic breakdown of America's health care system. The film ...
The Vision Project
The goal of Vision Project is to produce documentary material and educational programs that encourage understanding and awareness about a broad range...War and its Aftermath
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB is documentary film that examines and contextualizes the abuses that occurred in the fall of 2003, abuses documented in ...
The Devil Came on Horseback
The Devil Came on Horseback is a documentary film that exposes the violence and tragedy of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan as seen through the eye-s...
The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo
Since 1998 a brutal war has been raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Over 4 million people have died. And there are the uncountable ...
Lioness
Lioness is a documentary film about Army support soldiers who became the first women in American history to be sent into direct ground combat....
Beyond Belief
Beyond Belief is a documentary film about the connection women find in the face of tragedy. Susan Retik and Patti Quigley are two ordinary soccer...
War Dance
War Dance is a feature-length documentary that tells the story of three children from the Patongo displacement camp in northern Uganda:Dominic, a...
Project Kashmir
Project Kashmir is a feature documentary in which the directors, two American friends from opposite sides of the divide (one is Pakistani Muslim and...
Soldier Billboard Project
The Soldier Billboard Project features Soliders whom have spent 100 days or more as in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who are these men and women and what...Special Projects
Freeheld
FREEHELD is a documentary film that follows the historic battle of Lieutenant Laurel Hester, a dying New Jersey police officer who fights to ...
Santa Claus in Baghdad
Santa Claus in Baghdad is an educational short narrative film aimed at English-speaking teens ages 12– 14 (Middle School). The aim of this film, ...
Global Moms Iran
Global Moms Iran (working title) is a feature documentary film which tool award-winning filmmaker Justine Shapiro and her six-year-old son Mateo to ...
Beat the Drum
Beat the Drum is a contemporary South African film about the devastation of HIV / AIDS. Young Musa is orphaned after a mysterious illness strikes...Mental Health and Homelessness
Kings Park
Kings Park offers an unprecedented look at public mental health care in America by focusing on the story of a single abandoned institution, Kings ...
Gwen's Story
At the age of 10 months, Gwen, an Alaskan of mixed race heritage, was thrown into a fire and severely burned by her mother suffering from mental ...
Empress Hotel
Empress Hotel is a feature-length documentary film about formerly homeless people in San Francisco. The film contrasts the order of the hotel as a ...Innovative Media Strategies
1000 Voices Archive
Launched in May 2008, the 1000 Voices Archive (http://www.1000VoicesArchive.org) explores the potential of short form film to expand civic dialogue...
Video the Vote
The goal of Video the Vote is to protect the vote by being the eyes and ears where ballots are cast and counted on Election Day. The project will...
Through A Lens Darkly
Through a Lens Darkly is a multi-platform photography-based project built around a two-hour film for public television, with an anticipated airdate...
The Vision Project
The goal of Vision Project is to produce documentary material and educational programs that encourage understanding and awareness about a broad range...
Soldier Billboard Project
The Soldier Billboard Project features Soliders whom have spent 100 days or more as in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who are these men and women and what...Economic and Environmental Justice
King Corn
King Corn is a feature documentary about one acre of corn and its journey into the American food system. The film explores issues of family farm...
Everything's Cool
Everything’s Cool is documentary film that is a “toxic comedy” about the most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding...
A Snow Mobile for George
A Snow Mobile for George is a documentary film about a rambunctious road trip that collects the stories of fishermen, cowboys and firemen who have to...