How to Change A World: 5 Things We've Learned About the Business of Telling Solution-Forward Stories (Part 1)

Part #1: In honor of director, producer, actor, and (reluctant) activist, Robert Redford

As video producers, many of us want to change the world for the better. We got into this in the first place because we wanted to help people laugh, or cry, or think, or feel, or consider a new idea.

However, the reality of running a video production company can sometimes feel like a choice between making positive, impactful video and making a living.

Our documentary Saving Walden’s World was just selected for the SOHO International Film Festival, and I was reminded: here’s a film that’s truly solution-forward. Filled with successful systems that can be adapted and implemented in other places, it’s exactly the kind of film I love to make, and the world will benefit from more films like it.

But how? How can we – as creators, technicians, artists, organizers, project managers, and everything else we are – sustainably run a video production company making these important, world-changing stories?

This is the first in a series of posts about some of the lessons we’ve learned so far:

1) “Your films will not change the world.”
Fortunate to have worked on a film produced by Barbara Kopple and accepted to Sundance, I sat near the front with director Kristi Jacobson on opening night as Robert Redford addressed all the attendees. I felt like he was looking directly at me when he said,  “your films will not change the world.”  

I’ll never forget that sudden feeling of disappointment. After all the energy that had been building during the years of making our film, and the anticipation of the first time attending the indie industry’s version of the Oscars – was he saying it was all for nothing?

He went on to propose that we all are a part of a larger movement. Our role is the voice, the messenger, communicator, historian, forecaster, or amplifier, alongside those who are making a difference. 

Expecting our film or video to be the One that shifts humanity puts too much pressure on the production. For some creators, that pressure can lead to overthinking, hesitation, and risk aversion. Others respond to the pressure by becoming despotic, willing to ignore colleagues’ needs as they pursue their singular vision.

Healthier, he suggested, recognize and attend to our true role: to bring an audience into a world they would not otherwise be able to access.  The larger movement has the experts, the advocates, the power of its members. But to connect new audiences and to deepen the connection with people who are already “in it,” that’s where we come in.

Agnieszka Holland, director of “Green Border,” said it this way:
“You need many more voices like mine to change something in a substantial way. I tell [people] that I don’t think the film will change the world, and a young girl in France said, “Maybe your film will not change the world, but it certainly changed my world.”

Thanks for your time. Coming soon, Post #2: Inertia.

References:
Kramer, G. M. (2024, June 21). “Society is ready to kill”: “Green Border” director Agnieszka Holland on the refugee crisis. Salon.com. https://www.salon.com/2024/06/21/green-border-agnieszka-holland-refugees/

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