Current Projects
When stories move people, people can move mountains. So at Active Voice, we build action-oriented public events, workplace trainings, and learning guides around powerful films — films that open eyes, hearts and minds about critical social issues not covered in depth by mainstream media. Read about our previous projects.
Some of our current projects include:
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Beyond the Choir: an Active Voice Initiative
Every so often, Active Voice sees a "social issue" film that resonates with people's core values and helps them walk in the shoes of others, without preaching or polarizing the issues. The characters are complex and so are the challenges they face. These are the films you want your friends to watch, and probably even your enemies. (You might even recommend them to your parents!) Instead of hitting you over the head with a single point of view, they make you want to know more, think critically and even engage with other people. And as video becomes more and more influential and ubiquitous, these stories can humanize thorny public policy issues in ways that print media and talking heads often cannot.
Active Voice’s new initiative, Beyond the Choir, is focused on what makes this kind of storytelling tick, and the role it can play helping people make better informed decisions about the world they want to live in. We have an idea that by working with filmmakers at formative stages production, by building collaborations with policy experts, public opinion pollsters, strategic communicators and funders, we can create and better understand how to shape stories that click with audiences far beyond the "Sundance Belt." (See Getting High for an early example.) For more information, write to info@activevoice.net.
A Class Apart
This PBS-bound historic documentary is Active Voice's second engagement campaign with filmmaker Carlos Sandoval (Farmingville). Co-produced with Peter Miller, A Class Apart will bring to life the heroic post-World War II struggle of Mexican Americans against the Jim Crow-style discrimination targeted at them throughout the American Southwest. The film is built around the stirring story of an underdog band of Texas lawyers who became the first Mexican Americans to take a case all the way to the Supreme Court. Active Voice's educational and community-based efforts will start in Texas, where the landmark 1954 legal case, Hernandez v. Texas, also began. The case ultimately recognized the rights of Mexican Americans to have full civic participation and helped pave the way for the civil rights movement among today's Latinos.
The Calling
Active Voice is working with The Kindling Group (A Doula Story, A History of God, etc.) to pave the way for their unprecedented multi-year, multimedia documentary miniseries, The Calling. Four verite camera crews are following a handful of street-savvy Americans as they prepare for lives as priests, rabbis, imams and pastors. How does a twenty-something think about faith, service and commitment when so much of the culture is focused on instant gratification, materialism and individual gain — at all costs? In partnership with Working Films and a host of grassroots, religious, educational and social justice partners, Active Voice is designing an ongoing secular campaign about leadership and service in the 21st century.
Getting High
Is America ready to have an honest conversation about drugs and alcohol? That's the motive behind Getting High, a documentary-in-progress by filmmakers Jack Walsh and Victor Silverman. Getting High tells the story of the Silverman family's three-generation collision with drugs and alcohol set against a backdrop of our nation's bitter conflicts about the "War on Drugs." While the film is in development, Active Voice is bringing together key stakeholders — from drug policy analysts who support decriminalization, to rehabilitation advocates, to top law enforcers who see addicts go through the justice system — to help the filmmakers craft their story in ways that resonate with a range of viewers. In doing so, Active Voice is forging a creative partnership: the filmmakers retain full creative control while receiving access to research and ideas from framing experts, public opinion pollsters and thought leaders; and the thought leaders have the opportunity to apply their expertise to a creative effort, and receive early access to the documentary. The end result: a powerful story that helps those on the front lines — whether an advocate of decriminalization, a proponent of incarceration or a family stuck in the middle — to consider their common goals and think more critically about addressing addiction and substance abuse in America. (For more information, see Beyond the Choir.)
Global Lives: an Active Voice Initiative
Active Voice's Global Lives initiative, a curated collection of films about refugees and immigrants in 21st century America, continues in 2007-08 with Made in L.A., La Americana, Speaking in Tongues, Childhood in Translation and The Visitor. Through intimate story-telling, each film reveals the daily challenges of "transnational" life and the personal, local impact of global events. National organizations, policy watchers and community-based groups have looked to Active Voice since 2001 to help them use new documentaries to put a human face on immigration today. Long-term strategic partnerships with groups like Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees and new, customized digital versions of these documentaries make these stories user-friendly for a host of practical uses. Read about some of our past Global Lives selections: The New Americans, Farmingville and Chasing Freedom.
King Corn
Described by the Boston Globe as "An enormously entertaining moral, socio-economic odyssey (and statistical bonanza) through the American food industry." King Corn is poised to jump-start public debate about the consequences of America's shift to industrialized farming and eating. Working with filmmakers Ian Cheney, Curtis Ellis and Aaron Woolf and a small group of thought leaders from the intersecting fields of food policy, farming, the environment, nutrition and public health, Active Voice is helping determine how this high profile movie can have a lasting impact at the local, regional and even federal level. With support from the Fledgling Fund, AV's efforts will focus on cross sector collaborations and a "Corn Belt Tour" to spark conversation among those who make a living on the land, now and in the next generation. View the King Corn Trailer.
The New Metropolis Action Campaign
Could today’s newest suburban dreams become tomorrow's forgotten places? It's happened before. Through the stories of determined and innovative public officials, citizens and activists, filmmaker Andrea Torrice's upcoming documentary, The New Metropolis (working title), will fuel a growing national effort to confront decline and reinvent our aging urban and suburban communities. The New Metropolis Action Campaign will draw from these powerful stories and create a host of user-friendly digital tools to help audiences grasp the practical consequences of uneven development and envision alternatives for fair regional growth. The film-based campaign offers a cautionary tale and practical steps for change — from policy briefings to broadcast to interactive planning tools.
New Muslim Cool
With an estimated two to eight million Muslims in the United States, the look of Islam in America has many faces. Filmmaker Jennifer Taylor shows us just how diverse the American Muslim community can be, through the compelling story of Hamza Perez, the subject of the documentary-in-progress New Muslim Cool. Born to Puerto Rican parents, Hamza (also known as Jason) converted to Islam at age 20, pulling himself off the streets to become a community activist and rising star of the Muslim hip-hop generation. Can one man's story help bridge the gap between American Muslim converts and Muslims from immigrant communities? Can it prompt a productive dialogue across generations and faiths? While the film is still in production, Active Voice is bringing together key strategists, faith leaders and researchers to make sure it can. These meetings, coupled with sector-specific focus groups, will help us leverage this film and accompanying multimedia resources to catalyze constructive dialogue about America and Islam in the 21st century.
Race to Execution
Rachel Lyon’s fact-filled documentary about race bias on Death Row — and the people confronting it — has been startling audiences across the country. Race to Execution traces the fates of two men sentenced to die — Robert Tarver and Madison Hobley — and the passionate efforts of attorneys, families and scholars involved on various sides of the death penalty debate. Since before its broadcast last spring, AV has been working with the Center for Justice in Capital Cases, law schools, civil rights organizations and leading institutions like Amnesty International, to help groups examine the personal and systemic consequences of inequities in the criminal justice system. Now, with support from the Ford Foundation, we’re moving our work to a new level with additional footage, educational materials and strategic community events. Read more about the campaign.
Renewal
Evangelical Christians bear witness to mountaintop removal — the devastating coal mining practice that is destroying entire mountain ranges and poisoning the rivers of Kentucky and Tennessee. A multi-faith community in Albuquerque, New Mexico uses Catholic and Native American rituals to celebrate the sacredness of land and water while simultaneously mobilizing local residents to get involved in setting land-use policies. Organic farmers team up with eco-friendly Muslims to provide sustainably raised "eco-halal" lamb and chicken to Chicago's mosques and families. Using Marty Ostrow and Terry Kay Rockefeller's new documentary Renewal as a catalyst, Active Voice will employ practical web-based networking to build community among a wide range of faith-based organizations, secular environmental groups, seminaries and even municipalities who are committed to making a difference in this time of grave environmental threats.
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