Talented media makers capture the complexities of real life, dramatic personal transformations and the impact of the decisions we make. Active Voice’s street-tested strategies make it easy for inspired audiences to take positive action on the issues they’ve learned about. Read about the projects we’re working on now.
Barbershop Punk Barbershop Punk tells the groundbreaking story of Robb Topolski, who challenged the nation's largest cable company, Comcast, after discovering they blocked the barbershop quartet music he was legally sharing online. Filmmakers Georgia Archer and Kristin Armfield propel viewers onto the fast lane of the internet super highway, shedding light on the "punks" – from the Christian Coalition to the Songwriter's Guild of America – who are striving to keep the internet accessible to everyone. Overview
The Calling The Calling, from the Kindling Group, is an upcoming PBS documentary miniseries that follows eight Catholic, Evangelical Christian, Jewish and Muslim Americans who are training for religious leadership. It takes viewers into the unknown world of seminaries to reveal the real people "behind the robes." Overview
Connected
In Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology, Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain explores a particularly vulnerable period of her life while exposing the visible and invisible connections linking major issues of our time. A personal film with universal relevance, Connected explores how after centuries of declaring our independence, it may be time for us to declare our interdependence. Overview
Fixing the Future
Host David Brancaccio (of NOW on PBS) visits locations across America that are successfully using sustainable and innovative approaches to create jobs and build prosperity, inspiring hope and renewal amidst economic collapse. Overview
Gaining Ground
In the midst of the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, Gaining Ground follows the innovative grassroots organizing efforts of Boston's Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative. Surrounded by foreclosures, how is it possible that so many Dudley Street homeowners held on to their homes and even managed to improve a neighborhood once defined by blight, poverty and violence? Gaining Ground is executive produced by Mark Lipman and Leah Mahan, and directed by Vital Pictures. Overview
Gideon's Army
Long hours, low pay, and lack of respect are just a few barriers that public defenders face while representing the people society would rather forget. Directed by Dawn Porter, Gideon's Army follows an inspiring program in the South that seeks to reshape the culture of indigent defense in the United States. Overview
Marguerite Casey Foundation's Equal Voice Youth Empowerment Project The Equal Voice Youth Empowerment Project is a nationwide effort of the Marguerite Casey Foundation and Active Voice, designed to inspire young people around the country and give them tools to identify the issues that mean the most to them and their families. Overview
Make Agent Orange History Make Agent Orange History is a collaborative effort to raise awareness of the long-term effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam, highlight solutions to the problem and connect individuals and organizations with opportunities to get involved. Overview Campaign Details Event Planning Toolkit
Torn From Home: My Life as a Refugee Torn From Home: My Life as a Refugee is an innovative traveling museum exhibit, developed by Lied Discovery Children’s Museum, that takes audiences on a hands-on journey into the extraordinary lives of children who are forced to flee their homes and seek safety in a new land. Overview Campaign Details
"The people at Active Voice are social media multihyphenates: intellectually challenging, committed, creative, strategic, and effective. They are valued collaborators in our efforts to help make the world a better place, one story at a time."
John Schreiber Former Executive Vice President, Social Action & Advocacy, Participant Media
Barbershop Punk
For more information about this project, click here.
Barbershop Punk tells the groundbreaking story of Robb Topolski, who challenged the nation's largest cable company, Comcast, after discovering they blocked the barbershop quartet music he was legally sharing online. Filmmakers Georgia Archer and Kristin Armfield propel viewers onto the fast lane of the internet super highway, shedding light on the "punks" – from the Christian Coalition to the Songwriter's Guild of America – who are striving to keep the internet accessible to everyone.
About the Campaign: While the filmmakers take Barbershop Punk on the festival circuit, Active Voice is developing national partnerships, program strategies and resource materials to support the use of Barbershop Punk as an educational tool for internet policy options.
Project Activities:
Campus screenings that raise awareness among students and their larger communities, sometimes in conjunction with festival events.
Materials for student audiences, advocacy groups and community leaders to educate and frame discussions about the intricacies of internet policy.
Social media and mobile outreach to link new "punks" to national resources.
Partners (partial list):
Free Press/Save The Internet
Future of Music Coalition
Roosevelt Campus Network
Writer's Guild of America (West)
Ford Foundation (funder)
Who's Talking About the Film: "Barbershop Punk explores what ordinary people can do to promote the free exchange of information in cyberspace."
-MTV.com
Campaign Timeline: 2010 – 2011
The Calling
About the Campaign: Currently in development, The Calling engagement project will use national networks, screenings, educational materials and a broad online platform to help people push past the stereotypes and cartoonish images of religion today. The complex and highly accessible characters we meet in The Calling will spark connections among people of many faiths—ideally enabling community building and social action.
Project Activities:
Interactive websites, developed by nonprofit communications leader See3 Communications, where viewers will participate in digital storytelling and contests like "What’s Your Calling?"
Community-based screenings and other activities across the country for churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, faith-based community groups, public television stations and afterschool programs that foster long-term collaboration
Resources for innovative seminaries
Partners (partial list):
Care2
Interfaith Youth Core
See3 Communications
Kindling Group (client)
Campaign Timeline: 2007 – 2011
For more information about this project, click here.
For more information about this project, click here.
Host David Brancaccio (of NOW on PBS) visits locations across America that are successfully using sustainable and innovative approaches to create jobs and build prosperity, inspiring hope and renewal amidst economic collapse.
About the Campaign: Rarely has solutions-oriented journalism like Fixing the Future been used to jumpstart or strengthen local efforts toward building a local, sustainable economy. The power of this tool is palpable as engaged communities realize they are part of a national movement and bear witness to the positive impacts across the country. Active Voice partnered with organizations in three locations – Detroit, MI, Santa Fe, NM and Oakland, CA – in the pilot phase of what aspires to be a national Fixing the Future Community Campaign. These partners developed screening events to inspire coalition-building and long-term planning toward incorporating sustainable practices in their communities.
Project Activities:
Campaign partners used the screening events to: move money to local banks in Santa Fe; kick off a grassroots working group that will explore ways to increase local ownership and control of community capital in Oakland; and build momentum around the development of a worker-owned business services coop in Detroit (modeled after Evergreen Cooperatives, featured in the film).
A Fixing the Future Community Toolkit is available to help organizations with event-planning, partnership-building and strategic post-film conversations that ignite action.
An online community is building on the film's PBS site.
Partners (partial list):
Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE)
Hour World
Net Impact
Post Carbon Institute
Sustainable Economies Law Center
Transition US
Green Chamber of Commerce
Jumpstart Productions (client)
Who's Talking About the Campaign: "The movement towards new and effective co-operative structures needs more connections, so I value the partnership-building relationships that are being developed through the Active Voice campaign."
-Deborah G. Olson, Exec Director, Center for Community Based Enterprise, Detroit
Campaign Timeline: January 2011 – July 2011
Make Agent Orange History
For more information about this project, click here.
About the Campaign: Make Agent Orange History is a collaborative effort to raise awareness of the long-term effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam, highlight solutions to the problem and connect individuals and organizations with opportunities to get involved. With an interactive website, social media campaign and a slew of events occurring nationwide, this effort integrates online community-building with offline engagement to demonstrate that Agent Orange is a humanitarian concern we can do something about.
Project Activities:
Increased awareness of the legacy of Agent Orange/dioxin in Vietnam.
Online community-building among people who have a shared interest in ending the legacy of Agent Orange in Vietnam.
Events in communities around the country geared toward generating support for environmental cleanup and rehabilitation for millions of affected Vietnamese.
Partners (partial list):
Aspen Institute
Communications Consortium Media Center
Common Cause
Rotary Club of San Francisco
Ford Foundation (funder)
Who's Talking About the Campaign: "Our Make Agent Orange History event was enriching for the faculty who were involved in coordinating it, community members who attended and especially to students who participated."
-Anne Marie Smoke Program Manager Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution
Campaign Timeline: 2009 – 2011
Torn From Home: My Life as a Refugee
About the Campaign:
Active Voice’s first museum project is helping families learn about the experiences and needs of refugees, both in their own communities and around the world. Throughout the project’s four-year national tour, Active Voice will cultivate partnerships with children’s museums and local organizations to deepen the exhibit’s impact and put this global issue in a local context.
Project Activities:
Cross-cultural, newsworthy museum events involving youth groups, elected officials and community leaders
Tie-in film screenings that reveal why people leave their homes and shed light on the real-life experiences of refugees in America today
Opportunities for families to support local refugees through donations, volunteering and networking
Partners (partial list):
Lied Discovery Children’s Museum
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Unbound Philanthropy (funder)
Who's Talking About the Campaign: "I will never forget this experience at the Discovery Center. Hopefully, others who see this exhibit will begin to open their own eyes and give a little back to some people who really need our help."
-Student visitor
Don Harrington Discovery Center, Amarillo, TX (first site on the national tour)
Campaign Timeline: 2008 – 2013
Gaining Ground
About the Campaign:
Active Voice is working with the filmmakers of Gaining Ground and curating key partners on the strategic planning and implementation of a national campaign. A sequel to the award-winning documentary Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street, the film tracks a new generation of leaders as they confront the enormous challenges of the current financial crisis. The Gaining Ground campaign will provide a unique opportunity to engage residents, youth, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders in collaborative dialogue, spurring action around the pressing issues of neighborhood revitalization, homeownership, job creation, youth leadership development, and community-institutional partnerships.
Partners (partial list):
Crescent City Community Land Trust, New Orleans (tentative)
Skillman Foundation, Detroit (tentative)
Holding Ground Productions (client)
Ford Foundation (funder)
MacArthur Foundation (funder)
Timeline: Spring 2011 – present
Photo Credit: Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative
About the Campaign:
The Equal Voice Youth Empowerment Project is a nationwide effort to build on Marguerite Casey Foundation's 2008 Equal Voice for America's Families campaign, which brought together 30,000 people to create the Equal Voice National Family Platform to advance family-friendly policies. Using the new short documentary Maria Full of Hope as the centerpiece of the campaign, Active Voice will help young leaders and educators use Maria's story to personally connect to the transformative power of community work through a series of events developed in partnership with community-based organizations around the country.
Project Activities:
A series of community events, in partnership with youth-led organizations, community-based groups and schools, that feature viewings of Maria Full of Hope alongside documentary screenings, dialogues and other activities geared toward lifting up youth voices and identifying solutions to community challenges.
A youth empowerment toolkit designed to help young people, youth leaders and adult facilitators use Maria Full of Hope as a tool for training, learning and empowerment.
High school and/or college curriculum to help educators use Maria Full of Hope to spark reflection and discussion in a range of classroom settings.
Peer-learning opportunities among partner organizations through webinars, social networking and Marguerite Casey Foundation's online newspaper, Equal Voice: America's Family Story.
Partners (partial list):
Marguerite Casey Foundation (funder)
Who's Talking About the Campaign: "In my work, I've learned that young people not only need to be inspired, but also need the vehicles for their voices to travel to the people in charge. Marguerite Casey Foundation's Equal Voice Youth Empowerment Project is creating those opportunities."
-Maria Degillo Albany Park Neighborhood Council Youth Leader, featured in Maria Full of Hope
Campaign Timeline: June 2011 – May 2012
Shelbyville Multimedia
Shelbyville Multimedia introduces you to the cast of Welcome to Shelbyville, a handful of straight-talking people in rural Tennessee who are taking immigration into their own hands—by welcoming newcomers. With many components adapted from the documentary produced and directed by Kim A. Snyder and executive produced by Active Voice in association with the BeCause Foundation, Shelbyville Multimedia is a platform to promote community-building and harmony between native-born Americans, immigrants and refugees nationwide.
About the Campaign:
Inspired by the residents of Shelbyville, who pushed past their fears and faced the rapid demographic changes in their town, Shelbyville Multimedia provides story-based tools, events and resources to help communities become more welcoming to newcomers.
Project Activities:
Screenings of the documentary in policy, faith-based and community settings around the country.
A national broadcast on the PBS series Independent Lens in May 2011.
Shorter video "modules" of compelling storylines tailored for service providers and community leaders to use as training tools:
"Hawo's Dinner Party: The New Face of Southern Hospitality" tells the story of Hawo, a Somali nurse turned poultry-packer in Shelbyville, Tennessee. This 30-minute video supports community leaders who help integrate newcomers from Muslim-majority countries.
"Building a Nation of Neighbors" is a 25-minute video that hones in on select scenes that exemplify the Welcoming America model of strategically creating harmony and welcoming, while providing additional context on how it can work for a range of communities and audiences.
A comprehensive website featuring webisodes, in-depth character profiles, discussion guides, event planning toolkits and resources for getting your community involved.
Partners (partial list):
BeCause Foundation
Welcoming America
Who's Talking About the Campaign: "Active Voice, through the Shelbyville Multimedia project, is leveraging the tools of convergence culture in our age of democratized information creation and distribution to create healthier and more whole communities. Shelbyville Multimedia is indeed a model for the future of messaging with action agendas working toward a more enlightened society."
-John Bruce
Free Range Studios, Strategist
For more information about this project, click here.
Campaign Timeline: September 2010 – Present
Photo Credit: Greg Poschman
Gideon's Army
About the Campaign: Gideon's Army follows the story of "super-lawyer" Jon Rapping as he mentors and supports young public defenders in the South, highlighting the unique challenges of life as a public defender and a broken criminal justice system in need of reform. Active Voice is developing strategies to use the film to grow and strengthen Rapping's innovative model for training public defenders and reshape the way we approach indigent defense.
Partners (partial list):
Trilogy Films (client)
Ford Foundation (funder)
HBO (funder)
The Southern Public Defender Training Center
Campaign Timeline: 2011 – 2012
Photo Credit: Greg Poschman
Connected and Let It Ripple
About the Campaign: Ever since Connected premiered at Sundance in January 2011, audiences around the world have been inspired by the documentary's personal examination of the meanings of interdependence. In fall 2011, as the film geared up for its US theatrical release, Active Voice worked with the Moxie Institute to convene a braintrust meeting among leaders in technology, human rights and the environment to understand how the films might be integrated into their work as a way to promote a more interdependent understanding of the world.
After the braintrust, Active Voice refined the campaign strategy to focus on engaging organizations around Let It Ripple: Mobile Films for Global Change, a series of short films that picks up where the documentary leaves off. The first film, A Declaration of Interdependence, is a globally crowdsourced rewriting of the US Declaration of Independence, featuring original music by Moby. When Moxie gave organizations the opportunity to customize the short film with their own brand and call to action, Active Voice worked to recruit partners and help them craft inspiring actions that promote interdependence. Partners have excitedly embraced this unusual collaboration (some samples can be found here) and Moxie plans to replicate this successful model with future Let it Ripple films.
Partners (partial list):
WE Campaign
The Interdependence Movement
Moxie Institute (client)
Bezos Family Foundation (funder)
Campaign Timeline: July - December 2011
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