The mission of the Social Change Film Festival & Institute is to support filmmakers to be effective social activists and to support social activists to be engaging storytellers.

We at the Social Change Film Festival believe that social change film and storytelling have the power to transform lives, communities, and societies and create a more just, humane, and sustainable future.  Our festival and institute are designed to support visionary filmmakers dedicated to progressive social change and to create a space for innovation, dialogue, education, action, and networking.

In order to raise awareness about key social, environmental, and political issues, the Social Change Film Festival & Institute select a yearly theme, which we explore in festival films, workshops, panels, campaigns, and symposia.  We engage with the the theme in a significant and substantive way by focusing on a select number of social change films followed by robust discussion, providing expert-led workshops and panels, and and hosting change-making events and campaign actions. The theme for the 2012 festival is Water: Challenges & Solution.

The Social Change Film  Festival & Institute aims to foster a transnational network of filmmakers and activists by traveling our award-winning social change films and an educational film institute across the world.  The second annual Social Change Film Festival & Institute will be held November 28 – December 2, 2012 in New Orleans, LA USA; the inaugural festival was held in Ubud, Bali Indonesia.

As the educational arm of the festival, the Institute is designed to help advance the practice of social change filmmaking and media and bring in-depth filmmaking courses to global communities.  In 2011, the Institute brought the 4-day Documentary Filmmaking Course with Jonathan Stack to Indonesia, a country with only one film school. With generous support from the Ford Foundation, the Social Change Film Festival was able to provide fellowships for eleven aspiring filmmakers.

For New Orleans 2012, we at the Social Change Film Festival & Institute promise to continue and grow our commitment to promoting transformative filmmaking and positive social change.

Submissions are open for the November 2012 Social Change Film Festival & Institute in New Orleans.