Creating Political Community Around Film
Building social connections around our shared politics is core to our movement. And just as there are social clubs, book groups and a host of other gatherings that allow people to make politics part of their every day lives, there is an increasing number of film clubs that share their politics while they share their love of cinema. This roundtable discussion looks at the effective ways of organizing these communities and how to turn reel action into real action.
Wendy Cohen is the manager of community and alliances at Participant Media and the co-founder and national director of Screening Liberally. Before joining the Participant family in 2007, she was the community manager at the Huffington Post. Born and raised in Montreal, Wendy moved to New York in 2004 to be the outreach coordinator for Arts Engine, Inc. and programmer of their Media That Matters film festival. She was research and creative assistant for The Art of the Documentary and co-chair of the Urban Pathways Young Professional Board. She just produced her first short documentary films about bees.
Tracy Fleischman is a producer and communications strategist who creates content and outreach campaigns for non-profits, political organizations and filmmakers. Tracy is currently managing producer of Live From Main Street (LiveFromMainStreet.org), a series of nationwide televised town halls. Tracy has worked as communications director for Brave New Films and as a producer for Balcony Films, where she continues to collaborate on cause media. A native of Los Angeles, Tracy holds a bachelor's in history from UC Berkeley and a masters in American studies from UT, Austin. She is one of the founders of the Netroots Nation Screening Series.
Jacob Soboroff is Executive Director of Why Tuesday?, a nonpartisan group working to increase voter participation. In addition to his work with Why Tuesday?, for which he received a 2008 Los Angeles Press Club National Entertainment Journalism Award, a Film Your Issue Award and a Webby nomination, he contributes vlogs to NPR Weekend Edition Sunday's political blog, Sunday Soapbox. Jacob was a contributor to the PBS and WIRED magazine series WIRED Science. He an MA in political theory and philosophy from NYU.
Jim Gilliam is a pioneer in using film, technology, and the internet to further the progressive movement. He built Brave New Films, and helped produce Robert Greenwald's documentaries: Uncovered, Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, and Iraq for Sale. He created Brave New Theaters, the people-powered movie distribution platform, and raised over $260,000 from 3000 people online to fund Iraq for Sale, the first, and most successful such effort of its kind. His online video campaigns like FOX Attacks and the War on Greed reached over 11 million viewers in 2007.
