Films For Action: Watch the Best Social Change Documentaries Ever Made
Films For Action: Watch the Best Social Change Documentaries Ever Made
Films For Action is a community-powered alternative news center and learning library for people who want to change the world
At an International Level:
Films For Action uses the power of film to raise awareness of important
social, environmental, and media-related issues not covered by the
mainstream news. Our goal is to provide citizens with the information
and perspectives essential to creating a more just, sustainable, and
democratic society.
Our website has cataloged over 1500 of the best films and videos that can be watched free online.
At the Local Level:
On the ground, our City Chapters are working to create alternative media channels that will inform, connect, and inspire action at a community level.
Our city chapters screen documentaries at independent theaters and other
venues regularly throughout the year. With most films we launch an
accompanying educational and action-oriented campaign to address the
issues presented by the films. Some of our chapters air films on their
local public Access TV channel. And all the films we buy we make
available for people to borrow from us for free, either to watch
themselves or to screen in their own neighborhoods.
Our local city chapter sub-sites offer several tools to connect and
inform people through our website, including a calendar of local
activist events, a directory of local progressive and radical groups,
and a blog for writers to contribute local news and perspectives.
All in all, through the screenings, public access TV, this website, and
our Lending Library, our City Chapters aim to provide an information and
resource network that will reduce its city's dependence on corporate
media, providing more meaningful and reliable ways to stay informed on
the issues that matter.
"Films for Action is outstanding! Thanks so much for creating this incredible tool!" - Elisa Beck. Transitionpgh.org
"I love how different people from all over the world are
coming here to watch amazing films, write and discuss. Greetings from
Lithuania!" - Danny Crowe
I just discovered this terrific resource. Try it! - Jo Sippie-Gora
Films for Action has made me more informed and more effective in my activism. I don't think I could live without it. - Terry Knepp
Thanks for this website, I can't believe I only just found it. It's a great treasure!!! Kind regards from the Netherlands - Ellis
I have shared your website and films with many colleagues and
college teacher organizations. You are to be commended for your
dedication to so many causes and initiatives. You are a national
resource for all of the right reasons. - Ned Eckhardt
PRESS RELEASES
Films For Action Launches New Website, a "Learning Library for People Who Want to Change the World"
Films For Action Launches New Mobile Site
Films For Action is Ready to Hit the Tipping Point in 2012
Project Staff:
Tim Hjersted - Project Director. Lawrence, KS.
Eli Dragen - Computer Programmer. Lawrence, KS.
Mason Umholtz - Graphic Designer. Chicago, IL.
Matthew Toplikar - Editor. Albuquerque, NM.
What We're About:
Today, the corporate consolidation
of the mass media in our country stands as one of the greatest
bottlenecks impeding the efforts we take to create solutions and build a
more sustainable world.
Over the last 60 years, we've seen the consolidation of ownership create
a media that is increasingly sensationalized, slanted for profit,
censored, homogenized, and now finally, and most fatally - irrelevant -
as the crisis within the news industry is now showing.
Yet despite the news industry's crisis of purpose and waning support
from the public, the dominant news institutions of our day still have a
tremendous influence over public policy and debate. They select the
stories that get told and the ones that don't. They help shape the way
we see the world and how we live in it. This would be fine if our media
represented the full spectrum of voices, ideas, and perspectives that
exist in society, but it doesn't.
Currently, six multi-national corporations dominate 90% of the media
that we read, see, and hear. ABC, FOX, CBS, NBC, CNN and most if not all
of the channels on cable television are owned by parent companies:
Disney, News Corporation, General Electric, Westinghouse, Time Warner
and Viacom. These six multinationals also hold ownership shares in
dozens of other media properties (creating financial relationships that
often pose significant conflicts of interest. For example, NBC is owned
by General Electric, which is a major defense contractor that profits
millions from the United State's wars abroad).
With media this concentrated and this entrenched in their own interests,
the idea that the media could still serve the public's interest and act
as a watchdog for corporate and government abuse seems like a bad joke.
People don't even act surprised anymore. If it wasn't for the Daily
Show, examples of the mainstream media failing to do its job would have
stopped being funny a long time ago.
But as the IndyMedia saying goes, "Don't just complain about the media.
Be the media." And that's exactly what Films For Action is all about.
By creating our own media communication channels and building upon and
supporting the increasingly diverse network of independent news sources
that are growing on the internet, we can break the bottleneck they have
on the flow of information and cut right to the root of the problem.
With a robust, diverse, and independent media ecosystem, we'll be able
to launch more ambitious campaigns and win them more effectively. We'll
be able to organize our community's latent collective energies into a
powerful movement for social, economic and environmental justice. And
we'll finally see the tipping point where our energies spark a creative
and widespread renaissance of sustainable innovation, new thinking, and
new ways of life. At its essence, we'll be able to make real change
happen for ourselves and for the earth.
It all starts with an independent media.
(Written by our friends at NextStepTogether.com - No Need to Re-Write the wheel when possible)
Just Do It!
This is Powerful and Fast. We are all in dire straits and there’s no time left for failure or fiddling around.
It's time to begin treating your world like you treat your toilet. When
your toilet is broken, you fix it. You don't pray to goddess or God to
fix it. You don't go to a protest against the injustice of its
brokenness. You don't write a letter to your congressperson asking for
action. You don't give to a charity for sick toilets. You don't read or
write articles or books arguing that the socialist way to fix toilets is
better than the capitalist way. Your toilet is important, so you don't
piddle around. You just fix it. If fixing the toilet requires
more work than you can do alone, you get help fast. If the break is
complicated, you problem-solve and plan practically and effectively.
Today and every day, 50,000 people die unnecessarily from poverty. We
are quickly destroying our Earth's species, forests, oceans, rivers,
atmosphere and life support systems. Economic inequality is worsening.
Wars rage. But, judging by the evidence of human actions, it appears that our planet and the life on it are not as important to us as our toilets.
This is a call to action. Your friends are calling you.
We need a mass movement. We must use our great numbers. The numbers are
on our side, but we must connect and work together.
We'll stay focused on the root causes of problems: We
will not bother putting Band-Aids on cancer. Lots of folks already do
that. This is an overwhelmingly powerful mass movement. It's about
actually effecting lasting change using whatever efficient means we all
consent to. It’s a global evolution.
Critical mass will vary depending on the task at hand:
Before acting on a specific project we'll build our numbers until we
have enough people organized to complete that project quickly and
efficiently. What’s the use of protesting the war every Wednesday
afternoon? Let’s organize every afternoon until we can do one giant
action and just end the war in a week.
Barn-building is an effective strategy: Quickly and in a
practical sequence, we will combine our energies and act on as many
groups’ projects as we can. We all help Mary build her barn, then your
barn, then mine.
We'll plan: We'll be proactive, not reactive. We lose
battles fought on ground our opponent chooses. By the way, our opponent
is not individual people. People are all doing the best they can. The
opponent is status quo systems of governance and commerce in our world
in which might makes right, and in which the needs and potential
contributions of the many, the weak and the voiceless are disregarded.
We'll have fun! Most people move in the direction where
they see the possibility of getting joy, hope and pleasure. We'll
foster a culture that meets everyone's need for a rich, enjoyable and
wholesome life.
Everyone's invited and expected to share an equal role:
We assume that everyone on Earth, in their heart of hearts, is in the
circle and ready, or almost ready, to participate in the process of
determining and taking next steps together.
We'll start where we are: We'll build on the
relationships that already exist, connecting individuals and groups who
already care. We'll not force anything on anyone. We'll not steal
anyone's thunder, money or constituencies.
This is simple: We use commonsense ideas that spread
virally. We avoid artifice, single-issue politics and identity politics.
This is non-invasive, natural, organic, smart and elegant.
