Making Your Media Matter

Julie Goldman spent nearly 15 years breaking the traditional role of being an independent documentary film producer.  With three films in this year’s Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, there is no sign she is slowing down anytime soon. By inserting herself directly into the creative process every step of the way she epitomizes the role of “creative producer”, and has earned some of the highest honors in the industry along the way. Read more...

One way to reach a bigger audience: don't just make a documentary, make the narrative feature, too. Directors at the 2013 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival made a strong case for how documentaries can inform narrative features. At the "Based on a True Story" Speakeasy discussion, host and Festival Director Deirdre Haj reminded us that documentaries are more than just informative, they are powerful storytelling devices. Read more...

One of the major challenges in interactive media confronting filmmakers—or any media maker—is a fundamental question of how to present a story in a non-traditional format. This was the case for Luisa Dantas and the LandofOpportunity (LoP) team, who recently were “struggling to articulate in creative visual terms what we want to do.” Read more...

Knowledge journalists play a key role in engaging and organizing publics on the critical social issues of our time. In a paper released March 7 by Harvard University's Shorenstein Center, I analyze the career of writer-turned-activist Bill McKibben and his impact over the past 20 years on the climate change debate. Read more...

The assortment of documentaries at SXSW this year was wildly eclectic. SXSW was, most often, their world premiere, and also a marketplace that may put them on the road to a wider public. Standouts for me among those that strive to be media that matters, and ones that I hope do find a screen in a theater near you, in alphabetical order:

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