Media Impact

This article was original published on Documentary.org (Documentary magazine) by the International Documentary Association. 

"Why isn't FRONTLINE more like Minecraft?"

In her keynote address to the AFI DOCS Filmmaker Conference, FRONTLINE executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath relayed her 9-year-old son’s question posed at an MIT Open Docs Media Lab event. (For the uninitiated, Minecraft, the virtual reality creation game, is the hottest activity around for the most native of digital-natives, the pre-tween iPad generation.) Aronson-Rath spoke of being inspired at her week-long immersion into nonlinear storytelling ideation at MIT, and the importance of paying attention to the Minecraft question—and a Minecraft-playing audience—as the future of documentary storytelling continues to unfold.

For the filmmakers, strategists, industry professionals and film students in attendance at this year’s Conference (June 18-19), the future of documentary was a central theme, along with risk-taking in the blurred lines between documentary storytelling and investigative journalism. The Washington, DC-based conference, presented in partnership with IDA, also focused on its own native themes: the deep impact and connection between documentaries and public policy, legislation and public affairs.Read more...

The Center for Media and Social Impact hosted eleven  filmmakers from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Bosnia, DRC, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Vietnam, China, Burma and Pakistan as part of the American Film Showcase (AFS).  

AFS is an American film diplomacy program that organizes screenings and workshops with American filmmakers in over thirty-five countries. AFS is a partnership between the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

The eleven international filmmakers were joined by CMSI’s new Women’s Film Collective, which provides student filmmakers with mentorship and production opportunities.  Read more...

After the Cuban revolution of 1959, cinema would become a major component in the socio-political revolution of the Cuban consciousness. Some filmmakers would experience a rise to fame, while the names of other filmmakers were almost forgotten in the public memory.  In March, as a graduate MFA candidate in the American University School of Communication, I embarked on the filming of Nuestra Cuba (Our Cuba), a documentary that follows the untold stories of the Institute of Cuban Cinematographic Art and Industry’s (ICIAC) first women and Afro-Cuban filmmakers: Sara Gomez and Gloria Rolando.  Read more...

Georgiy Molodtsov, a Fulbright scholar in the MA program at American University, was this year's winner of the "Media That Matters" award for his work on "Unbind Yourself". The project was recently presented at Cannes Lions, the biggest advertising festival in the world.

This interview has been edited and condensed.Read more...

Nearly four years after having a VBAC delivery attended by a hospital nurse-midwife, CMSI co-director Brigid Maher’s social impact documentary The Mama Sherpas: Midwives Across America premiered this week at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, CA and at the UCSF Nursing School in San Francisco, CA. Executive producers Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein (The Business of Being Born) were in attendance.

The premiere events were organized to raise awareness about barriers to midwifery practice and specifically brought light to California AB1306, a full practice authority bill currently pending in CA legislature. Read more...