New CMSI Research Highlights
Documentaries and Grassroots Organizing
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How are contemporary documentaries advancing social justice through grassroots organizing? CMSI’s two new public research reports dig in deep with two major initiatives from Working Films, an organization that uses documentaries to advance social justice and environmental protection.
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Documentary Films and Grassroots Engagement for Immigrant Justice examines how a 2020 organizing initiative from Working Films, called Stories Beyond Borders, used documentary film screenings to bring attention to the violence faced by many immigrants living in America and to get communities talking about it. Among other findings, our research revealed that post-screening discussions around documentaries can galvanize local action around urgent social issues and connect grassroots organizations working on those issues with key audiences and networks.
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The report Storytelling and Social Justice in Action takes a close look at the Putting Films to Work initiative, which trained and supported the leaders of several Georgia-based nonprofits to use documentary films in their grassroots efforts. Our research found that this model of movement and capacity building was needed and positively received by organizers: they reached new audiences, built new partnerships, and left the training with a greater interest in using documentaries as an organizing tool in their work.
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Working Films had this to say about the new research: “We are grateful for moments of pause where we can reflect and evaluate our work. These reports not only provide key takeaways, but a roadmap of the work still to come. The learnings shared here are already informing new efforts at Working Films, and we hope they will prove equally valuable for others committed to using film to advance social justice.”
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Ain’t Your Mama’s Heat Wave Premieres at the 2021 Environmental Film Festival
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Ain’t Your Mama’s Heat Wave, a stand-up comedy special co-produced by Hip Hop Caucus and CMSI, is premiering at the 2021 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital (DCEFF).
Ain’t Your Mama’s Heat Wave is a stand-up comedy special from the frontlines of the climate crisis. It’s filmed in the St. Paul’s district of Norfolk, VA, a Black public housing community that is being redeveloped because of climate flooding, sea level rise, and a legacy of racist urban policies. The city of Norfolk, which is below sea level and sinking, is grappling with the climate crisis and racial injustice. In this docu-comedy, four Black millennial stand-up comedians, hailing from Virginia Beach, Atlanta, Chicago, and Ohio, take the stage to “make the climate crisis funny” in front of a St. Paul’s audience who are at risk for a Hurricane Katrina-like disaster and many of whom are currently being displaced from their homes. Things are not so funny when it’s clear that climate threats can mean life or death. But, in the Black American tradition of struggle, resilience, and triumph in the face of existential threat, the joy of comedy, music, and art informs and empowers.
Hip Hop Caucus and CMSI began working together in the summer of 2019 to co-create a climate justice entertainment project that centered around comedians of color, launched with our Comedy ThinkTanks co-creation writers’ room. Bethany Hall led the Comedy ThinkTanks co-creative process. Caty Borum Chattoo and Bethany Hall are credited Executive Producers and Producers on the film.
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New Resource Guide on Documentary Storytelling for Community Engagement
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Our Breaking the Silence: Resource Guide on Documentary Storytelling for Community Engagement, created in collaboration with Radical Optimist Collective, provides filmmakers, organizers, impact producers, and community groups with a set of resources on how to use documentary films to facilitate (safe enough) grassroots engagements and community-building on urgent social justice issues, including racism, racial violence and racial justice in America.
This guide was created based on findings from our participatory study, Breaking the Silence: How Documentaries Can Shape The Conversation on Racial Violence in America and Create New Communities, which brought attention to the galvanizing role that documentary-centered community conversations can play in 'breaking the silence’ around issues of racial violence, within both urban and rural towns across the country, along with a glaring need among community groups for more guidance and tools on how they can more routinely facilitate such important conversations.
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The latest Code of Best Practices in Fair Use is available on our website. This code is specifically for creators of Open Educational Resources (OERs), like MIT’s Open CourseWare project. Please spread the word to any educators who might be interested in making their teaching materials free and easy to access.
CMSI also celebrated #FairUseWeek during the last week of February. Our senior research fellow, Patricia Aufderheide wrote a series of blog posts to commemorate fair use and its impact. Catch them all here.
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CMSI is co-sponsoring On the Othered Hand: Tactility, Music, and Marginalized Use, a talk with AU professor Victoria Simon on how user interfaces for tablets, smartphones, and other technology can be developed and designed with principles of social justice in mind, specifically focusing on music touchscreen technology as a case study. The talk will be moderated by AU professor Aram Sinnreich.
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CMSI Faculty Fellow Kurt Braddock will participate in Free Speech: Testing the Limits of the First Amendment, a panel from the Network for Responsible Public Policy on language as a weapon, hate speech, incitement, the internet, and how the first amendment is being tested. This panel will take place on March 18 at 7:30 pm EST.
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New Toolkit for Inclusion and Accessibility
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CMSI Team members in the Spotlight
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Our Comedy Projects Coordinator Kenice Mobley performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. It came as no surprise to us that she was absolutely hilarious. Check it out!
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Caty Borum Chattoo’s latest book, Story Movements: How Documentaries Empower People and Inspire Social Change, is now an audiobook on Audible. We’re so happy this valuable resource is available in a new format. Check it out!
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See you next month!
Stay safe and take care,
Team CMSI (Caty, Varsha, Bethany, David, Aras, Kenice, Alya)
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