Social Justice Documentary: Designing for Impact

"Cheaper production and distribution tools, new channels, and increasingly skillful and networked users are challenging previous assumptions about how social documentaries reach users, and offering powerful but vexing opportunities for collaboration and organizing."

This working paper examines methodologies for strategic design and evaluation of social issue documentary films. It offers a framework for planning and evaluating the impact of these films - a framework that encompasses planning, circulation, engagement, and mobilisation - in a networked media environment in the context of the following: "The transition from 1.0 to 2.0 opens opportunities for documentarians to fulfill and expand their missions - not only informing individuals and leading public conversation but also building community cohesion and participation. Documentaries travel differently in this new media ecosystem, and they can also play a role in shaping its development. As a result, evaluating such efforts requires a deep understanding of the mission and intended audiences for each project, and both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. Given the quick-shifting digital terrain, mobile and documentary producers are operating in a rapid prototyping mode, experimenting with and refining a variety of distribution, outreach, and networking techniques. This makes it difficult to develop comparative assessment frameworks, instead refocusing evaluators' attention on whether project goals were met, appropriate publics engaged, and unexpected publics pulled into the mix of discussion and action."

The report's recommendations are informed by lessons from 6 case studies of representative films released in the United States (US):

1. A Lion in the House - addresses health care inequity through the lens of childhood cancer. The filmmakers engaged stakeholders early on - from national organisations to local and regional service providers. This group then expanded, as agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saw the relevance and need for services. The filmmakers created links among these groups and produced a series of training modules adopted by professional health care providers.
2. The Line - explores communication in sexual relationships, with a focus on consent and communication and violence prevention. It has become a digital project with an extensive 2.0 website with active blogs and linked with sites around the world. "The film and its resources circulate through festivals, campus screenings and feminist social networks internationally. Professional and educational organizations are incorporating The Line in violence-prevention training and orientation programs."
3. Lioness - was adopted by both military health care providers and policy advocates working for official recognition of women in combat. It was screened on Capitol Hill (Washington, DC, US) and "was instrumental in the campaign for official recognition of women's combat service. The film and its related resources serve a network of health care providers."
4. Not in Our Town - "inspired spontaneous uptake in towns and cities facing hate crimes, is now a hub for resources and information-sharing about inclusive community-building and discourse across boundaries."
5. Out in the Silence - "became an agent of change in the community it was filming and slowly assembled the components of a national network of support for small towns, as it evolved from a regional project into a national initiative that has stimulated a network of urban-based LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] advocacy organizations to serve vulnerable rural and small town people."
6. State of Fear - is a longform documentary film at the centre of a multiplatform local/global strategic human rights and social justice campaign. The film dramatizes the human and social costs of a politicised "war on terror" (1980-2000) in Peru, and its contemporary resonance in a post September 11 2001 world. It poses the question, "How can an open society balance demands for security with democracy?" and demonstrates the positive example of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions for restorative justice. "The State of Fear project encapsulates the transition from social issue documentary intended to inform, to storytelling as a core component of a long-term strategic transmedia campaign. The film and its accompanying resources successfully reached international audiences and fortified a network of human rights advocacy organizations during a crucial period in Peru. Finally, State of Fear has been an incubator of inclusive models of cross-cultural projects that function transnationally, nationally, and locally."

"These are all award-winning projects featuring compelling documentary films at the center of multiplatform strategic outreach campaigns. All have been screened in traditional broadcast and/or film festival settings, as well as venues designed to engage publics and mobilize advocates relevant to the issue being addressed. These producers utilize a variety of technologies and both online and offline organizing tactics. At their most powerful, they catalyze and support issue-based networks that connect individuals with relevant organizations and empower participants not only to learn about and discuss shared problems, but to organize for action and respond to breaking developments. In this way, documentaries feed both social movements and the broader public sphere."

The question posed is: Have these films produced social changes, and if so, what kind? In order to find out, the authors collected data related to the following impact categories (see Appendix I for the evaluation framework). This process in turn helped to determine how and whether the films had fulfilled their intended social mission:

• Quality: Produce a high-quality film that is relevant, factually sound, aesthetically striking, and technically sophisticated.
• Reach: Reach broad audiences, focusing on key stakeholders and the public.
• Engagement: Encourage interaction with the film beyond simple viewership to stimulate learning, debate, and action.
• Influence: Make an issue visible or change the frame in which it is publicly discussed for the purpose of reaching influential people, changing practice and policy, rectifying injustices, and highlighting solutions.
• Network building: Create infrastructure to foster new coalitions, connect members of the public, advocates, and institutions via shared tools, platforms, and standards.

An excerpt from the report follows:

"Social issue documentaries evolve over time, in response to obstacles, opportunities, new technologies, and events. These case studies reveal the shift over the last fifteen years from an understanding of documentary films as sources of reliable information on hidden injustices to central nodes embedded in strategic campaigns designed to inform, motivate and engage viewers as active citizens....

Successful projects feature strategic campaigns with clearly articulated goals and target audiences. High-impact social documentary makers have identified agents of social change relevant to their objectives and engage stakeholders early. Working in a rapidly evolving media environment and with limited resources, successful documentary filmmakers have the capacity to respond flexibly to opportunities for partnerships, funding, tool-sharing, and coalition-building, as well as to the needs of the publics and advocates they serve...

Such films serve as laboratories for civic engagement. They expand accessible circuits of circulation, serving as information hubs and providing safe spaces online and offline for discussion and debate, which may model practices for civil discourse in a polarized society. As such, they are incubators of replicable models and tools for community engagement; educational and training materials for professional groups, youth, and underserved audiences; and best practices for future makers. By succeeding, they become incubators of the content, tools, and practice that contribute to fortifying the infrastructure for media- and issue-based networks...

Social issue documentaries are produced and circulated within a networked media and advocacy landscape to which they, in turn, contribute as hubs for organizing, collaboration and knowledge-sharing. Social issue documentary films help to weave together both online and offline networks of publics, stakeholders, and institutions....Successful projects are participatory and circulate on multiple platforms. Digital technologies vastly expand the reach, uses and longevity of social issue documentaries, but much of the most enduring work takes place on the ground - in community screenings, professional training, in schools, etc. It is here that engagement and community-building take place....

These projects face three major challenges - capacity, sustainability, and funding...The case studies revealed how an individual media project may function as the point of formation for both ad hoc and more enduring networks of communication and activity among individuals and organizations. They also revealed the need for

• a standard visual vocabulary for depicting the dynamics of outreach and engagement, both offline and online - how films travel, grow networks of people and organizations, and create "ripple effects" that contribute to notable outcomes; and
• longitudinal analysis with sample timelines for metrics and models - key markers, including dates of related platform innovations are needed to track the life-cycle of a social issue documentary project over time, including duration, reach and impact.

...[I]n Appendix I we offer a skeleton framework of strategic processes and data collection categories that we hope will serve as a discussion platform for makers and funders concerned with impact evaluation. The template is intended to specify what kind of evidence should be gathered over the course of the project in order to reveal impact and make visible the dynamics of engagement and network-building in order to inform strategic design at each phase. It is also intended to serve as a baseline for standardizing mixed methods data collection across multiple projects so as to strengthen the field of social documentary production..."