In the course of one-hour we’ll examine the planning and implementation of Activized’s impact campaign run by Boston-based impact producer Marga Varea, founder of Twin Seas Media. Find out how the campaign was designed and executed; what decisions were made along the way to accomplish the intended impact; what obstacles they encountered and how the campaign adjusted during COVID-19. Take a look inside the mechanisms of impact producing and how it has profoundly changed the documentary distribution landscape.
Using Activized as the example, this class will explore the following topics:
- Strategic planning: mapping the issues and goals
- Budgeting: art, impact, money
- Campaign prep and assets
- Working with crew and subjects
- The film festival circuit -- a catch-22
- Partners: do's and don'ts
- Educational circuit, grassroots tour -- and beyond
- Impact distribution: finding a digital home
About Marga Varea
Marga Varea is the founder of Twin Seas Media, an impact distribution boutique agency working with documentary films and film festivals. Past and recent projects include Traces of the Trade, dir. Katrina Browne (official SUNDANCE selection and PBS/POV), Rebel, dir. Maria Agui Carter (PBS), 1913 Seeds of Conflict, dir. Ben Loeterman (PBS), I Know a Man… Ashley Bryan, dir. Richard Kane, J. Fred Woell: An American Vision, dir. Richard Kane, Health Undocumented, dir. Juan Freitez, Lobster War, dirs. David Abel and Andy Laub, Six Locked Doors, dir. Zachary Graves-Miller, Our Flag Will Never Be Red, dir. Pablo Lopez Guelli, and Activized, dir. Eric Stange. She has extensive experience working with film festivals including Cortogenia, German Film Festival in Madrid, Boston Latino International Film Festival, and Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital “on tour” Boston. Since 2016, she has been the outreach and engagement director for Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival and Symposium.
About Activized
Activized (36 min.) follows the stories of seven ordinary Americans who, for the first time in their lives, have left their comfort zones and become involved in gun violence prevention, voting rights and immigrants’ rights. Interweaving their personal stories against the backdrop of the causes they fight for, we experience their motivations, successes and failures, their sacrifices, and victories. Above all, we celebrate these inspiring, courageous citizens for embracing one of the most basic of American traditions – dissent. Check out the website at https://www.activizedfilm.org/ View the trailer at https://vimeo.com/364152936
DER is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that distributes, produces, and supports documentary & ethnographic media for cross-cultural understanding.
