Stay up-to-date on the latest news, trends and perspectives in media and philanthropy.

On the one hand, President Obama dubbed this weekend’s historic climate change agreement in Paris “a turning point for the world.” On the other, it “didn’t save the planet,” according to environmental activist Bill McKibben. However, "it may have saved the chance of saving the planet." Either way, there’s much more to be said and done—and these are no small stakes. Billions of philanthropic dollars have already flowed into environmental research and initiatives. Media is crucial in this sector, both to advance advocacy around solutions and to report on the real human consequences of related shifts in weather, air quality, and food systems, among other topics. In November, MIF and Vulcan Productions convened leading funders and producers to discuss a slate of ambitious projects on related issues, and examine how best to both build and evaluate their impact. Read More

Produced with support from the Bertha Foundation, The Freedom of Expression Foundation, and the Finnish Film Foundation, Joshua Oppenheimer’s new documentary The Look of Silence follows a 44-year-old optometrist named Adi Rukun who confronts the men who killed his brother in the 1965 Indonesian genocide. Read More

“Soon the television cameras will get packed up,” reflected Alex Altman for Time the day after Michael Brown’s funeral, “leaving a town that has become the latest shorthand for America’s racial divide to figure out how to translate the energy, intensity and anger of the past two weeks into concrete change.” Read More

Guest Post by Sara Federlein Last month, The New York Times “reviewed” the still-in-the-works Participant Media Index designed to measure the impact and engagement of social issue documentaries. Anyone in the nonprofit world knows that “impact” and “engagement” are the buzzwords du jour.  Read More

  The 2014 Media Impact Festival celebrated the social impact of media, and its capacity to transform society. This yearlong showcase is the next evolution of the Film + Video Festival, which Media Impact Funders presented with the Council on Foundations for many years. To build upon notable work in the emerging field of documentary impact analysis, we partnered with BRITDOC to feature the five finalists selected for their 2013 PUMA Impact Award. The BRITDOC team has distinguished itself through an innovative and rigorous approach to evaluating films as powerful tools for strategic communication. Adapting their methodology, our nominators have chosen five additional films to be highlighted, for a total of 10 selections — each of which was considered for the awards below. We’ve assembled case studies examining the outreach campaigns for each of 2014’s selections — read them here to learn more about how these high-impact films moved audiences and influencers to action. 2014 winners The Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film & Digital Media: Invisible War     The Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film & Digital Media is named in… Read More