Crash Course: BGDM's Year of Impact Training

How do you truly make an impact with your documentaries? With many issues at critical tipping points, BGDM embraced 2024 as our year of impact programming. We believe that when the documentary ecosystem presents challenges, we must adapt, band together and persevere in the face of those challenges. It’s no secret: this year has presented a rough landscape for film funding and distribution. Our members have navigated scarcity of nonfiction jobs, the rollback of basic civil rights, global genocides, and a tumultuous political landscape.

As cultural workers, the projects we produce and champion are at the forefront of these unprecedented times. We carry on by continuing to create and support one another and the communities who allow us to uplift their stories. Staying true to these core tenants has allowed us to bolster BGDM members’ skills and knowledge of the impact space and provide opportunities to deepen relationships with talented impact producers.

COLLECTIVE LENS: FUNDAMENTALS & INTENSIVE IMPACT TRAINING FROM EXPERTS

So…what even is “impact” when it comes to film? We kicked off the year by holding a collaborative workshop with Peace is Loud’s Collective Lens training program. Collective Lens equips filmmakers with impact frameworks and practices to help them design and implement their own impact campaigns and integrate impact values into their overall filmmaking process. In our Impact Fundamentals workshop, BGDM members learned how to define “impact”, the values behind this practice, and how to build impact strategies. Over 80 of our members participated and many shared that they crave more programming like this. So we asked ourselves: How do we create more depth and more directly support member projects? From this, the BGDM x Peace is Loud’s Collective Lens Impact Intensive was born.

We’re always grateful to share space in person with members. There’s a magic that happens when we come together. At this full day's immersive impact training, the magic found us again. Florencia Varela provided a refresher on the fundamentals of impact and led the group through multiple rounds of small group workshops, where participants gave and received feedback on each other’s impact plans. We wanted to create space for the people behind the projects. This industry can often feel siloed and disconnected, and we recognize the power of knowledge, access, and community to make this work sustainable.

BGDM IN THE MIX: THE IMPACT SESSIONS

This isn’t our first rodeo with impact! BGDM hosted our annual In The Mix networking event to connect members and impact producers. We’re incredibly grateful to the Global Impact Producers Alliance co-coordinators Naomi Walker and Michelle Plascencia for partnering with us on this iteration of BGDM In The Mix: The Impact Sessions!

Bringing together over 50 members, a pre-event workshop explored questions like: How do you effectively build impact for your project from the beginning? What is helpful in “pitching” an impact producer? What makes a successful campaign?

One big tip that Naomi and Michelle shared for filmmakers — and directors in particular — is to reflect on your initial goals for telling this story. On the artist-activist spectrum, where are your priorities? This helps filmmakers ground in their impact vision before bringing on an impact producer to help further clarify and deepen strategy.

A week later, we hosted the official mixer. 20 members and 10 impact producers joined us for three rounds of breakout groups where members shared about their background, projects, and visions for impact. With GIPA’s guidance, we primarily focused on projects that were in production or post-production to ensure that the potential impact producers had the opportunity to build relationships and shape a project’s approach to impact before the film was finished. As one member shared, “the casual nature of pitching helped in having conversations around impact strategy, and also made the field equitable for first-timers and experienced filmmakers alike. There was a real exchange of knowledge that I deeply appreciated.”

Thinking about impact helps root us in the why of our work. And in a time of overlapping crises, remembering our roots and reconnecting to values-aligned partners offers hope and reminds us of the narrative power of our collective stories. Our hope is that by investing in impact, the change our talented community of creatives and nonfiction professionals can make is limitless, and helps leave the world a better place.