Free Movies

500 Words on Thursday | Written by Lee Schneider

Watch a movie for free. Everybody likes the sound of that. Except for people who work at movie studios, marketers and big ad guys who are running around the side of that building right now and puking into paper bags – that’s how upset they are. Filmmakers are taking it one day at a time and taking one antidepressant a day.

“Free” happened with music, with stock photography (on Flickr) and now, with movies. Pricing is on a roller coaster straight into the dirt. I hate roller coasters. I’d rather deal with scary clowns. But there’s no escaping that more videos have been posted to YouTube than have been seen on television in the history of the medium.

“Do you know why they call it a medium? Because it’s rarely well done.” –Fred Allen

A lot of videos on the web are free and a lot of them are junk. But at the end of a day watching them I often sit back with a rosy sense of satisfaction and think, Man, that was junk. In other words, they get me nowhere.

What about free media that is good, and further, free media that inspires people to do good? Now you’re on to something. KarmaTube is all about “do something” videos that are intended to help everyone be the change they want to see in the world. (Yeah, it’s a quote from Gandhi.) The KarmaTube guys are like that – they want to find a way to massage your consciousness so you’ll do one small good thing that leads to other good things and then to real change.

As a documentary director, I’m working with KarmaTube on a channel of my recommendations for films that are inspiring, cinematic and nudge the world. Want to help me? Send suggestions for inspiring cause and change-advocating short films to @docuguy and I’ll recommend those that I like to the KarmaTube board. To give you some ideas, here’s a film I’ve recommended called Unshaken. Beautifully directed by Paul Pryor, it’s a moving first-person appeal made bolder by unforgettable images. Paul Hawken gives a great speech in this talking-head-fest with surprisingly powerful visuals. Check these out and more on KarmaTube.

David J. Neff is a busy guy. Once upon a time he designed online and media communications for the American Cancer Society. Now he’s writing about non-profits in 501derful.org.

Lights. Camera. Help. is project he started to match filmmakers with non-profits. Then there’s the film festival he’s doing in Austin, the world’s first, David told me, dedicated entirely to nonprofit and cause-driven films. “The films we show here have to have that call to action,” David said. He’s looking for films with a mission and those that move you. Judges will choose finalists based on cinematic considerations, but they want to know if the movie asks something of you. Any film that heavily features a cause will be considered. This includes films by or about nonprofit, non-governmental or grassroots organizations. Feature length films, shorts and public service announcements are ok to submit. The deadline is June 30th. Go for it and you could get your movie screened in Austin July 29-August 2nd.

Going from free and foolish online to free and worthwhile is progress. Still, that “free movie” thing continues to give my bottom line a headache. How do you give away a movie for free and still pay back investors? Working on it. Will get back to you.

Gandhi image credit dougdelshaw via of Creative Commons License.

Swadeshi

Written by Lee Schneider, founder of DocuCinema.

photo credit: purplejavatroll via Creative Commons license

Around the holiday season more and more people are thinking about trying some swadeshi. It sounds like a crazy-ass office party dance or maybe something spicy to eat. (“I’ll have the swadeshi and a mango lassi.”)

Swadeshi isn’t either of those things, though it might inspire a crazy-ass dance or two. Swadeshi means self-sufficiency. It was a key part of Gandhi’s strategy to free India from British rule. Today, there’s a new kind of swadeshi with online social activism.

London-based Vinay Gupta is hitting the nail on the head with his social action social networking site Global Swadeshi. He has a great proposal for saving the developing world. Cost: Only $60 million. That’s “only” because, as he points out, that’s just half what it cost to make the movie “Batman and Robin.”

Which would you rather do, make a forgettable comic book movie with Arnold Whatshisname, California’s Governator, as Mr. Freeze or would you rather save the developing world twice over?

While you’re thinking about that, let me tell you Mr. Gupta’s $60 million idea. He wants to make television programs for farmers and people who live in slums – 200 hours of “science telly” as he calls it. What topics does he have in mind? Not misbehaving housewives or Tiger Woods’ habit of texting about his carnal conquests or crashing White House parties. No, Mr. Gupta wants to do programs on how to grow more food and how to stay alive with better water, basic sanitation and basic medicine. I’m no television programmer, but f your viewers are at risk of starving to death, a show about how to grow more food might rate pretty well, ya think?

While I’m mulling over how Vinay Gupta might raise 60 mil, and how he might figure out how to give away laptops on which to play his science telly programs, I’d like to note some other forms of e-swadeshi. At changemakers.com you can learn about inspiring people who are re-imagining activism on the web. act.ly is an application that allows you to inspire people to get out the word out about your cause on Twitter. ForwardTrack is an online tool that lets you promote and track your message as it makes its way from person to person. You get cool interactive maps to see how far your message is spreading.

Charity Focus is an online forum for you to volunteer your skills to help non-profits (and if you run a non-profit, it’s a great way to find volunteers.) Be The Change, Inc. wants to inspire and promote the idea of social service. GOOD magazine has an online presence that is dedicated to social action. And get this, the guy who co-founded Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, has launched a wiki site to provide user-driven information for homeless services in Tampa.

There are lots more, including the now-venerable MoveOn.org, but those few examples make it clear that e-activism is growing fast and relatively cheap to implement. Try some. And if you must do a crazy-ass dance at your office party, at least you’ll know not to call it a swadeshi.

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