Stories of Change: Social Entrepreneurship in Focus Through Documentary is a five-year initiative of the Sundance Documentary Film Program in partnership with the Skoll Foundation that explores the potential of combining the art of nonfiction storytelling with the impact of social entrepreneurship. The goal is to create new possibilities in democratic practice and contemporary public thought through the dynamic engagement of these two vital fields and to cultivate and fund new documentary films with the power to combine the two worlds artfully.
If you would like to learn more about social entrepreneurs and their work, check out Skoll Social Entrepreneurs or visit the online discussion on the Social Edge website.
Film Funding
In 2008, Stories of Change launched a request for proposals and received more than 300 submissions from filmmakers around the world interested in telling the stories of social entrepreneurs. The advisory committee included CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour, award-winning documentary filmmaker Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight, The Trials of Henry Kissinger), and Skoll Foundation Senior Advancement Officer Sandy Herz.
From stories about solar-powered floating schools in Bangladesh to Muhammad Yunus's innovative microcrediting programs, Stories of Change grant recipients follow some of today's most important world issues.
For a complete list of films supported by Stories of Change, click here.
Stories of Change Convenings
"The most important outcome for me was the understanding that the movie is not an end result but the beginning of a much larger process that needs to be prepared in advance and strategized." ?Sebastien Marot,Friends International
"I have been able to realize that the film industry and its people can influence public opinion and that the issue of social entrepreneurship, if embraced by this industry, may well reach and make an impact on a large part of society and the decision makers." ?Albina Ruiz, Ciudad Saludable
The Sundance/Skoll convening series meetings are designed to create new pathways for exploring film's role in advancing knowledge about social entrepreneurship by establishing both a network of professional exchange between filmmakers and social entrepreneurs and supporting those film projects that result. Three Stories of Change convenings were held each year in 2008, 2009, and 2010: at the Sundance Film Festival, the Skoll World Forum, and the Sundance Independent Producers Conference. Each one brought together different high-level resources and individuals from the worlds of documentary filmmaking and social entrepreneurship.
.png)