Year in Review

2021 Impact Producing

Highlights

 

Founder of Good Measure Productions sharing thoughts on impact producing in Canada

Watching how impact production has evolved in Canada this past year, has been very exciting here at Good Measure Productions. Not only did we launch the business but we have been part of some game-changing moments as well. Here are our top highlights for 2021:

  • Last of the Right Whales launching it’s impact campaign. This award-winning film allows audiences to get up close to one of the most endangered great whales on the planet thanks to Director/Producer Nadine Pequeneza. With only 336 North Atlantic right whales left, making sure that as many people as possible learn that these whales exist, are facing some very serious challenges thanks for gear entanglements and vessel strikes and could be extinct in 20 years if we don’t stop killing them has reached a new level of urgency. The campaign includes an active online presence, an email letter writing campaign directed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden, discussion and education guides being released, a six-city coastal tour that will follow the whales’ migration route along the Eastern Seaboard, a campus tour and community screenings which will follow the theatrical release of the film. It’s an ambitious campaign but with so much on the line, we are thrilled to be part of it.

  • Story Money Impact held 5 community building summits for 5 different documentaries this year as part of their Story to Action program and our founder Sholeh Alemi Fabbri was able to be part of one of them. It was fantastic to witness people from various groups come together to pledge support for the film. She was there for one of the docs No Visible Trauma and heard people pledge their time (being an expert on a panel), their extended networks (making introductions), to host screenings (at Universities and in other settings), to provide marketing/publicity support (welcoming the filmmakers to a podcast) and so many other wonderful things. Watching the pledges in real time created a sense of energy that comes when being part of something bigger and growing. It felt inspired and clearly the work that Story Money Impact is doing in Canada is going to help expand impact producing in dynamic ways. 

  • The People’s Choice runner up film at TIFF was Scarborough, a moving slice-of-life story by filmmakers Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson and is based on the award-winning book by Catherine Hernandez. The film has not yet been released but Sholeh was lucky enough to get to watch it at the festival and loved how ‘real’ the stories felt to her saying she “recognized this neighbourhood as a kindred-spirit to the one I grew up in out west thanks to the writing and the incredibly talented cast although no doubt it has it’s own unique flavour.”  When Nakhai mention that the film also has an impact campaign attached to it, we were thrilled for a few reasons: 1) The reach of this film will mean that more work can be done for the groups that the campaign is working with and, 2) It demonstrates again that fiction films can also have impact campaigns. Check out this NOW article by Radheyan Simonpillai to learn more about the film and the creators. 

There is no doubt that 2022 is already looking like a year with more growth, connections and impact. Good Measure Productions is excited to not only be part of it but also help grow this exciting part of filmmaking.