Mission Statement

CINEMA OF CHANGE – Magazine & Film Movement

Filmmakers have classically created film to entertain, to make art and profit, to advance technology and narrative structures. In the documentary genre, creating awareness of a certain issue is often the central interest. There is a much greater potential within motion pictures though, namely the capacity to transformative influence – films can change society.

We believe that films have a utility to individuals and society at large; a utility that goes far beyond entertainment. We concentrate on the usefulness of motion pictures and want to create a central, continuously relevant source of accessible information on how films can trigger change in society – that is the purpose of this magazine.

Consider one of the most influential and transformative movements in film history: the 1960s Nouvelle Vague, the French New Wave. This movement formed around the writers of a magazine, the “Cahiers du Cinema”, which criticized the creative stagnation in French filmmaking. Nearly all of the filmmakers in the French New Wave wrote for the Cahiers, and their shared expression of vision allowed the movement to grow. In effect, the magazine served as an ideological tent pole for the movement, which had a worldwide ripple effect on filmmakers.

Our interest is to fuel a “Cinema of Change”among filmmakers by providing a shared outlet in form of a magazine. Mainstream Hollywood is taking less risks and stagnates in the mindless serial Blockbuster, while film production technologies are readily available and information can spread worldwide, instantaneously – the conditions for starting a revolutionary movement in film are as good as they were in 1960s France. We hope to gather forward-thinking filmmakers as contributors, and utilize the magazine to disseminate their approaches to creating socially impactful films. At the same time, the magazine will provide historical, cultural, sociological and psychological context to the idea of media impact.

The idea behind a “Cinema of Change” is older than cinema itself; censorship is the proof that mere ideas are persuasive enough; that the powerful were interested in limiting certain ideas from spreading. A few present-day for-profit companies like Participant Media are focused on designing the social impact of the films they produce and distribute; institutions like the Harmony Institute produce research solely on the change that media causes in society. Non-Profits like Students of the World or BRITDOC are concerned with observing the effects documentaries and some narrative films have on their audiences.

Our mission is to concentrate the presently scattered pioneering perspectives so that more filmmakers can be inspired to rethink their work – and galvanize a movement. Our vision is that the filmmaking profession should be redefined as one of a public servant. Filmmakers that primarily create media for the greater good of mankind, while still working within the paradigms of storytelling, capitalism and art. These films are designed to aid progress and change society – creating a movement in the film industry that produces for a Cinema of Change.

10-29-14   Tobias Deml & Robert Rippberger