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 The messages in the three Academy Awards contenders are no
accident. All were produced and financed by Participant Media, a
pioneer among a group of companies aiming to advance social
missions through movies.
Participant was founded in 2004 by billionaire and former eBay
President Jeff Skoll. The company's credits range from Al Gore's
climate-change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and Steven
Spielberg's historical drama "Lincoln" to "Spotlight", a best
picture winner about journalists who exposed a cover-up of abuse
by Catholic priests.
"We often gravitate toward stories of ordinary people doing
extraordinary things, becoming leaders for change in their own
and others' lives," Participant Media Chief Executive David
Linde said by email.
"Roma" is a prime example, Linde said. The black-and-white
drama, which was distributed by Netflix Inc, revolves around
Cleo, an indigenous Mexican housekeeper who displays courage in
the face of serious challenges.
It will compete at the Oscars on Sunday for best picture with
"Green Book," a Participant movie released by Comcast Corp's
Universal Pictures about a black pianist on a 1962 concert tour
of the segregated U.S. South.
"RBG," about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is
up for best documentary.
Participant's movies are paired with off-screen activism. For
"Roma," the company joined the National Domestic Workers
Alliance to push for labor protections and supported the launch
of an app that provides benefits to house cleaners such as paid
time off.
COMPELLING, SUCCESSFUL
Scott Budnick, who quit his career producing comedies such as
"The Hangover" to advocate for prison reform, is also working to
spark change through compelling and commercially successful
entertainment.
His new company, One Community, is aiming to raise $10 million
to mount a year-long campaign around the January 2020 release of
the film "Just Mercy," a biographical drama starring Michael B.
Jordan as a lawyer fighting to free a man wrongly convicted of
murder.
The campaign is expected to kick off within the next two months
and will be designed to prompt changes on issues such as the
death penalty and juvenile sentencing, Budnick said in an
interview.
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One Community, which is co-financing "Just Mercy" with AT&T Inc's
Warner Bros., "is the branch between philanthropy and politics to
the entertainment community," he said.
While many philanthropists and politicians want to tackle problems
such as poverty or homelessness, "they are never aligned with a
major studio that may be spending $20, $40 or $60 million to sell
that issue to the public," Budnick said.
"We're here to be that aligner," he said.
A co-producer of "Just Mercy" is Macro, a company committed to
developing TV shows and movies that represent a broad range of
stories featuring people of color. Past films include the critically
acclaimed dramas "Fences" and "Mudbound."
Macro was founded by former talent agent Charles King and is funded
by organizations that support the company's mission, including the
Ford Foundation that invested $5 million.
"Affecting which stories are told, by whom, and from what
perspective, is an extremely powerful way to change the discourse in
this country," said Cara Mertes, director of a Ford Foundation
initiative called JustFilms. "For us, this is social justice
impact."
Budnick's One Community is funded by a variety of investors,
including Endeavor Content and Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael
Rubin.
It is set up as a "double bottom line" company to generate profits
and social change, Budnick said. Executives are working with social
scientists to develop metrics to gauge success.
That framework is not for every investor, Budnick said.
If someone is looking for a return of 10 times their investment,
"they could go to Twitter, Uber, Instagram," Budnick said. "This is
not that. This is a company modeled to make money, and it's modeled
to make impact."
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Paul Tait)
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