In July and August Micro-Documentaries will film in Israel, Africa, Bangladesh, France, and the U.S. We’ll also roll up our sleeves in the U.K., where, in addition to shooting films, we plan to soak up some of the Olympic Games excitement. If you have projects in any of these regions, we’re happy to group them together with trips we already have on the books. Travel costs will be split accordingly among our various clients in each region. Take a look at the specific cities and countries where we’re headed and feel free to tag along!

"The most important thing you're going to learn at school is to be kind."
Ellen Pritchard Dodge, Educational Director

Educator Ellen Pritchard Dodge teaches social emotional development to help children learn to manage their feelings. Most educators agree that kids need the time and tools to learn how to get along, but many teachers feel too stressed to explore the possibilities. Dodge uses Kimochi toys as a way to boost patience, generosity and inclusiveness among students.  She hopes that one day Kimochis can be a tool that increases the kindness footprint of our world.

Posted by Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO

I was reading Maybelle the Cable Car to my daughter last night and was fascinated to learn the motivations that inspired our iconic San Francisco street cars.  About 140 years ago, designer Andrew Hallidie was looking for a way to stop the cruelty inflicted on horses that were forced to pull carriages up the steep hills of San Francisco. Sure, cable cars would be more efficient, and faster, and might generate money for the city, but the core motivation was to mitigate pain.

We tend to think of purposeful business as a newer wave gaining ground in the Bay Area and around the world, but as the cable car goes to show, we are not the first to leverage the corporate vehicle to affect positive social and environmental change.

Like the pain that our predecessors regularly inflicted on horses for transportation up the steep hills of San Francisco, we too accept cruelty to animals for our culinary and fashion pleasures. Wouldn’t it be wonderful for design and purposeful business to triumph over this injustice, as elegantly and economically viably as Hallidie’s creation of the cable car?  There’s something compelling about this approach as a complement to more forthcoming activism, which in its rawest, most enthusiastic expression has the danger of bordering on proselytizing, rendering it quite ineffective.

Posted by Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO

A night to remember. One million children in Honduras and other countries around the world will receive a nutritious school meal thanks to the Clarins Million Meals Concert for FEED, which took place at the Lincoln Center in New York City on May 30, 2012. The concert marked the fifth-anniversary celebration for FEED, the social business that creates bags and apparel to help feed hungry children around the world. Concertgoers were treated to great music and speeches, plus a microdoc that showed how FEED has a profound impact in places like Kenya, Guatemala, and Honduras. My business partner and Creative Director, Ben Henretig, reports from the field.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Clarins Million Meals Concert for FEED, where one of our microdocs screened alongside appearances from John Legend, Natasha Bedingfield, the now-famous PS22 choir, and President Bill Clinton.  Many of our microdocs are destined for the web, so we get a bit giddy whenever we have the opportunity to screen a piece on the big screen.  

The evening was a stunning success.  The event raised one million meals in one night to benefit the World Food Program’s school meals initiative. It also highlighted how a microdoc can help convey a story and inspire viewers into action. As Lauren Bush Lauren, acclaimed model, activist and co-founder of FEED, said, “It is one thing to talk about the issues that face the millions of hungry people around the world, but it is another to go and see firsthand.”

Two weeks ago I traveled to La Paz, Honduras, with Lauren and Christian Courtin-Clarins, the chairman of Clarins cosmetics, to help document the impact of their new partnership.  In La Paz we met many local people and saw firsthand how their poverty leads to malnourishment and underweight children.  We also saw how FEED is having a tangible impact in places where children need it most.  Most recently, FEED and Clarins have created a FEED 15 cosmetics bag; the number on each bag indicates the number of children fed around the world with the purchase of the bag.  
 
It was humbling to see the fruits of their labor and to watch as thousands of concert attendees in New York were inspired to join the cause.