by Dov Kornits
Malinda Wink’s Online Impact Producing Seminar is on 2pm – 5.30pm on Thursday May 27, 2021.
“Impact Producing is a blend of skills with ambitions towards policy change, shifting consciousness or behaviour and different social justice and environmental justice arenas.”
That is Malinda Wink’s broad descriptor of the Impact Producer, a very recent addition on the call sheet of documentary filmmaking, and a role that is quickly gaining momentum into narrative film as well.
Filmmaking has always embraced social issues, especially in the documentary sector. Recognising the business community’s efforts around good governance and post-internet segmentation of audiences, documentaries started bringing on Impact Producers to build partnerships throughout production and into release.
Malinda Wink’s broad experience in business and filmmaking makes her the perfect tutor for .
Malinda’s professional experience spans senior roles within the corporate, political, philanthropic and NGO sectors. Malinda joined Doc Society as the Global Director of their Good Pitch programme in September 2019. She is the former Executive Director of Good Pitch Australia and Shark Island Institute.
Good Pitch Australia raised more than $14 million in philanthropic grants for the funding of 19 social impact documentaries and their impact campaigns, forging over 300 new collaborative cross-sectoral partnerships connecting the NGO and business sectors, education and policy leaders and the media in support of the impact campaigns aligned with each of their documentaries.
Malinda is an Executive Producer of the environmental justice documentary, 2040 by Director Damon Gameau, The Final Quarter by Director Ian Darling and The Democracy Project (working title) by Director Craig Reucassel. She has also advised on business and strategic planning for a number of production and distribution companies including Madman, Hopscotch, Transmission, and Revlover. She serves on the Board of the Reichstein Foundation, Pro Bono Australia News Editorial Advisory Board, Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Task Force, is a founding member of Mannifera Democracy Funders Network, and is Deputy Chair of The Caledonia Foundation.
From your experience, do you find that there is a divide between distributors getting bums on seats and the film making an impact?
Yes. It’s not mutually exclusive. In fact, some of the work that we do is about actually finding that perfect blend between the commercial objectives and the social justice objectives. When those two can work in parallel like they did with That Sugar Film, all of the earned media that comes from the community conversation can actually drive stronger commercial outcomes. That’s not always the case, but sometimes you can hit that sweet spot where it’s beautifully integrated between the commercial and the social.
Ultimately, you measure your success according to the objectives that you set out to achieve.
I think the interesting thing about the role of the impact has forced our hands to thinking in more sophisticated ways about the audience and how we apply those audiences for our work. And whether it be a documentary, a piece of art or anything in media, we need to be thinking about who the audience is and what message are we delivering, and tailoring it to that audience. And beyond that, also thinking about distribution in different ways. We’ve seen the traditional model has totally changed. Impact Producing has come at a really interesting time where we’re finding alternative ways to market as well.
The earlier we can do that within the cycle of production, as we’re thinking about the story itself and the craft, the more successful we can be when the project lands in the market.
What kinds of people do you find are attracted to working in Impact Producing?
We’re finding people who are coming into Impact Producing from very different fields. Some of them are from marketing, distribution backgrounds, others are producers and directors and it gives them opportunities for different income streams and creating a much more sustainable career. We also find people coming entirely outside the film industry and bringing totally different sets of skills and experience to the roles. They could be policy makers or campaigners, and they have a craft in how they convert audiences and to get them to act on the basis of a message. What I love about it is the cross fertilization skills that are happening in this particular area. And when you’re in a field like that you’ve got more capacity for innovation.
Have you taught this before?
I teach it all over the world. I started with Pitch Australia back in 2014, with Ian Darling and it was a tremendous experience. I came from a philanthropy and politics and banking background; banking finance. And so, I had a very distinctive skillset. And when we first started with Pitch, it was a totally new field. We had to explain what this Impact Producer thing was. With That Sugar Film, Gayby Baby, Frackman, The Opposition, Call Me Dad, we started actually building a cohort of Impact Producers and flushing out what that was going to look like, the nature of the role. And for each project, that role was very different because the ambition of each project is also very different with their partnerships and the kind of finance plans attached to their campaigns.
So, that’s 2014, fast forward to 2021 and we have a thriving field of Impact Producers in Australia, who are doing really incredible work. It’s a rich field of practice and globally, it’s a rich field of practice. We’ve seen the growth of the Global Impact Producers Assembly. And with the work that I’m doing in Good Pitch, I’m teaching Impact Producing across places like East Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Indonesia, South American and places like Mexico, Columbia and Brazil and Canada, as well. It’s different in every place because obviously the challenges of any different place is very different in terms of the political situation and what’s allowed. India is another one, of course.
What will people get out of your seminar?
I’m going to be reaching out to the people who sign up prior, just to see what their appetite is so that I can tailor the course content much more, so we can get more out of it. But the broad brush strokes will be going into what is Impact Producing, looking at audience and distribution, what’s happening especially in relation to COVID-19, are any models emerging given the new strange world that we’re in. And, also the big question for everyone, raising partnerships and philanthropic finance, which is obviously part of the mix. I’ll show case studies from here and around the world and hopefully spark conversation. If there are ways that I can directly help people with issues that they have raised, then that would be great.
Malinda Wink’s Online Impact Producing Seminar is on 2pm – 5.30pm on Thursday May 27, 2021.
