Stories from the Field Documentary Film Festival
PROJECT: Documentary film festival | www.storiesfromthefield.org
The Stories from the Field festival (2004-2007) was a project of the New York Chapter of the Media Communications Association International. Produced by Corinna Sager and myself, in partnership with the United Nations and The New School, its launch coincided with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. The theme of the festival was the Millennium Development Goals.
In its first year, the festival was UN-focused. It sought to:
- Spotlight communities in developing areas of the world with a United Nations presence, and discover what they were doing to overcome the challenges of poverty, hunger, disease, civil unrest, trafficking, and injustice.
- Show how United Nations programs and services were helping communities to develop a civil society and a better quality of life for their people.
- Afford those in the trenches—United Nations workers, community leaders, and the people they
serve—the opportunity to share their stories of adversity and triumph.
In year two, festival participation was expanded to include filmmakers from the general public. Participation more than doubled in each of the following two years, as did film audiences. Despite its steady growth and critical success — by the second year, entries were pouring in from five continents — the festival was not able to secure adequate funding to continue, and closed its doors in 2008.
Tags: event, film, international, production
