With Thanksgiving less than 24 hours away, I thought I’d bring in two guests who aren’t only giving back this holiday season—they’re inspiring a world of change. My first guest on ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg’ is Komal Minhas, is a writer, investor, and film producer deeply committed to improving the lives of women and girls globally. She’s the producer of Dream, Girl. A documentary about women entrepreneurs made entirely by an all-female crew. Dream, Girl premiered at the White House in early 2016, was named the number one ‘feminist film to watch’ by the Huffington Post, and was listed on Oprah’s SuperSoul 100 list.
My second guest is Katie Prentiss, a documentarian and executive producer with Small Forces, a media company that creates professional videos for non-profit organizations 100% free of charge. The Small Forces team presents a new model of philanthropic giving—using video as a tool to create impact for non-profits, raise funds, recruit volunteers and inspire others into action for change.
KOHMAL MINHAS“I came across the Dream, Girl Kickstarter campaign about a film for female entrepreneurs. I was so inspired I felt a call to action to invest and support it.”
“We had an all-female crew, which is relatively unheard of in film.”
“We premiered at the White House and that was amazingly transformative.”
“My background was in journalism but I got a full-on education on set.”
“Erin was very intentional about how she created the video for Kickstarter. She new if she could do storytelling the way she’s be called to do it would work.”
“Ava DuVernay said the story is the key to everything.”
“The election has made us more aware of what we need to do.”
“We were on set for about 30 days straight. We rented Airbnbs across Chinatown.”
“It was a learn as you go process. We trusted the women we were interviewing to really tell their story.”
“We had a 40 minute cut and were told we had to go back to the drawing board. We took feedback in stride and created something we’re so proud of.”
“We were told that there was too much going on. We had to braid the stories together.”
“Erin directed and edited the film, which is so hard to do in a feature film.”
“We interviewed 18 men and women for Dream, Girl.”
“We take the audience down a rabbit hole that women don’t get to talk about together.”
“We created something that brings conversations up.”
“We talk about women start 1200 businesses a day. That’s from American Experience. But only 3% of VC funding goes to women.”
“We’re at a precipice at this movement.”
“We’ve been on tour for the past 4 months. We’d like to go to India, Singapore, Australia.”
“To be able to give a voice to women around the world is the greatest point of gratitude I have.”
“Women were literally objects 100 years ago. In this generation and our mother’s generation there has been so much progress. We’re in the early stage of the battle.”
“My biggest dream would be that my great, great, great grandchildren have a more gender appropriate workplace.”
“We socially are not ready for so many of the changes that so many of us are ready for.”
“When I got in touch with Erin back in 2014 I realized we were an independent film to grow an organic audience. It was a space of opportunity.”
“We have community based venues. We have licensing feed for them.”
KATIE PRENTISS“I think there’s something about having a friendly relationship with the person who delivers your food to you.”
“Earlier this year when my grandmother passed away we used Facebook Live to see the services. But I don’t know about charging money for the services though.”
“I had always wanted to do video journalism watching Katie Couric growing up.”
“I started to do more documentary work and traveling to do international reporting.”
“I was interning with a production company in Chicago and we ended up spearheading Small Forces.”
“We hope our videos we create for foundations helps them use the video as a tool to create an impact.”
“People, more than ever, feel like they want to do something and what they’re doing is effective.”
“There’s an organization called Kurt’s Café, the chef helps disadvantaged youth by teaching them the food industry and then getting them jobs.”
“I love seeing the outpouring of people donating to large organizations.”
“We are the story finders. Coming from a background of journalism we do a lot of research.”
“We really focus on making sure we have diversity in location, organization and people working on the stories.”
“The Rare and Undiagnosed Network stems from a mother whose 3 children have undiagnosed diseases. She started the network as a support system.”
“Felix’s Famous Cookies was started by an 11 year boy who bakes Mexican cookies and raises money for a different charity and donates it all.”
“We work with organizations to create a different impact plan.”
“Explaining great, creative ideas and showing them can be disconnected. That’s where we come in.”
“We have funding through a private family foundation to put good media in the world. All their conditions are let’s help good people do good things.”
“As a woman in this industry it’s important to me to highlight women and girls.”
“The Viola Project uses Shakespeare to inspire girls. They use all girls in all the roles even Hamlet. They use the text to talk about important things like money.”
“Our first approach is to talk to the people that benefit from the services that we’re highlighting. Their passionate testimony goes so much further.”
“Video is getting so much less experience. You can use your phone but make sure you film horizontally though.”
“We have all of our videos on SmallForces.org but social media is the best to get them out to the most eyeballs and brains.”
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and don’t forget to tune into Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg every Wednesday at 12pm ET on SiriusXM Business Channel 111!
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