What once felt fringe is now being named as essential. A new reality for indie film in 2026 was beautifully articulated this week in Dana Harris-Bridson’s recent piece in IndieWire that the business of film is not separate from the art. It is part of the creative act itself. Funding, framing, distribution, and relationship-building are not […]
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A Year That Held Both
Looking back on 2025, I’m struck by how much polarity it held at the same time. I opened my laptop this morning to catch up on my end-of-December feeds. (TBH, I’m slowly weaning off the minute-by-minute social scrolling.) Mixed in with everything else was terrific news about two of the films I’ve poured the past […]
The Gratitude Issue: Fundraising & Partnership Wisdom for Social Impact Artists
As you close out your last weeks of 2025 and prep for Your New Year of Impact in 2026, I offer you a framework for grounding your art, your mission and your relationships in the three pillars of gratitude: feeling, thinking and expressing. These three layers aren’t just personal wellness practices. For social impact artists, […]
Is Your Art Ready for Social Impact?
Over the past few months, I’ve been in conversation with artists and filmmakers whose projects are grappling with some of the most urgent issues of our time—domestic violence, nuclear proliferation, immigration, the death penalty, Middle East relations, reproductive justice, infertility, spirituality. And that’s just a glimpse. What an inspiration it’s been to witness such talent, […]
LILLY: Why Storytelling and Social Justice are Inseparable
This week, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the 1995 UN Conference on Women and the NGO Forum on Women—where Hillary Clinton famously declared, “Women’s rights are human rights”—I had the privilege of speaking with Rachel Feldman, director of LILLY, our film about Lilly Ledbetter’s fight for equal pay. Rachel and I have been collaborating on this project […]
The Power of Naming Your Values, Passion & Purpose
This summer I took a step back to ask myself a question about my work, which I’ve been asking since childhood: “But, why?” That question led me to an exercise I’d somehow never fully done before—naming, in words, my values, passion, and purpose. It was a fun exercise. Yes, you heard that right, fun! As […]
Audacious Impact: Simone Pero of For Impact Productions On Leading An Audacious, Visionary, Impact-Focused Program
Be strategic in everything you do. When I founded For Impact Productions, impact producing was a burgeoning field, and there needed to be more understanding of the opportunities in galvanizing film, media, and entertainment audiences to build awareness and action on critical social issues. Today, when we create strategic plans incorporating the passion and vision of the art with pragmatic objectives and calls to action, audacious ideas for social impact galvanize resources and reach.
Simone Pero: Pioneering Social Impact Through Film
Few producers have successfully bridged the worlds of government, corporate media, and independent film to create lasting social change like Simone Pero.