featured projects

FIXED

Synopsis: From botox to bionic limbs, the human body is more “upgradeable” than ever. But how much of it can we alter and still be human? What do we gain or lose in the process? Award-winning documentary, FIXED: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement, explores the social impact of human biotechnologies. Haunting and humorous, poignant and political, Fixed rethinks “disability” and “normalcy” by exploring technologies that promise to change our bodies and minds forever.

Our role: Regan Brashear produced, directed and edited FIXED, with Making Change Media serving as the impact producing team. FIXED screened in 30+ festivals in 16 countries, several airlines, and was shown on hundreds of public TV stations across the country from 2015-2018, as well as being a top seller in New Day Films for over ten years. Making Change Media organized a robust community engagement campaign for FIXED focused on disability advocacy communities, as well as high schools, colleges, medical schools and science museums. It is now taught widely in disability studies, sociology, and science studies curriculums in hundreds of high schools, colleges, universities, and medical schools worldwide. Since its release, Brashear has travelled extensively with FIXED, sharing the film with audiences of all ages, beginning with its premiere, a sold-out event at the National Science Museum in Lisbon, Portugal, for the EU’s Neuro Enhancement Responsible Research Initiative. In 2014, the University of Rochester organized a day-long symposium — “Complicating Normalcy: Disability, Technology, and Society in the Twenty-First Century” — centered on FIXED.

DEEJ

Synopsis: A nonspeaking young man dreams of autistic civil rights. After spending his early years in foster care, without access to language, DJ “Deej” Savarese found not only a loving family but also a life in words, which he types on a text-to-voice synthesizer. In DEEJ, DJ makes his way through high school and the transition into college, as he confronts the terrors of his past, obstacles to inclusion, and the sometimes paralyzing beauty of his own senses. He embraces filmmaking and poetry and discovers what having a voice can truly mean. DJ challenges misconceptions of what a nonspeaking student with autism can accomplish. As one of only a few nonspeaking autistics who have been included in regular education settings, he shares his ideas not only about what full inclusion requires, but also the potential it offers to everyone.

Our role: Making Change Media coordinated the national screening tour for the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated film on autism, inclusion, and neurodiversity, DEEJ (broadcast on America Reframed, fall and winter 2017 and summer 2018), bringing the film to more than 160 high schools, colleges, universities, festivals, conferences, and community groups nationwide. Making Change Media was also the educational distributor for DEEJ for its first five years of its release.

“Regan’s work as our impact producer made a huge difference in ensuring that Deej found a home within neurodiversity and disability communities as well as with the general public. Her integrity, creativity, commitment to our film’s message, and well-developed relationships within the disability community added a personal touch that is hard to find. We have been thrilled to work with Making Change Media as our educational distributor as well; their ability to reach educational buyers far exceeded our expectations. That MCM’s expertise spans impact producing and educational distribution has helped us be even more effective in both worlds. ”

— Robert Rooy, producer/director, DEEJ

Time for Ilhan

A woman, Sue Austin, scuba dives while using a wheelchair under water floats by a large coral reef. She looks at the camera over her shoulder with her hair flowing in the water behind her.

Our Role: Making Change Media coordinated the national impact campaign, the Time for Ilhan Take Action Screening Tour. Its primary goal was to engage, activate, and mobilize audiences to join the movement for a more representative, reflective democracy. We partnered with grassroots groups, national organizations, schools, and universities to host dynamic screening events that connect audiences with opportunities to get involved from training to run for public office or supporting a local candidate to getting involved with local efforts to support refugee and immigrant rights and to combat racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism. The screening tour ran from March 2019 through the 2020 elections. Time for Ilhan held more than a hundred events across the country. Our local and national screening partners include VoteRunLead, New American Leaders Project, MoveOn, Showing Up for Racial Justice, Mpower Change, Democracy For America, Netroots Nation, Young Elected Officials Network, Hot Docs “Docs for Schools,” We Are All America, New Florida Majority, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, She the People, and many more.

Synopsis: Emmy Award-winning film about the journey of rising political star Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, the nation’s first Somali Muslim legislator, and her quest to redefine politics in America. Ilhan Omar, a young, hijab-wearing mother of three, takes on two formidable opponents in a highly contested race for a seat in the Minnesota State Legislature. Challenging her party’s status quo while simultaneously defying lingering gender norms within her own Muslim community, Ilhan’s story offers a bold and hopeful vision for a more representative, reflective democracy.

“I want to say again how incredibly grateful I am for your work on Time for Ilhan — your considerable talents, brains, & heart. Not sure how I would be managing all this without you. You all are pretty damn special.”

— Norah Shapiro, Director, "Time for Ilhan"

I Am Maris

Synopsis: Tormented by anxiety, depression, and a life-threatening eating disorder, a teenage girl confronts her buried emotions through yoga. With infectious authenticity, I AM MARIS paints an unguarded portrait of mental illness and recovery, using Maris’s own words and vivid artwork to illustrate her inspiring journey. I AM MARIS is a story about mental health, self-love, and the power of one person’s voice.

“I have been so impressed by your ability to manage all of the details and communicate so effectively with everyone, not an easy task. You kept us all well informed and insured that this was a team effort. We are so grateful for your talents. It has been an absolute pleasure working with you and your team!”

— Cristine Platt Dewey, ro*co films, Executive Producer, I AM MARIS

Our Role: Making Change Media coordinated a national screening tour in four cities for Mental Illness Awareness Week, sponsored by lululemon and ro*co films. For these events, we handled community engagement, promotions, secured venues, created social media toolkits, and developed relationships with seven national and local advocacy organizations, including the National Alliance on Mental Illness, National Eating Disorder Association, and Project Heal, who hosted resource tables at the events to help connect attendees with local resources on mental health and eating disorders.

Facing Poverty at UC

Our role: AFSCME 3299 hired Making Change Media to produce a series of short online videos that were used as a critical component of their “Facing Poverty at UC” campaign, including marches on the boss where workers asked their bosses to watch these videos to learn about their experience as low-wage workers at the University of California.

“In 2008, I was working on a statewide contract campaign with low-wage service workers at the University of California. We hired Regan to create a 10-minute documentary that could frame the workers’ difficult working conditions and their campaign for justice. This project exceeded our expectations and, in fact, ended up establishing our entire communications strategy for the whole campaign that eventually won significant economic improvements for thousands of mostly immigrant and Black workers.

The impact of the documentary was so great that we actually hired Regan again and turned the film into an even bigger project that encompassed dozens of short videos from workers in 10 different campuses and two commercials that aired on television during university football games.

For me, however, the greatest impact was seeing how the film inspired and motivated the workers themselves. Worker leaders were so moved by seeing their stories on screen that they did delegations with dozens of their co-workers on each campus to demand that the administration actually watch the documentary with them. It was truly a beautiful and powerful moment to see the interplay between film and activism that Regan was able to create with this project.”

— Max Bell Alper, Organizing Director, UNITE HERE International Union (formerly with AFSCME 3299)

Fiat Respect: UC Clericals and Lecturers Strike of 2002

Synopsis: What does it mean when workers choose to withhold their labor from one of the largest public employers in the State of California, the University of California? In the fall of 2002, thousands of clerical workers, lecturers, and their allies at five different campuses of the University of California held a two-day strike, making it the largest in UC history. FIAT RESPECT highlights the solidarity between clerical workers, lecturers, students, and community members on the picket lines at UC Santa Cruz. FIAT RESPECT also demonstrates the radical, politicizing potential that strikes and other job actions at universities hold for the student populations, the workers themselves, and the community at large.

Our Role: Regan Brashear directed, produced and edited FIAT RESPECT while working as a union organizer for the clerical union at UC, the Coalition of University Employees (CUE). The film was used as an organizing tool for UC unions, in labor history classes and at labor film festivals.