Cinema for Change – exploring the impact potential of documentary
From the Shadows (2022)

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A life-size shadow on the wall with #missing #every8minutes began a journey like no other. A six-year-long process on understanding the very sensitive issue of child sex trafficking. The story unfolds in a way that would evoke a response in the audience so they engage in meaningful ways rather than increase passivity or dread. How does one gauge, measure and channelize the audience response to one of the most pressing issues of our time? We began tapping the impact potential of the film, an intensive and committed journey of navigating a legal minefield around an ongoing case, working out survivor consent at every stage and the implications when key characters are at risk. It meant signing on a legal team, bring on an Impact Producer, raise new finances and commit an extra year to go beyond festival screenings and reach the audience who could make a difference. This meant screenings to youth in colleges, grass root screenings in vulnerable communities where we ferried projector and screen, organizing special screenings at cultural forums, for law enforcement, judiciary, policy makers and anti-trafficking stakeholders.