On 24 May 2016, Andrew Lowenthal, Director of EngageMedia, and myself, Communications and Outreach Coordinator, attended the 4th installment of Good Pitch Europe in Stockholm, Sweden. The event brought together 7 feature-length films, over 170 organizations and 259 participants.

Good Pitch, which was originally developed by Britdoc and the Sundance Documentary Institute in 2008, aims to amplify the impact of documentary films that address social and environmental issues.

Good Pitch is different to standard pitching forums where filmmakers ask for financial support and look for distribution avenues. It instead seeks to forge partnerships between filmmakers and a wide range of stakeholders, including NGOS, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, corporate partners, broadcasters, educators and policy-makers, creating coalitions and campaigns around environmental and social issues, which are good for the partners, good for the films and good for society.

This was my first Good Pitch experience, which I’ve heard so much about over recent years through the global Video for Change community and through some of the acclaimed films it has supported, such as Citizen Four, No Fire Zone and The Look of Silence.

As Good Pitch2 is being hosted for the first time in Southeast Asia next year by Indonesian organization In-Docs, and which EngageMedia is an outreach partner of, it was especially useful for me to learn from the organizers and participants, and witness the process first-hand. After groups of production teams had presented their projects, which were mostly 80% completed, foundations, media outlets, organizations and even companies such as Google and Vine pledged financial and distribution support. It would be amazing to see how we could get similar support for critical films from the region.

However, the one-day event itself is just a fraction of what goes into the work for Good Pitch. Leading up to Jakarta in May 2017, five films will be selected to receive mentorship such as impact and pitching workshops, outreach support which includes connecting the films to hundreds of potential allies that can help them reach wider (or more precise) audiences and ultimately aiding them to produce more real and lasting impact. And we’re looking very forward to being a part of making all that happen!