Half Moon Bay, CA — April 27, 2017 — Steve Michelson, pioneer in video publishing and documentary film-making, this weekend in St. Petersburg and Sarasota presents two films at the Sunscreen Film Festival and highlights a workshop on documentary film-making, “Making Media That Matters” at the Sunscreen Film Festival. “It’s the media in my DNA that put me in the business of changing the world. First, in radio and then in tv, my family was on the frontlines of bringing global entertainment audiences the shows that were most popular in the US. Today, with our fast-moving internet-based networks, the underserved audiences are those impacted by social challenges but don’t know how to proactively respond. And that’s where I’ve devoted my energies: to creatively distributing solutions that people can act upon to change their own world and insure a future for generations to come,” Michelson said.
Ringling College asked Michelson to develop an online course (makingmediathatmatters.com) to teach future documentary makers how to create impact with films. Michelson brings to the cause-related media world an integrated “ecosystem” view that puts film at the center of a strategic and broad-reaching effort to identify means of getting important information with solutions and actions plans to key audiences. He believes that partnerships are key to successful cause- based documentaries, and will be discussing an approach he has honed over the last 20 years in the business. Michelson was recently named Executive Director of The Fund for Sustainable Tomorrows, a non-profit creating campaigns to create social change through selected documentaries.
“It all begins with a film,” Michelson said, “but, millennials are changing the way news and information are communicated. In response, we’re creating novel new media formats that will be integral to what I call “surf marketing” to create momentum and sustainable messages for special interest groups and the broadest of populations. “
Two of Michelson’s films Nature’s Orchestra and The Burden premiere at Sunscreen Film Festival this weekend. Sunday evening is the Florida premiere of the film, Finding Babel, a film by David Novack for whom Michelson produced an earlier work.
Michelson is available for newspaper, tv and radio interviews, in person and by phone, April 27 – 30. To schedule, call 650-888-5992, Michelson’s personal cell.
Michelson, documentary pioneer, available for interviews
About Ringling College of Art and Design
For 85 years, Ringling College of Art and Design has cultivated the creative spirit in students from around the globe. The private, not-for-profit fully accredited college offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in ten disciplines and the Bachelor of Arts in two. The College’s rigorous curriculum employs the studio model of teaching and immediately engages students through a comprehensive, first-year program that is both specific to the major of study and focused on
the liberal arts. The Ringling College teaching model ultimately shapes students into highly employable and globally aware artists and designers. For more information please visit the Ringling College website at www.ringling.edu, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or call 941.351.5100.
About Steve Michelson
Steve Michelson, Executive Director, The Fund for Sustainable Tomorrows, Executive Producer, The Video Project
A 40-year veteran of the documentary space, Steve Michelson believes “film can change the world.” Through his distribution company, The Video Project, Steve and his team have been reimagining the process of developing, producing, financing, distributing and promoting documentary films to create lasting social change. They have created a studio-like ecosystem of resources and strategic planning that wraps around the storytelling art. This process, applied to cause-related films, magnifies impact and increases their likelihood of making a difference. Each film benefits from a unique set of strategies chosen from a broad range of practices and techniques that have a proven track record of success for filmmakers pursuing this path. In partnership with the Ringling College of Art + Design, Steve has created an online course, Making Media That Matters. It teaches documentary filmmakers how to target a subject, maximize its corresponding audience and how to use media to secure funding, create distribution, generate sales and… change the world.
Steve has functioned as the Executive Producer on many award-winning documentary films including: Nature’s Orchestra (2016), Walking in Two Worlds (2015), Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives (2010), Power Paths (2009), River of Renewal (2009), Burning the Future (2008) Crude Impact (2006), Oil on Ice (2004), and Climb Against the Odds (1998). He is currently working on In Our Own Hands: How Patients are Reinventing Medicine due out in 2018, and Nature Needs Half, a feature documentary that defines a new movement, scheduled for release in 2020.
In 2006, Steve and partner Craig Malina founded Specialty Studios to focus on the distribution of films about the Environment, Social Justice, Sustainability, Health and Education. Shortly after that, the company acquired The Video Project, a distributor of films to the educational market since 1983. The San Francisco based company represents about 350 films through its catalog and website.
Throughout his career, Steve has been at the forefront of technology and media. Before starting his own documentary production company in 1986, Steve was Co-Founder and President of San Francisco’s largest production and post-production studio, One Pass, from 1975 to 1985. Steve is the recipient of the Gilbert Award for outstanding contribution to Northern California’s film community. He has served four terms as Governor with the National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS). Steve is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he attended The Annenberg School of Communications and the Wharton School of Business. On a personal note, Steve is an avid outdoorsman and relishes the task of teaching his grandchildren to ski and kayak.
Contact:
Shari Annes, Annes Associates Steve Michelson
cell 650 888 0902 Cell 650 888 5992
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