16 December 2007 - 18:53Make a movie, change the world

So many artists around the world are driven by social change, but the parts they are offered are for gangsters, sluts or alcoholics. They do their best to convert their limited role into a story of life, a guidepost to Life’s Lessons, but in the end they are constrained by the script.
There is an option (b): Make your own movie.

Jeff Skoll: Making movies that make change
Official Spiel-Jeff Skoll made his fortune as the first president of eBay. Now he’s spending it at the movies. His company, Participant Productions, makes entertaining, issues-driven films that inspire real change — Murderball, Syriana, An Inconvenient Truth … Here, he talks about the people who’ve inspired him to do good, and about some upcoming films that will open your eyes.

My Spiel-Jeff Skoll wanted to write stories when he was a kid to inspire people to become interested in the issues that affected us all, but he instead went off into engineering because he feared writing wasn’t certain enough to make a living. So he hoped to become financially independent and then return to his original dream (damn this sounds familiar). He ended up becoming a billionaire and using that wealth to get hordes of other people to create their own stories that would change the world. He quotes John Gardner as his inspiration, “Bet on good people doing good things.” So he chose people he trusted and created Participant Productions to provide the financial backing to make Murderball, Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, An Inconvenient Truth, North Country, Fast Food Nation, The Kite Runner, et al. that all went on to be successful artistically, critically and financially but more important have all created social change. My good friend Taron Lexton is following a parallel path in the director’s seat (note to self: step 1- become a billionaire, step 2- hire Taron). This is the road less traveled, but abundant in its rewards.

The key to this talk is not merely the genius and the power of Jeff Skoll but the insight that people want to make movies that make change, want to make art that makes a difference. The art will be better and more beautiful because of it, but it takes a leader with the drive to make it happen or all those artistic, socially inclined individuals won’t present themselves. They’ll show up for whatever they can get a role in. Between ‘Syriana’ and ‘Good Night and Good Luck’ George Clooney won his first Academy Award and his second Golden Globe- his last movie before that was Ocean’s Twelve. Enough said.

You have to create the structure for people to make a difference in. Most of us don’t have the energy to go it alone, to be the first, but most of us would show up in a Jeff Skoll’s movie if given half a chance.

One more thing- check out the Skoll Foundation for Jeff Skoll’s other humanitarian work. Very clever selection of priorities, great work, well worth supporting.