Thanks for your interest in Films For Change and for taking the time to find out what we're about! 

The short version..
In short, the aim of Films For Change is to share inspiration, insights and information via documentary films. We've been running since 2014 and initially our modus operandi was organising and hosting public documentary film screenings. In march 2020 we evolved into a streaming service, due to the changing health situation. 

We're very excited to now be able to share powerful and illuminating documentaries with the entire world via our streaming site, and continue to shine a light on the stories of independent filmmakers, and create positive change through education.

The long version...

In 2014 our founder and director - Kym Staton - started organising very small public screenings in a tiny cinema in Darlighurst, Sydney with an interest in sharing inspiring and awareness building films to a wider audience. It was a weekly event of documentary screening followed by dinner and discussion. In the first few months, sometimes only a few people turned up, but little by little the interest grew, and Films For Change expanded.

Kym had been an avid supporter of documentary films since enjoying David Attenborough’s nature documentaries from an early age, and then being astonished and mesmerised by the powerful film ‘Baraka’ at the age of 18, when the juxtapoposition of scenes of the natural vs the industrialisation and destruction of the modern world made him more aware of the bigger picture on our planet.

Massively inspired to share the important messages inherent in timely documentaries about our environment in peril, Kym has organised hundreds of free entry public screenings about plastic in the ocean, animal cruelty and the link between animal agriculture and environmental destruction. This not only helped educated hundreds of thousands of people about these urgent issues - via our live events and online social media sharing, but it also helped our enterprise steadily grow and expand.

Our plastic education event at St Kilda Town Hall, Melbourne in 2018, featuring 'Blue' film, plus live music and talk.

 

One of the biggest achievements of Films For Change so far has been our plastic education events and public education campaign. 

From 2017-2020, Films For Change held more than one hundred free entry plastic education events featuring powerful films about this issue including 'A Plastic Ocean', 'Albatross', 'Blue' and 'Drowning In Plastic', plus talks and mingle. We had over ten thousand people attend these events, and also reached hundreds of thousands of people with short videos on social media, to spread awareness about this urgent issue. In the last few months of this project, these events were hosted by one of our terrific staff - Alex - pictured below (on right).

We are very grateful to the over one hundred and fifty volunteers who helped make this project happen. Here's one of our teams doing the 'wave of change.

By 2019 Films For Change had branches in Sydney, Melbourne and Byron Bay and we were holding around a dozen events each month, in arthouse venues and community halls. We decided to make the next bold move and bring Films For Change into mainstream cinemas. In a short time, Films For Change exploded, becoming a global organisation and expanding to over 90 cities of the world, involving a big team of staff and hundreds of volunteers hosting the screenings in Australia, New Zealand, The UK and USA. By early 2020, we were holding up to fifty screenings per week, with thousands of people coming to our cinema screenings every week.

In march 2020 with the sudden onset of the health crisis, we decided to evolve into a streaming service, to ensure that we could continue to share films amidst the challenging environment and cinema shutdowns. In may our site was launched and we're pleased that our community have embraced our new approach and our subscribers and reach continue to grow and expand.

We hope to share these astounding films and information with you, continue to support the work of independent filmmakers, and make a positive difference for a kinder, greener, more compassionate world via our educational initiatives.

Thanks for reading and we look forward to sharing some films with you!