Social Change Through Storytelling

Documentary films can help fuel change and drive impact. They meet a deep human need to connect. Documentary films allow us to do this through authentic stories—often across difference. When this need to connect is fulfilled, it can translate into deep and passionate support for the issue depicted in a film, and this emotional and engaged support from viewers is critical to a successful social impact campaign.

Ultimately, this is our ambition with The Human Race.

The Human Race operates at the intersection of the field of scientific communication and storytelling. The aim is to advance the use of film as a powerful tool to reach, engage and influence audiences. Using creative storytelling, documentary techniques and innovative artistic approaches, the documentary film will be working on making an impact. We look for a social return on investment. Personal stories of being human in this world, told through talent, passion, dreams and experience will enable us to produce an engaging and inspiring documentary film that leaves a lasting impression. Audience Engagement is a strategy designed to activate audiences and constituencies toward a specific goal. It is our aim with The Human Race to connect with its audience and generates empathy. In this way it is likely to gain the traction that an impact campaign requires to make change. By illuminating the human experience, The Human Race can bring audiences inside stories and communities that they might not otherwise be familiar with, provoke dialogue and inspire people to take action.

For people living with a mental health disorder, whatever it may be, prejudice and discrimination can be a major obstacle to a fulfilling and satisfying life.

One in five people will suffer from a mental health problem in their lives. The problem concerns us all. Yet when we talk about mental illness, discrimination and stigma are ubiquitous. So what does it mean exactly? Stigma can be broadly defined as a collection of negative and unfair beliefs. When associated with mental illness, stigma leads to the inaccurate and hurtful objectification of people as lazy, incompetent and even dangerous. In turn, stigma fuels feelings of shame guilt and incompetence in people, which only aggravates their symptoms and prevents them from seeking the help they need. Discrimination can be described as an unfair treatment that directly results from stigma.

Mental illness is an invisible, stigmatizing and even self-stigmatizing disease.

The Human Race deals with cognitive diversity on several levels. It is partly a film about a research project that turns our way of understanding mental disorders upside down. The research team maps the genetic material from ancient bones and teeth some of them older than 10,000 years. Their research shows that a predisposition to mental illness lies in the genetic material of our ancestors. Dispositions for illnesses such as bipolar disorder, skitzophrenia and autism have always been part of our DNA. They are intimately connected to being human and it can be argued that they have helped ensure our survival.The genetic propensity to diseases is related to our human nature. If diseases were removed from human DNA using current technology, we would removed the traits that make a person human, such as intelligence, creativity, and imagination.

The Human Race has a number of underlying objectives for positive change.

2. to convey the importance of scientific research contributes to a positive societal change
3. to inspire the next generation of scientists with a special focus on girls and young women
4. to counteract fake news
5. to contribute to a scientifically literate society

As this film will be suited for social engagement, we aim for viewers to take action after seeing our film. Potential activities will include organizational partnerships, educational guides, targeted stakeholder/community screenings, social media strategies, multi-platform activity, and social change campaigns.