NASW Social Work Talks - EP66: Social Workers in Film

Episode Date: January 27, 2021

In this episode, we speak with Matt Anderson and Gerri Matthews are social workers who use film as a way to advocate for people and causes they believe in.

This episode is brought to you by the University of Louisville. Welcome to Social Work Talks. My name is Greg Wright. Social workers do a lot of things, but did you know that they are also accomplished filmmakers and film producers? Today we talked to two social workers who have done the film festival circuit. They are Jerry Matthews, who did a film called Justice Denied that looks at sexual abuse in the military. And Matt Anderson, whose documentary From Place to Place delved into the lives of aged out foster children. Welcome to Social Work Talks, Jerry and Matthew.

How are you doing today? Good morning. I'm doing great. Were you a social worker first or a filmmaker first? Jerry? Before I had my MSW back in the 80s, I did some background and stand-in work in New Mexico. I always had an interest in film, and when I was getting my undergraduate degree, I had taken some video classes. This is back in the 70s.

And then I got my MSW in 1994, and I've always been an advocate, even prior to being a social worker. So that was just something innate. And I was still interested in film, but needing to pursue my career, I had a family and, you know, pay the bills. Film had to be kind of put on the background because it's not always a full-time career. And so later on down the road, I found a topic that was very personal to my husband and myself. It's about military sexual trauma. We did some research and we were engaged in working on a documentary that screened at Sundance Film Festival called The Invisible War. And we were contributors to the film as well as in the film.

And we went on to slowly develop our production company and purchase equipment, which we did not always have. And we made our first documentary, Justice Denied, back in 2013. and then since then we've gone on to purchase more equipment and get involved in the film community here and I went on to become a board member of New Mexico Women in Film and it just blossomed from there. Matt? My experience is also in documentary film although Greg I'd be hard pressed to call myself a filmmaker. I think that takes on a role where you know you at least know how to operate a camera or be able to do editing, have some technical skills. I would consider myself a documentary film producer. But whether that came first or social work came first,

it's actually kind of one in the same. I did my master's of social work at the University of Montana. And at the time, I was working with kids aging out of foster care. And my foray into filmmaking was producing a feature documentary about America's foster care system through the stories of three kids who aged out of foster care. These were three kids that I actually worked with in the program that I worked in. The idea for the film came from one of the young men that I was working with, Cody. And I brought that idea to one of my classes in graduate school. I was not a social worker prior to my MSW. And so my MSW was my entry point into social work. And that MSW class was my entry point into filmmaking. So we ended up taking it from a class idea to a real life idea.

Long story short, I met Paige Williams, who is a filmmaker. She was the director of the film. She was the founder of Porch Productions and became a co-owner with her of Porch Productions when I came out of graduate school. And so we did that project together and we did a number of other projects together as well as kind of producer, director, team. Why is film an effective way to actually communicate an issue? What is it about film that actually resonates with people? I think film is a great vehicle to educate, advocate, to create and change policy. And it gives our clients an opportunity to have their voices heard and to speak to a particular topic. And it also is a great opportunity for legislators to hear those concerns.

I would agree with that. You know, film as a medium, as opposed to a lot of other things, I think they have longer shelf life. They can kind of take on a life of their own. So the extension of their reach to an audience and their ability to have impact, I just feel is greater than some other things that you might do, such as, you know, writing an article or producing content in some other medium. Film is just storytelling, right?

And if you want to create change in the world, one great way to do that is through storytelling. So I've always felt like at least what we tried to do from place to place was to tell a story that would get people at the head and the heart, give them the facts of the matter, and then use the personal story to hit somebody in the heart in a way that can compel them to actually change behaviors. People change behaviors based on their feelings. Our feelings drive our behaviors. And a story is a great way to make somebody feel something. And it's that feeling that can drive their behavior change. And so documentary film is just a powerful tool to do that.

And I'll quote another social worker out there that people might know, Brene Brown. Brene Brown says, stories are just data with a soul. You know, that's what documentary film can do is bring a different data set to the decision-making process. In a way, it's really, really powerful, I've found. When you both launched these projects, did it take longer than you at first thought? When Michael was at Sundance with me, my husband got sick. And he said, I think we should make a film about this topic. And I just said, oh, yeah, honey, we're going to do that, you know, because he wasn't feeling well.

And I wasn't about to argue with the man that was on a morphine drip. So we get back to New Mexico and he was quite ill for a year. Almost we almost lost him. And in that process, we were both very frightened. And he said, you know, can you make this film? And I said, sure, honey, I can make a film. And I'd never made a film in my life. So I reached out to the film community here. and it happened to be a film on veterans and one of the filmmakers um who was a director he said I'll work with you and so we created this film together I had no idea what I was doing what I was getting into none it's probably good that I didn't know because had I known I might have

like shied away you know we we just you know stepped in and got into it and what I find is I never let whether I have a certain amount of money or no money at all get in my way whether I have the perfect equipment or not stop me from creating the opportunity to have the subjects tell the story. Matt? Yeah, I mean, similar. I just jumped into it too. I mean, you know, I was having a conversation with Cody about his foster care story and

experience, and he inspired the idea. He said, my life matters and people need to know what happened to me. And then he said, we should make a movie about my life. I said, let's do that. Let's make a movie about your life. And in that conversation, we named it from place to place. I didn't know what it was going to take. I had no clue, but I knew that it was the right thing to do. And anything that's worth doing is going to be hard. You know, there are going to be challenges. And so that should never deter us. Actually, it should inspire us. The hard things are probably the best things to do. It definitely was. When Cody and I met with Paige the first time and pitched her on the idea, the plan was

to make like a seven-minute short film. And maybe that would take, what, a couple months or something to put together. So that's where we started. And three years after that, we released an 80-minute doc. And so, yeah, it went from an idea sitting on Cody's couch, you know, talking about his story to a seven-minute film to a three-year project. How did you find the funding for these projects? Initially, we had zero dollars. We had very generous friends and family, and then I reached

out to some non-profits, and they were very generous. They believed in the topic. They believed in what we were doing, and they gave us a generous donation. I mean, it was about $10,000, which might seem like very little for most films, but we were determined with or without the money this was going to get done. And so there are lots of ways to do things. There's crowdfunding. There's Seed&Spark. There's GoFundMe, which I'm not a big fan of. You know, there's a lot of ways to get it out there. So there's four wall in your film, which, you know, basically means, you know, you test it out in different venues. You know, there's the NASW conference. We have a lot of opportunities as social workers to get our films out. We would literally go door-to-door

downtown Albuquerque to different businesses and pitch what we were doing. We picked certain venues like law firms, physicians, depending on the topic we were doing. And, you know, we were going to do whatever it takes to get it done. Matt? Similar situation again. I mean, you do what it takes. We were in a place when we got started, I was working on something on a different sort of project, but I was able to free up some funds from that project to get started. So I think we had $5,000 to start. You know, as it grew, we knew we had to raise more money. One of the things that we did right out of the gate that was really smart was IDA, International Documentary Association. They have a program for filmmakers that don't have a

nonprofit where you can run your fundraising through their nonprofit. So you can write grants and take tax-deductible donations, and they work with you to do that. So anyway, we did that, and then we were able to start writing grants, do fundraisers, similar local businesses. I had a friend who was part of a record label, and that record label had an interesting connection to what we were doing. And early on, they gave us $10,000 and access to their artists to do music for the score.

So we had some free music that came out of that. They actually ended up producing a whole soundtrack to the film, So we had that in distribution as well when the film was completed. And then it just kind of snowballed from there, and we just found different ways to raise money. I think we raised close to $300,000 cash and then, you know, had a lot of in-kind kind of, you know, free music or people getting reduced rates because they believed in the project. And you just kind of hustle and scrap and make it happen. I've actually seen the films. They are wonderful.

They are powerful ones. And how did you get it in front of policymaking people? Because, you know, both of you, you know, did that well. Retired General Woodward had invited Michael and I to the Pentagon, to SAPRO, to discuss our film and to discuss our input on military sexual trauma. And that was quite an honor and an opportunity. So we did that. And while while we were in Washington, D.C., we looked at each other and said, you know what, I'm going to reach out to Senator Gillibrand. And on a whim, I just picked up the phone and I spoke with her secretary and we told her who we were. And we were over at her office that afternoon and we spent about an hour with her, which is highly unusual. And she really was behind us and got on board with what we are attempting to do,

which has changed policy regarding the Military Justice Improvement Act, and it just mushroomed from there. So then she invited us to set up a screening with her at the Senate, which we did. So we had a lot of really great opportunities on the Hill where we were really trying to elevate awareness about, you know, this terrible crime that's occurring over and over again in our armed forces so we had a lot of allies on the hill which was wonderful and they were very receptive and supportive and they still are so that's one way to get it in front of policymakers which is you know reach out if they're not reaching out to you and believe it or not there are a lot of a lot of people on the hill that are aware of the value of documentary film and how

that can change policy and the more you get involved in documentary filmmaking you will see the very close connection between doc filmmaking and what does or does not happen on the hill matt you know number one relationships networking maybe that's not number one super important though like our our pathway to the hill came through a series of relationships that we built along the way because you know as we were making the film we are intent on building its audience right so it's not like make the film then go find the audience know who your audience is as you're making the film start to build a relationship with your audience and that was that sort of relationship building networking led us to the hill but the I think the most important thing

is that the documentary that we made it wasn't about me right it wasn't about a social worker it wasn't about a professional it wasn't about any kind of talking head expert it was about three kids who had an experience. And the film was just the truth of their story. It was just the power of their voice. It was their pure desire to be heard. And so when folks on the Hill, Becky Shipp, you know, being the primary person, saw what we were doing, they knew that they wanted to bring these young people, these kids and their stories to the Hill. And so Becky Shipp was really the champion of that to make that work, and the reason it worked was a little bit timing, too. The Senate Caucus on Foster Youth had just started, and it was being led by Senator Chuck Grassley and

Senator Mary Landrieu, and so they had the ability to bring people together. Becky was working for Senator Grassley at the time, so we had, you know, pretty incredible access to Senator Grassley, Senator Landrieu, a number of others where, yeah, similar. We had multiple, you know, long meetings with them and you know but it's really race and mandy you know who were talking to them and and what ended up happening from that was really impressive like my philosophy as a social worker is if you listen to the people that you work with mandy and race for my example you listen to them you learn from them and you act with them so it's not up to me to go solve problems it's it's really me to create partnerships with mandy and race and work together with them to solve problems

Becky Shipp is a similar kind of person. She took a similar approach. She listened to these stories, she learned from them, and then she acted with a bunch of other young people and advocates from around the country and did this series of listening sessions that led to what became ultimately the Family First Prevention Services Act. It's one of the biggest pieces of child welfare legislation ever, really, transformational piece of legislation that we're seeing its impact now in the field. So, yeah, I agree. I mean, documentary film, you know, folks on the Hill need some way to learn about what's happening on the ground. And a documentary in process and in completion is a great way to bring new insights and new information to policymakers. makers and jerry you have also um with your film made uh a few positive changes as well uh yeah there have been changes um definitely that are that are occurring and they're still going on and you know changes you know sometimes things can appear to be slow but we have built up

a huge uh group of advocates male and female and the pentagon is clearly aware of what's going on so are individual staff row offices. And yes, change is definitely coming. It may not be as fast as we would like, but there's been momentum. I mean, even as far as, you know, what's been going on in the media lately about military sexual trauma, it builds momentum and it just keeps growing. And we've also been able to use social media and local media and national mediums to get the word out, writing articles and getting interviews with local television stations. And then we wound up using the Daily News and the New York Times. And so it just mushroomed. Once the word got out what we were doing, the wire was picking it up and people were calling us for

interviews. This episode is brought to you by the University of Louisville. The University of Louisville offers a CSWE-accredited, highly ranked MSSW program, 100% online. Gain the knowledge, resources, and skills to promote social justice and the well-being of others in your community. You can make a difference. Visit louisville.edu forward slash online to learn more. Is this a skill that every social worker should have? When I was working full time as a social worker doing traditional social work, I didn't have a lot of time to pursue something like this. I was raising my child who is now a grown adult and I didn't have a lot of free time. Now I'm in a different stage of life, a different stage of development where I have more time to take my skills as a social worker and parlay them into something different.

I consider it to be another form of social work mixed with creativity, if you will, and an opportunity to hopefully make more macro changes, if you will. So I wouldn't encourage people to shy away from it. If you have an interest in anything that's creative or trying to get the word out in a different way or advocate in another way, I would say definitely give it a try and see what it feels like for you. I wouldn't say shy away. I think there's a lot to it that we could probably spend, you know, a few more hours talking about the ins and outs of how to do this without having it cost a lot of money and take up a lot of time. But I would definitely say, you know, give it a shot. If you have the inclination to do it or, you know, it's something you just want to give a shot to, I would say go for it. Matt?

I'm not going to disagree with that, but I'll take this in a little bit of a different direction. I have a different answer to that question. I would say for all social workers, run as fast as you can to social media, figure out how to put it to work for you as much as possible. For everybody, it doesn't really matter what kind of practice you do, what kind of social work you do. You know, even if you work for like a government agency and you're thinking like, why would I be on social media? You know, what are your career ambitions? Who do you want to know? Who do you want to meet? How do you want to get connected to the next opportunity? be. Social media is sitting there waiting for you to be able to take advantage of opportunities to build your network and get connected. Or if you're a therapist, why would I be on social media? Well, it's a great way to market your practice. It's a great way to have online impact of just sharing

resources that you know are good for everybody to know about how to protect our mental well-being on a day-to-day basis. If you're a macro social worker, the opportunities are limitless, really, in terms of how you can kind of leverage the power of social media to build coalition, to advance ideas, to create impact in very real ways. So, yeah, I think it's for everybody, but it's not easy. So you have to learn, you know, you have to take the time to commit to learning how to use it. But if you do, it's a powerful tool, I think, for all social workers. I totally agree with what you just said, Matt.

And I don't know if you've had this experience, but you were talking about, you know, how to get the word out about, you know, your documentary and so forth. I find that social media was a great resource to build your audience right from the beginning, from the inception of the idea of whatever the film is that you might want to create. It is a great way to develop a following. And that's what we did from the very beginning. We created a film page and we kept people abreast of what was going on and where the interviews were and what was happening. and and we have we have um built a very big following that way so i would encourage people to use that for getting your film out there when we did from place to place was 2008 to 2011 that's that was still pretty early social media and we were able to find ways organically to grow an audience without we did i don't think we did any paid media back then i don't even know i don't

know when facebook ads started um so but there are new things happening now um tiktok um clubhouse uh linkedin still opportunities to do organic um growth without paid media you know facebook you know you have to you have to do paid media to grow your audience um there now there's really no other option but it's really affordable so yeah i mean as a filmmaker social media is your is your best friend, I think, to build your audience. Vimeo is a vehicle where you can store your films and you can also get them out to the public. And then you can also create a viewing venue where people can come and watch your films and you can do a Q&A. So there's a lot of opportunity there to get the word out. And also that vehicle is used by a lot of filmmakers to, you know,

share projects and look at different films. And, you know, also while you're working on creating your film. I have a music person in New York, Patti Lee Stoddard. When I'm done with the film and I want her to help me with the music, I send it to her on Vimeo. So it's a communication tool as well. It's a similar product or platform to YouTube. It has a little bit of a different set of features to it, but yeah, pretty similar to YouTube. What are the projects that you're working on now? We just wrapped Tsunami in the middle of the night, which was supposed to be filmed using traditional you know cameras movie cameras with a crew and we had a location and then the we had our own tsunami with the pandemic so we had to shut everything down for safety reasons

and we thought okay what are we going to do so we wound up using iPhones smartphones any any smartphone that any actor had and we actually did it remotely so we just finished that right now I'm not working on anything at the moment. I guess you could say I'm in the middle of a creative break, just trying to get my footing again. Yeah. And Tsunami is a documentary, Jerry, or? Tsunami started out being a slam rap poem that I had written at the inception of Trump becoming president. And when I couldn't sleep at night, I started writing poetry in the middle of the night. And a few other filmmakers said, well, this would make a great film. And it took me a few years to finally, you know, get the nerve up to turn it into a film after I had gone out there and performed

it a few times. And it became a very multicultural project where the casting had to include people of different ethnicities, different gender persuasions. It was a creative opportunity for people to have their voices heard. And so that's my most recent project. Yeah, so since for the last nine years, I've been at Children's Home Society of North Carolina. So I live in North Carolina now. And you know, it's interesting, we do have a videographer on staff, which is pretty unusual for a child and family services, nonprofit organization. And so I've been lucky, I've been able to work with with him a lot on short video content that we use for like education and advocacy, that sort of thing. And that's, that's been great. But so a couple things, one, we're at

the 10-year mark, almost at the 10-year mark. 2021 is 10 years after the release of From Place to Place. So we're reintroducing that, sort of re-releasing that to the world again right now. And we're actually doing that through what I'm launching right now, which is called the Institute for Family. So if people listening to this go to instituteforfamily.org, they now can watch From place to place and it's full length for free on our website. And then, yeah, the Institute for Family is this really interesting initiative that we're launching within Children's Home Society to really take our mission to the national stage. And it's really all about elevating and prioritizing family well-being so that all families can thrive. So it's really this

acknowledgement of the important role that family plays in the lives of kids and society and communities. And we want to do everything we can to make sure that families are strong so that our country is strong. And it's coming out of this recognition that, you know, we serve so many families that are facing real conditions that are issues in their ability to thrive. And the biggest indication of that to me is 700,000 kids in foster care. 700,000 kids in foster care end up there because their family is suffering in some sort of way. And the Institute is all about how are we going to begin to strengthen families, invest in communities in a way that can reduce those or eliminate or mitigate those kinds of conditions that families face that lead to things like child

maltreatment. So it's a pretty ambitious effort that we're launching. We're excited about it. We're just three months in. We did an Unlearning of Child Welfare webinar series that's on our website uh that was our first thing out of the gate and now yes we're developing podcasts right now um and definitely working on video content there's probably a documentary in our future but covid you know kind of put put any real planning effort around that on hold yeah there'll be there'll be video production coming out of the institute for family so yeah we're excited about it thank you thank you well um it was a wonderful conversation i thank you for being um our guests on Social Work Talks, Jerry and Matt. Thank you. Thank you so much. Nice to talk to you all.

Yeah, thanks to both of you. This was fun. You have been listening to NASW Social Work Talks, a production of the National Association of Social Workers. We encourage you to visit NASW's website for more information about our efforts to enhance the professional growth and development of our members, to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social policies. You can learn more at www.socialworkers.org. And don't forget to subscribe to NASW Social Work Talks wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for joining us. We look forward to seeing you next episode.