This Website Is An Archive, As Of October 2024.

The Engagement Lab at Emerson College has closed its doors. Read the report detailing the ELab’s final chapter, read testimonials from our extended community, or dismiss this message to explore the archive.

Impact Producing

How can we use media to truly engage audiences? With film, Impact Producing is about what happens when the lights come up. In this course, students learn to use media not only to entertain, but as tools for organizing and activism. We’ll delve deep into case studies, consult with industry professionals, and explore creative ways filmmakers, educators, activists, and organizations/community partners can use media to further the work they are doing towards social change.

CHOOSE A SEMESTER TO EXPLORE:

Course Information

DEPARTMENT(S):
Visual & Media Arts

PROFESSOR:
Jesse Epstein

PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS: Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital Gun Violence Prevention Center

LEARNING PARTNERS:
Chaplain Clementina Chéry, Kali Geddes, Margo Guernsey, Alexis Smith, Heather Dabreu, Dr. Peter T. Masiakos, Ebony LePenn, Shondell Davis

Students and faculty worked directly with staff and constituents from the Louis D. Brown Peace Insititute and MGH Gun Violence Prevention Center to design materials and campaigns to maximize the social impact of the documentary Quiet Rooms and other TNGV projects.

Participants sharing in front of a purple screen

A Look Inside the Co-Creation Process

The Impact Producing studio was unique among Social Impact Studios, as it focused in part upon expanding and documenting the real-life impacts made possible through TNGV's collaborative projects from previous semesters.

The participants co-created three projects in partnership with Learning Partners from Louis D. Brown Peace Institute (LDBPI) and the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Gun Violence Prevention Center:

  • a film documenting the ongoing process of redesigning MGH’s quiet room, inspired by TNGV’s earlier documentary project Quiet Rooms
  • an impact producing guide to accompany the documentary Quiet Rooms
  • an animated introduction to LDBPI’s burial guide resource for survivors of homicide victims

“[Being in a Social Impact Studio] for the second semester in a row, it was very freeing. It was, once again, an experience of working with the community — a community I live in — but I didn’t know these stories. Working with classmates and peers, whatever we’re going through, no matter where we are, us as people all have things in common.”

— Bryan Edouard, Emerson student

Spring 2024 - Impact Producing Studio Participants

Studio Contact

Are you an Emerson student interested in enrolling in this course in the future? Please contact  [email protected] to learn more!

Spring 2024 - Impact Producing Partners