Gabriel Media: Media as an agent for social change
Gabriel Media promotes the use of documentary film and media as a tool to educate target audiences about critical issues and generate greater public awareness and response towards those issues.
Our approach/Strategy is part creative, part think-tank and part networking
agency. We encourage the exploration and development of media strategies and
the production of documentary film addressing critical social issues which
affect our society. We investigate and develop new ways of addressing critical
social issues and develop strategic ways to change these. We address critical
social issues by educating the victimıs group in terms of education on rights
and prevention and the more general public in education and public awareness.
We develop with the audience a process of understanding and developing responses
and actions. Responses and actions which will be able to influence the cultural
and political context of our country and create cultural and political changes.
This process calls for an active involvement of the audience in the reception
and follow up of the documentary and media products received. The focus will
be identified by specific issues and the link with a broader political arena
and movement for which Gabriel Media can be an effective and creative tool.
Subjects range from crime, prison and the criminal justice system to racism,
injustice and violence, homelessness and drug rehabilitation.
We are committed to the promotion of justice, peace and human rights and the right of each human being to exercise such rights and express his and her will to influence the process by which these are implemented.
Background
Gabriel Media was started in 1999 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and implementing model programs that apply documentary films to the advancement of dialogue, knowledge and understanding of critical social issues. The organization was founded by Jonathan Stack, the President of Gabriel Films. Gabriel Films specializes in social issue documentaries and is producing a series about crime and the criminal justice system in America. In 1998, Gabriel Films received the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize and an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary for The Farm: Angola, USA. Following six inmates over the course of one year, The Farm tells a story about life, death and hope in Americaıs largest maximum-security state penitentiary. The film is presently used in orientations for all new Louisiana corrections employees, was shown as a standard curriculum for all Louisiana juvenile correctional facilities and has attracted national support from spokespersons such as Muhammad Ali and rap singer Master P.
Inspired by the successful use of The Farm as an educational tool, Gabriel Media was founded to develop resources that facilitate the use of all documentary films--not just those produced by Gabriel Films--in an educational capacity. The Director of Gabriel Media She has developed an Advisory Board that includes She has built additional relationships with other educators, public school officials, youth agency leaders, and filmmakers. She has also assembled curriculum designers to develop guides and resources for documentaries that can be applied to schools and other learning environments. Gabriel Media is determined to be a leader in developing innovative methodology for exposing audiences to social issues through documentary film and for using documentary films as a tool for empowerment, education, and intervention.
