Film Journal January 2018

cannot change the world
if you don’t like each other.”
‘You
A fine guiding principle for
a nonprofit organization, a political
activist group, a self-help seminar…but
a production company? You bet—when
that production company is Participant
Media, which since 2004 has been
bringing movies that seek to affect social
change to the big screen.
“Compassion,” continues CEO David
Linde, “is central to the perspective
of Participant. We believe in a
compassionate world. And when you’re
talking about 75-plus movies and over
two billion dollars’ worth of box office,
I would say that there are a lot of people
who agree with us.”
A scan down Participant’s filmography
backs Linde up. Commercial and
critical successes—Lincoln; The Help;
Contagion; Food, Inc.; and this year’s
Wonder, just to name a few—abound.
There are Oscar winners—like Tom Mc-
Carthy’s Best Picture winner Spotlight,
about the Boston Globe’s investigation
into the Catholic Church’s child molestation
cover-up, and Best Documentary
Feature winners CITIZENFOUR, The
Cove and An Inconvenient Truth. Come
the 90th Annual Academy Awards on
March 4, they could have some new
brethren: Steven Spielberg’s The Post;
Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s documentary
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to
Power; and Chilean drama A Fantastic
Woman, from director Sebastián Lelio,
are all awards-season hopefuls.
Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary
PARTICIPATING
IN GOOD
Participant Media Spurs Social Change
Through the Power of the Movies
by Rebecca Pahle
duo The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. Breathe, Andy Serkis’ biopic of Robin
Cavendish (Andrew Garfield), a crusader for the disabled. Based-on-a-true-story
actioner Deepwater Horizon. Spielberg’s Cold War drama Bridge of Spies. The films
Participant has (ahem) participated in
run the gamut, but they have one thing
in common: a shared determination to,
in the words of president of documentary
film and television Diane Weyermann,
“tell stories that are engaging and can
reach people, and that illuminate issues
that may or may not be in the spotlight.”
“One thing that film can do is
A scene in Kenya from Human Flow.
inspire,” elaborates Jonathan King,
Participant’s president of narrative film
and television. “In a climate where
political division is especially acute, we look for ways to draw people together. There’s
a movie out right now called Wonder”—about the experience of a young boy (Room’s
Jacob Tremblay) with facial differences who goes to a public school for the first time—
“that’s really about embracing differences and relating to people who may be different
than you are, and looking at them with compassion. That kind of movie is really
resonant with audiences. It is completely in line with our mission.”
Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep
in The Post.
Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg
in On the Basis of Sex.
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