Altering perceptions
Cara Mertes discusses how the Ford Foundation's JustFilms initiative tackles the challenges of nonfiction storytelling, and helps create narratives that transform perceptions and change history.
Published on The State of SIE | MARCH 13, 2019
Altering Perceptions
By Cara Mertes
Ford Foundation strategy rests on the five key drivers of inequality it perceives: persistent prejudice; cultural narratives that undermine fairness and inclusion; unequal access to government; unfair rules of the economy; and failure to protect public goods.
Following this, there is a generation of thought leaders, creatives, funders, and social justice stakeholders who understand that culture itself has become a primary battleground for gaining and maintaining the power to effect progressive social change, and this demands new strategies. The principles of democracy are under duress around the world — therefore, popular cultural interventions also become part of a social justice foundation’s strategy to disrupt systems that reproduce inequality, modeling the values of justice, tolerance and equity.
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The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization with assets currently valued at $16 billion. For more than 80 years it has worked with courageous people on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.