December 2021 Update from IRIS
Get to know our growing team
Check on what we’ve been doing
There are some new logos in our partners space as IRIS welcomes aboard the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and the Open Society Foundations’ Latin America Program office.
Together with Africa-based feminist hub Purposeful, IRIS is launching two story&impact learning cohorts of young girl- and non-binary content creators in Kenya and Sierra Leone, made possible by funding from the Ford Foundation.
Cara accompanied Ellen Friedman and Don Gips—former ED and CEO of IRIS partners Compton and Skoll Foundations—in a conversation about storytelling and social justice with more than 45 funder-members of the Peace and Security Funders Group.
In October, IRIS partnered with the Ford Foundation‘s Mexico/Central America office to curate expertise from across the storytelling and immersive world in our first virtual summit on story, impact and innovation for regional grantees.
Drawing on over 10 years’ experience with Good Pitch, DocSociety’s new Climate Story Lab model was in full flight with virtual Climate Story Labs Amazonia and Central America—supported by the Ford Foundation and IRIS predecessor Moving Image Exploration—taking place in late 2021.
Look for mesmerizing animated short “Breathe” emerging from filmmaker and pilot IRIS fellow Marc Silver as part of Amnesty International’s campaign to End Vaccine Inequality.
Coming in 2022: IRIS research comes online
Commissioned by IRIS Regional Lead Graci Selaimen, research organization Amoreira brings us a qualitative deep dive into indigenous people and narratives in Brazil paired with an analysis of their growing presence in—and impact on—social media, drawing on over 200 interviews.
IRIS Narrative Lead Brett Davidson maps constellations of organizations focused on understanding and shifting the narrative around the world and especially in the Global South.
Legal expert Peter Noorlander, author Sally Kohn, and media multi-hyphenate Dr. Mehret Mandefro dig into the safety and security needs of storytellers, narratives underpinning authoritarianism, and the power of fiction film to shift social norms.
And look for more to come later in 2022!