Filmmaker Holly Mosher holds up a copy of her film about activism at the One World Film Festival.
When Holly Mosher applied to join a film school at New York University in the 1990s, she quoted George Orwell on her application: “All art should be political.”
Nearly two decades later, the Los Angeles-based filmmaker says she still finds those words inspirational, especially since they have helped her become an acclaimed filmmaker.
She says one way filmmakers can become successful is finding a niche and working on issues they feel strongly about.
“I call myself a filmmaker for change,” she says.
“I am very passionate about creating a better world and using the media to inspire others to empower themselves to do the changes that they want to see happening.”
And that’s what Mosher did.
Her film, Bonsai People: The Vision of Muhammad Yunus, premiered at Ottawa’s 22nd Annual One World Film Festival earlier this month at Library and Archives Canada.
The festival screened 16 films with a focus on human rights, social change, and environmental activism.
The film documents the efforts of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to help women in Bangladesh access microcredits. It is one of many films Mosher has produced since she chose to work exclusively on “projects inspiring positive change.”
“I think finding your niche and branding yourself is actually beneficial,” she says.
“Now, people know if it (the film) has my name on it they trust that it will be for some social positive change.”
The Hollywood Reporter, a Los Angeles-based entertainment newspaper, recognized Mosher in 2001 as an up-and-coming indie producer.
She has produced films about helping vulnerable groups like street children and women who suffer domestic violence, healthcare, small business, and elections.
An audience More than 100 people in Ottawa watched poor families testify how microcredits from Yunus’s Grameen Bank helped them get out of dire poverty.
Micro-credit, which consists of providing loans of small amounts, attracted Yunus’s attention when he lent $27 to 42 destitute women in Bangladesh.
When he realized that he had freed more people with less, the then university professor started the micro-credit bank.
Grameen has since lent poor women tiny amounts of money to start income-generating activities, from small projects such as weaving baskets and small farming to larger projects such as taking children to school and building better homes.
“Poverty is not created by the poor people,” Yunus says in the film.
Rather, he says he believes it's the social system that alienates the poor by denying them “a fair share” of their hard work.
“I wanted to be with the people to see if I can do something,” he says.
Today, more than 100 million people benefit from Grameen Bank, which is mainly owned by borrowers.
Jason Blechta, a 28-year-old engineer and a Centretown resident, says he was enlightened after watching Bonsai People since he was curious about the microcredit system.
“It shows that poor people are capable of taking themselves out of poverty if given the right opportunities,” he says.
The film touched 75-year-old Edith Pahlke, too.
“More people should see this film or films like that,” she says.
Pahlke says she found the film especially interesting at a time when people in North America and many other parts of the world have taken to streets to protest against the inequalities between the rich and poor.
“People should share, it’s good that something is happening,” she says, adding that the Occupy Wall Street protests have already spread to her neighbourhood in Ottawa.
One World Film Festival is organized every year by the Ottawa-based One World Arts, a volunteer-based charitable organisation working to create awareness on world issues.
For Mosher, focus on advocacy among filmmakers has never been more relevant than in the current times when mainstream media seem to focus on fast news.
“The world is changing very quickly, the media has often gotten away from even looking at something in-depth when really things are much more complex…we have to speak up for what’s going on and really analyze things,” she says.