MTV’s Look Different Initiative Wants To Produce Your Film On Privilege

Hey filmmakers, got a great idea for a film or video that explores privilege in new and interesting ways? MTV wants to give you money to do that! MTV’s Look Different Creator Competition closes in a couple weeks so we’re a bit late on the train, but there’s still time! Here’s a short description on the website:

MTV and Look Different are looking for emerging filmmakers to create groundbreaking video project for the campaign that would bring a creative new outlook to the subject of privilege as it relates to the filmmaker in today’s world. Possible subjects could include racial, gender and sexual orientation privilege, among others. Privilege is not something that people necessarily do, create or take advantage of on purpose. Being in a dominant group often leads to certain advantages that most people aren’t even aware they have. The video projects selected would shine a light on these privileges to help create awareness, build empathy and propel action.

We’ll choose three projects to produce and potentially distribute on MTV’s vast digital and cross-platform channels, including a nationally televised spot* on mtvU, MTV’s college network. Winning proposals will be selected by MTV and a panel of notable judges including Jose Antonio Vargas, Kal Penn, Franchesca Ramsey, Max Joseph, Carter Covington, and Laci Green based on the creative merits of the proposal, the originality of the project, the project’s ability to provoke conversation, and the feasibility of the budget ($10-20K).

You can learn more about the challenge  on their website.

Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist/filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas, who made White People, did a great job of starting a dialogue about race and privilege on MTV so I’m looking forward to what comes next. It’s very cool to see MTV use their platform for these topics and give aspiring filmmakers that same opportunity to explore these topics. I’ve been a bit absent from the MTV scene, so I had no idea they were hosting all these resources! If you’re interested in learning more about Look Different, their website has a lot of resources on privilege and bias. Here’s their mission statement:

MTV’s ‘Look Different’ campaign is here to help you erase the hidden racial, gender, and anti-LGBT bias all around us. We’ll help you unlearn biases, open up conversations with family & friends and always give you specific things you can do to make things better. The truth is, we’re all a little biased–even MTV. But if we all do more to challenge bias, we can help create a more equal future. So let’s get to it.

The website also includes a series of videos on topics like color blindness and microaggressions from Ava Duvernay, Common, Kendrick Lamar, and many others.

(via Indiewire)

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