Stand up. Take action. Embrace diversity. Promote change.

STEP is a creative movement of people from all walks of life who want to celebrate diversity. Many groups of people – LGBTQ+, Muslims, Latinx, African Americans, women, and people with disabilities – feel that their voices are not being heard. And many people who are not part of those communities feel misunderstood as well.

STEP’s goal is to create a wide variety of content to help people who might not understand a different perspective STEP into somebody else’s shoes.

This is STEP’s first call for content.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

We want to kick off our project with a bang – with a short film that is the embodiment of our mission statement:

Stand up
Take action
Embrace diversity
Promote change

What does that mean? It means we want all of the following. In each case, submitted material should show diversity, give us an opportunity to step into a community or somebody’s life, or showcase how people have the potential to promote change.

1. Film footage. We will be adding voice over and music so we don’t need a lot of dialogue. That said, if you have a great piece of footage that includes words, we still want to see it.
2. Photographs. We want to look at places and faces that tell a story. Black and white, color – show us what you’ve got.
3. Artwork. What have you made, or could you make, that would fit in with what we’re doing? This is a big world and there’s room for all kinds of expression. Send us an image of your artwork (digital photos or film).
4. Writing. Do you have a poem or essay that fits in with our mission? Do you feel inspired to write something that does? We want to read it. We’re looking for pieces that we can use to create a patchwork narration that will match the footage and images that we choose. If you’re a slam poet and have film, we’d love to see that too.
5. Songs. Are you a songwriter or a musician? If you have written a song – or would like to write one – that fits with what we’re doing, please send it.

If you know anybody who might like to contribute to this project, please share it with them.

The end result, we hope, will be a film that is as rich and diverse as possible. One that puts forward the idea that brought us all together in a unique and unforgettable way. Once we have sorted through the submissions, we’ll have an editor cut the whole thing together into a single film. Then we’ll add music and release our first official film.

We want to get started as soon as possible. Please email files or links to Vimeo or YouTube to stepdiversity@gmail.com. We’re also setting up some project management tools to help us keep track of everything, so we’ll update you on those as soon as we can.

GO!

++++++++++++++

If you have any questions, you can ask them below. I’ll update this post as more information comes along.

– Don