Daniel K Forkkio - "Healing & Reconciliation via Storytelling & Filmmaking" - CEO, Represent Justice

Daniel K. Forkkio is CEO of Represent Justice, building a
critical mass of “system-impacted storytellers” using film and
media to mobilize audiences to take action and transform the
legal system. Because, those closest to the problem are closest
to the solution. About this transformational approach to
filmmaking, Daniel says, “What I started to learn about these
(grassroots) films is that the films themselves were part of the
reconciliation process for the person that had gone through a
(traumatic) experience. And so, the act of writing down what had
happened, thinking about their audience, the different characters
... and what were the myths around those characters. And what did
they want the audience to do and think and feel concerned about,
allowed for a reconciliation of all of the different frames that
they had been told about their story … and allowed for a
different level of control and empowerment around their story.
And then, with the film screening, they could go to their local
community, their local council members, their local community
partners and they could just gather people differently. When you
learn together, and when you learn someone’s story and see how it
connects to yours, it just creates this inspiration and this
understanding that allows you to tell your story more
effectively.” In the 5 years since inception, RJ now has people
in 20 different states producing films & campaigns about
their own lived experience, learning and growing from one another
in ways that are completely transformative. RJ provides training,
support, compensation and mental health resources ... all of
which culminates in folks being able to produce a campaign about
their unique personal experience rather than relying on whatever
Hollywood has produced most recently. For this exceptional work
Daniel was recently named a 2024 Elevate Prize winner, chosen
alongside 9 other nonprofit leaders from across the globe for
leading some of the most impactful missions to change our world
for the better. RJ began as part of the impact campaign for the
highly acclaimed Hollywood film, Just Mercy, starring Jamie Foxx
and Michael Jordan, about the life of acclaimed public interest
lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, and the civil rights work he does
helping the incarcerated and the condemned. A policy expert
conversant in the film's core issues, Daniel witnessed something
remarkable at the screening and advocacy events he organized for
Just Mercy - the unexpected impact of the people present
connecting with each other through their own real life stories of
similar lived experience. Says Daniel, "It got me thinking … what
about this power of firsthand storytelling should extend beyond a
campaign? What if we we were constantly working with folks who
were impacted by this issue and, in fact, what if they were the
ones producing the film? What if it wasn’t a matter of a
Hollywood actor? What if it wasn’t as much a matter of a studio
release? What if impacted folks, in their communities, had these
skills of convening and using film as a medium? And, that became
really the blueprint for Represent Justice." 


Learn more and watch some of these magnificent films at
RepresentJustice.org
@danielforkkio
@werepjus


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