Counterpoints Arts is delighted to be hosting the 2024 Pop Culture and Social Change Retreat, bringing together a curated group of 50 change-making filmmakers, cultural innovators, activists and philanthropists at Dartington Hall, Devon (UK) from 16-18 October. The aim is to generate cross-sector exchanges, ideas and collaborations that will bridge the storytellers from the climate and migrant justice movements to harness narrative power.
The retreat will focus on exploring climate displacement and migration narratives in TV and film. Our aspiration is to present projects and initiatives that drive social change and disrupt power structures through the creation and amplification of game-changing cultural content.
Produced as part of Counterpoints’ PopChange Initiative, this year’s programme has been developed with support from Comic Relief and Unbound Philanthropy.
Programme
We are especially excited that award winning filmmakers Alejandro Loayza Grisi, Hassan Akkad, Waad Al Kateab, Matt Kay and Bassel Ghandour will be sharing their work and learnings throughout the retreat. Climate and human rights activist Yusuf Baluch will kick off the retreat by sharing anecdotes from their activism and narrative power change-maker Sarah Lowe (Define American) will be sharing lessons from a lifetime of building narrative power.
The retreat will also feature work by a range of creatives and cultural producers, short inspirations and provocations, panel discussions, organised walks, workshops and plenty of informal networking and shared meals.
Our evening programme will include a screening of the winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Utama (2022) followed by a Q&A with the director Alejandro Loyaza Grisi, and a No Direction Home stand-up gig featuring comedians from our network of refugee and migrant creatives.
Background
Over the last 5 years, Counterpoints Arts’ PopChange initiative has hosted a number of retreats, salons and networking events exploring pop culture and how it can be harnessed to drive social change. Much of our work in this context has been framed by research done by Alice Sachrajda, with Esme Peach (Riding The Waves, 2017) and with Marzena Zukowska (‘New Brave World, 2021).
Our first PopChange retreat took place in 2018 and featured special guest Bridgit Antoinette Evans of Pop Culture Collab in the US, who shared with us successes and learning from their influential grant-making programme. Our youth-focused retreat in 2019 brought a network of young changemakers together with hip hop artists, music producers and game designers from across the UK. And in 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, we hosted a 3-day virtual retreat in partnership with OKRE, diving deeper into impactful storytelling through TV/film, stand-up comedy and video games.
The 2022 retreat drew inspiration from these pop culture case studies, and the shared knowledge and experience of a fast growing network of creative practitioners and
change-makers. We’ve learned from cultural actors, activists and practitioners like Rashad Robinson (Color of Change), Marcus Ryder (Journalist), Anu Henriques (Rocks film), Nana Bempah (Pocc), Evan Narcisse (Marvel Comics), and Hassan Akkad (C4’s Home & BAFTA-winning Exodus), among many others.
Since our first Pop Culture & Social Change Retreat in 2018, a new ecosystem of creative teams and individuals has emerged, producing and developing a rich range of narrative change initiatives. This has resulted in the creation of a dedicated Power of Pop Fund, managed by Comic Relief on behalf of a wide group of funders. This fund is used to strategically to support and grow this area of work in the UK.
About the organisers & supporters
Counterpoints Arts is a leading national organisation in the field of arts, migration and cultural change. PopChange (Pop Culture & Social Change) is its pioneering initiative exploring how the power of pop culture can be harnessed for social change in order to shift the way we talk, think and feel about migration and displacement in the UK. Together with a network of cultural innovators, creators, producers, funders and activists, we are championing new ideas and cross-sector collaborations.
Comic Relief raises money to support people living incredibly tough lives in the UK and around the world. Through humour and stories of hope, we have shown that people can make a massive difference. Comic Relief believes that those who are closest to the issues have the best solutions, and so works with organisations and people with direct experience of these challenges. We fund hundreds of amazing organisations who support the most vulnerable people and communities in society.
Unbound Philanthropy is a private grantmaking foundation that works to ensure that migrants and refugees are treated with respect and engage with their new communities. We support pragmatic, innovative, and responsive approaches to immigration and immigrant integration in the United States and United Kingdom.
