We are a non-profit filmmaking company (DBA Boston Filmworks Foundation) based in Beverly, Massachusetts. Our mission is to make documentary films exploring issues of social justice and to help non-profits make short, high-quality films promoting the work that they do at an affordable price. Increasingly leaders in the philanthropic world recognize the unmatched power of visual storytelling. But community nonprofits must often choose between allocating resources for programming and funding activities that will generate revenue to support programing. Nonprofits need a solution to bridging the gap between what they can afford and the cost of producing films that highlight their mission. By keeping our overhead low and providing a wide range of services fitting a wide range of needs, we fill that gap. We also have a commercial film company, Boston Filmworks, LLC operating under the model of Newman's Own, with all net proceeds going directly to fund the operations of the non-profit.
Executive Director and Founder Steve Liss spent two decades as a Time magazine contract photographer, where over 40 of his photographs appeared on the cover. Prior to founding Boston Filmworks, he was a college professor for the better part of fifteen years. Three Films produced and directed by Liss-the final two as part of Boston Filmworks-were broadcast on the Discovery Channel and MTV respectively. "16 and Recovering," was a documentary film depicting a year in the life of public high school for teenagers struggling to overcome drug addiction while earning their high school diplomas. The film won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism Award for Television for 2020-the second such award for director Liss. An earlier film about absentee fathers trying to pay their child support and reconnect with their families was nominated for a Heartland Emmy and won Colorado Public Service program of the Year. In the past year, we have turned our attention to promoting local non-profits including Women's Lunch Place, Hospitality Homes, Greenbelt nature conservancy, Middlebridge School.
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