Mission

With the emergence of digital media and the transition from print to online journalism, the short non-fiction film has proved capable of exploring current topics and questions on a public scale that local newspapers and media outlets can no longer afford.

We make independent documentary films about pressing social issues in order to promote education, encourage public dialogue, and enable change.

We also provide professional development opportunities for Oberlin College alumni pursuing careers as filmmakers by hiring new StoryLens Fellows each year. These Fellows are involved with the entire filmmaking process from conception to release.

To date, StoryLens, with the support of the Nord Family Foundation and other generous donors, has created eight original short documentaries. The films bring focus to specific non-profit organizations in northeast Ohio and explore issues such as prison recidivism, opiate addiction, child homelessness, gun violence, food access, the foreclosure crisis, and arts education.

StoryLens donates its program content to the organizations whose work its films highlight in order to help them tell their stories to clients and to provide material for their fundraising and outreach efforts.

We present our films at community gatherings, in festivals, on public television, and on digital journalistic platforms in order to bring the subjects’ perspectives and experiences to a wide audience.

By telling the stories of individuals and groups making a difference in their own neighborhoods, StoryLens hopes not only to foster awareness and understanding within local communities, but to give those communities a voice in the national conversation.