IFB Global | Why Stories Matter: Storytelling, Culture & Systems Change (Part 1 of a 4-Part series)

Capital can finance infrastructure, innovation and enterprises. But many of the outcomes impact investors ultimately seek also depend on what people believe, value and choose to do. This new four-part IFB Global series brings together commercial entertainment, independent film, documentary, philanthropy, impact investment and distribution to explore how stories influence behaviour, how impact can be intentionally designed, who finances what, and how stories continue creating value long after release.

We will connect storytellers, producers, commercial film finance, impact investors, philanthropy, impact practitioners and distribution - while also exploring practical ways to help credible projects and relevant capital find one another.

About Session One:

Impact investors spend enormous energy financing solutions intended to change behaviour. Meanwhile, film and entertainment have been influencing what people believe, value and do for generations—often without calling it “impact” at all.

Stories can change whom we empathise with, what we regard as normal, which issues enter public consciousness and what possibilities we can imagine. Sometimes that influence is deliberately designed. Sometimes a film created primarily to entertain takes on a cultural life its creators never anticipated.

Rather than beginning by asking “What is an impact film?”, this opening conversation asks something more fundamental:

How do stories actually change us?

We'll bring mainstream commercial entertainment into conversation with independent film and intentional impact storytelling to explore what makes stories resonate, how the entertainment industry thinks about audiences and influence, and what those seeking social and behavioural change might learn from it.

We'll also challenge some assumptions from the impact world. Does designing for impact make a story more powerful—or can it get in the way? Is a film that changes millions of minds without an explicit impact strategy somehow less consequential than one designed around measurable outcomes? And how should we understand a story's contribution to change without claiming more than we can prove?