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he Global Social Change Film Festival and Institute also hopes to see in the future the wider distribution of films dealing with social change in their story lines.

And it is the distribution of films that stray outside the fictional plots of romance, cops and cowboys, films with a social conscious, that makes it so difficult for both film goers and filmmakers, says Mikki Willis, founder of Elevate Films.

His organizations is developing Play it Forward which is set to revolutionize film delivery with his online film catalogue to be launched in the next few months.

A long time Hollywood filmmaker, Mikki says his first hand experience of September 11 in 2002 when New York’s twin towers were hit by air planes in a monstrous terrorist attack, changed his life forever.

“I was around the corner when the planes hit. I spent the next three days looking for survivors and retrieving bodies. I knew I could never again work in the Hollywood way,” says Mikki of his decision to produce films that carried messages of hope fore the future.

To get these films out to the public, rather than only to film festivals he is setting up an online film gifting service where people can purchase a film for three dollars to send to friends. Of this fee one dollar goes to a charity of the buyers choice.

“Many of these inspirational films with a conscious can’t be picked up at the local video rental. People try to get them, but they are difficult to source, so with Play it Forward people can send these films on to friends,” says Mikki who is currently curating the organization’s film library.

In the future Play it Forward will offer young film makers another avenue of distribution, “so they can get some money back to invest in their next film,” says Mikki of the ever pressing problem of funding for unknown film makers.