The Difficult Work of Choosing Hope: How My Media Creative’s Storytelling Inspires a Movement
My Media Creative Impact Story
Climate activism comes in all forms: picketing, petitions, boycotts. Regardless of the method, one thing remains true: there is strength in unity. When passionate people come together and work toward a common cause, the potential for change is far greater than what any one person could accomplish alone. But if someone is never inspired to seek out ways to take action, none of that is possible. That’s where My Media Creative comes in.
What is My Media Creative
My Media Creative is a creative agency that shines a light on leaders, non-profits, and foundations working towards climate justice and human rights. They’re a group of activist storytellers using documentaries and filmmaking as a tool for education and mass mobilization.
There are so many people doing crucial climate justice work in what is currently referred to as Canada, but MMC understands that most of this work goes unseen – and perhaps intentionally underreported. Through the power of storytelling, MMC spreads the word about climate activism projects while eliciting emotional responses that motivate action.
MMC sees a clear link between the media we consume and the material impact on people’s lives, and dedicated their work to spark action in the climate justice movement in innovative ways. The Youth Harbour’s Action Grant supported MMC’s Climate Warriors projects, one of which consists of the Climate Warriors quiz – a personality quiz designed to guide people who are beginning their climate activism journeys. The quiz provides participants with a list of resources and inspiration based on their personality, skills, and preferences.
Success Projects
My Media Creative has seen success on grand scales. Their most recognizable partner is Greenpeace Canada. In 2022, MMC designed video and display advertisements for Greenpeace’s campaigns calling for federal biodiversity protection and for banks to withdraw support from fossil fuel projects. As a result, over 60,000 Canadians signed Greenpeace’s petition to demand a strong Biodiversity Act.
MMC also created a video for Divest McGill, an organization calling for the university to divest from fossil fuels and other harmful investments. The video, “Paid by McGill,” parodies McGill’s alumni donorship campaign “Made by McGill” and reached over 50,000 views 24 hours after upload. It contributed to Divest McGill’s recent success: McGill announced it is divesting all direct holdings from fossil fuel firms listed in the Carbon Underground 200 by 2025.
My Media Creative has worked with its fair share of high-profile organizations but recently narrowed their approach to a specific type of storytelling: documentaries.
For your voice to be heard, you need to be seen – and organizations like Greenpeace already had plenty of eyes on them. Instead, My Media Creative is uplifing the voices of leaders who deserve to be seen, heard, and appreciated.
The Youth Harbour’s support also funded the production of My Media Creative’s Climate Warriors four-part docuseries. Each episode showcases a different youth leader working towards climate justice in Canada. MMC recently continued the project, highlighting the four recipients of The Lawson Foundation’s Youth Action and Environment Pilot Fellowship.
About the Documentaries
These documentaries bring the lens of the climate movement down to the individual. And the documentaries are personal – we see the activists in their own homes, interacting with family members, going through childhood photos, or of relatives who inspire their work. Viewers are brought into their world and feel a connection with these youth.
We also see the leaders in their element – from wading through marshes at the Bay of Fundy to walking on the land that the Six Nations of the Grand River refused to cede. In every case, seeing these leaders’ relationship with their communities helps connect us to their work, a feat that cannot be replicated in other forms of media.
My Media Creative leans into another pivotal aspect that makes their documentaries sing: the feeling of hope. Fear and anger are lucrative emotions that are faster to invoke. An image or single sentence can anger us to answer a call to action – but is it enough to sustain us? MMC could have taken this route as there is a lot to be angry about when it comes to the climate crisis, but instead, they chose the more difficult route of instilling hope.
When we watch a Climate Warriors documentary, we aren’t seeing an overwhelming mountain of dread and struggle against an unfathomable opponent. We are simply seeing… another person. Someone who is not acting out of fear, but out of love – for their family, community, environment, and the future they envision.
It shows the viewer what climate action looks like on an individual level. By showing what one person can do, the viewer can clearly see how their individual efforts can make an impact. It also shows us that climate action doesn’t have to be scary or come from a place of hatred – a place that will lead activists to burn out. Instead, it can come from a place of love and hope. And it shows us that whatever we do, we are not doing it alone.
My Media Creative’s shift to focus on independent storytelling work is also a shift on how they make an impact. It echoes the beginning of this story: climate activism comes in all forms, and so do its impacts. There’s no way to quantify the inspiration and empathy drawn from MMC’s documentaries, but if you look at yourself, you’ll understand how work like this is what brings the climate movement together – to unite ourselves and change the world.
