This article explores the impact of shared documentary screenings, highlighting how they foster empathy, ignite action, and bridge the gap between film and real-world change. The author, an impact producer, shares personal experiences and insights into creating spaces for dialogue, reflection, and social impact.
Have you ever had that moment? The lights go up in the cinema. The credits roll. Tears are rolling, too. Something sits heavy in your chest. You feel moved. Changed. Filled with urgency. A deep desire to do something. Anything. The 2019 documentary For Sama, in which citizen journalist Waad Al-Kateab captures the Syrian uprising from the perspective of her young family, was that moment for me.
And I’m proud to say that I’ve spent the last five years helping others feel it too, working as its impact producer alongside Waad and her doctor husband, Hamza. We are not merely collaborators – we are family now. I’ve lost count of the number of audiences I’ve seen viewing For Sama, but I never forget the reactions. Stunned silence followed by a wave of applause – not polite clapping, but something louder and deeper. A message sent straight to the filmmaker and its subjects: We see you. We stand with you. It’s more than a screening, it’s solidarity. There’s something about sharing these films in a room full of strangers that creates a charge. You can feel it rise: the lump in your throat, the gasp from the back row, the moment someone sobs, and someone else passes them a tissue. That’s the power of collective documentary viewing. It’s emotional. It’s political. It can change people. And in this post-pandemic world, now that we’ve remembered what it means to gather again, that act of watching together feels more vital than ever. It’s enriched further when those with relevant lived experience – doctors, humanitarians, journalists – join these events. Their voices deepen the connection and stay with people long after they have left the room. At almost every documentary screening I’ve been part of, the same questions echo: “What can I do?” “Where can I donate?” Audiences often want more than awareness, they want a role to play, and purpose-driven filmmakers don’t want their stories to live and die within a single festival premiere. Another question I hear often: “What’s an impact producer?” It has taken me a while to land on a good answer, but here’s what I’ve come up with: an impact producer builds the bridge between film and change. We use storytelling to create space for outrage, for grief, for solidarity. We make sure the film doesn’t end when the credits roll. We move audiences to action, and help the filmmaker to build campaigns with longevity, legacy and real-world impact. So, what does that impact actually look like? It looks like the first UK screening of For Sama since the fall of Assad, where Syrian panelists and audience members joined to sing songs from home. A moment of unity. A reminder that even after unimaginable loss, voices rise. (In fact, For Sama is one of the rare documentaries whose impact campaign became a movement and then an organisation. Action For Sama is still growing years later.) It looks like transforming a screening of Waad al-Kateab’s latest film, Death Without Mercy, into a space of remembrance: an exhibition of photographs, a table of postcards, and an invitation to write messages to those who lost everything in the Syria-Turkey earthquakes. It looks like a recent screening of Gaza: Doctors Under Attack (a film I’m also now attached to as impact producer), hosted by activist and comedian Bassem Youssef, where panelist Dr Omar Abdel-Mannan (co-founder of Health Workers for Palestine) called upon every hospital leader across the UK to watch the film. Through its powerful first run of screenings, I saw people emerge shaken, but determined to share and to speak up. This is what happens when people confront hard truths together. It builds empathy. It prompts questions. It makes injustice harder to ignore. And it proves something I’ve come to believe deeply: lack of understanding often outweighs lack of empathy. Many people do care – they just don’t know how to connect. Or they don’t think it’s their place. Or they feel powerless. “I’m not in the right headspace to watch that,” people say. I hear that all the time. But I always want to ask: “When is the right time?” Because these crises don’t wait. They keep happening. Gaza. Sudan. The refugee crisis. Climate collapse. Sometimes the first step is simply choosing to look. To sit in discomfort. To bear witness. We may enter a screening as strangers, but we leave a little more connected. While there’s an emotional toll to this work – holding space for outrage, grief and pain – it’s also deeply rewarding, because you get to hold hope, too. You get to see change happen in real time. It also serves as a constant reminder to me to check my own privilege. I believe this work matters now more than ever. We need more voices. More films. More audiences of people who are willing to open their hearts. Next time you see an opportunity to watch a documentary in person, I encourage you to go. Not simply to watch, but to feel, to learn, to connect and to act
Documentary Film Impact Producing Social Change Collective Viewing Empathy Activism
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