<\/p>\n
Actor Chris Pine was just 13 when his family\u2019s finances took a turn and his parents lost their home.<\/p>\n
So when the \u201cStar Trek\u201d actor read the Pulitzer Prize-winning book \u201cEvicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City\u201d from author Matthew Desmond, about eight families who fight to stay housed in Milwaukee, he knew he had to make a film out of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe power of what we do as filmmakers … is really to remind people that we are not alone, that our experiences are transcendent,\u201d Pine recently told an audience at the Sundance Film Festival. \u201cThis is one of those stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pine is producing a documentary based on the book and it\u2019s among several projects backed by Harbor Fund, an emerging Utah-based nonprofit investment group that leverages the donations of high-net-worth individuals and other investors to support films, television shows and documentaries that have a positive social message.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood stories can change how people feel,\u201d Lindsay Hadley, Harbor Fund\u2019s co-founder and chief executive, said in an interview. \u201cWe just really believe in the power of film and the entertainment world to harness a society of compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since it began about a year and a half ago, the fund has raised $15 million from 82 donors with an average contribution of $250,000. Already, Hadley said, $10 million has been deployed across 22 projects, including \u201cEvicted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s rooted in housing policy and economics, but at its core, it\u2019s about people \u2014 and stories like this aren\u2019t always easy to back in an industry built to minimize risk,\u201d Pine said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cHarbor Fund immediately understood the moral center of the film and why it needed to be told honestly. Their mission goes beyond financing films. They care about what happens after a premiere \u2014 about bringing films into communities that initiate civic conversation and making sure the conversation continues beyond the screen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding a consensus on what constitutes a social good can be tricky, especially in the current fraught and deeply partisan political climate. <\/p>\n
Hadley said she gets extensive advice on pitches from the fund\u2019s advisory board, which includes filmmakers like Patty Jenkins, David Oyelowo, Amy Redford and Mark Burnett. The projects seek to home in on shared values and avoid works that dehumanize other people, she said.<\/p>\n
Harbor Fund wants to reach $100 million in the next two years, said Hadley, who previously served as chief development officer for advocacy organization Global Citizen and has produced its annual festival in New York\u2019s Central Park that supports social issues.<\/p>\n
Efforts to finance socially conscious films aren\u2019t new. Culver City-based production company Participant built its reputation around projects that prioritized social commentary, including Al Gore\u2019s 2006 environmental documentary \u201cAn Inconvenient Truth\u201d as well as Oscar-winning feature films such as 2015\u2019s \u201cSpotlight\u201d and 2018\u2019s \u201cGreen Book.\u201d But the company closed in 2024<\/a> as the market for independent films changed drastically.<\/p>\n