As the many stamps in my passport indicate, I travel often and the people I meet, along with their connections and communities, offer up many exciting ideas, initiatives, and experiences that I share in this newsletter with you in the spirit of the learning journey that I believe is lifelong.
With that in mind, this week, I want to tell you about a social enterprise in Brazil with a unique leadership model and a mission for creating stories that impact social change — a mission as close to my heart now as it was in the work I led for visionary Ted Turner during the glory days of Turner Broadcasting and later, for social entrepreneur Jeff Skoll, as a board member of Participant Media.
I witnessed firsthand how stories crafted with care and intention have the power to inform, inspire, and activate positive social change.
It was through the Participant board that I met Ana Lúcia Villela — one of Brazil’s leading philanthropists and social entrepreneurs. On a visit to Brazil, I had the good fortune to get to know the leaders of the social enterprise she founded to create films, television, and social media content.
“I see entertainment not as a tool to impose a singular worldview, but as a way to amplify the diversity of human experiences, aligning our work with the Sustainable Development Goals,” says Ana Lúcia. “When I founded the social enterprise Alana, and later co-founded Maria Farinha Films & Co (MFF&Co), it stemmed from a deeply personal belief in the transformative power of advocacy, rooted in the art of potent storytelling.”
The leaders of MFF&Co: Flavia Carvalho Doria, Ana Lúcia Vilella, Mariana Oliva, Luana Lobo, and Estela Renner (Credit: Miro)
I had a memorable lunch in São Paulo with Ana’s team at Alana––six remarkable women leaders — Luana Lobo, Mariana Oliva, Estela Renner, Flavia Doria and Fernanda Flandoli — and I can confirm that simply sitting with them will change your energy frequency. They lead with a model of “collaborative intelligence” in every aspect of their work that is operationally, creatively, and strategically-grounded in values that they (and I) share that are essential for creating a better world: purpose, collaboration, empathy, compassion, and joy.
“We’ve developed a collaborative governance model that thrives on the collective intelligence of powerful women leaders,” says Flavia Doria, executive director at Alana and CEO at AlanaLab. “This collaboration extends both internally, among our sister organizations, and externally, through coalitions, co-investments, and partnerships that span across all sectors.”
“With groups of women sharing C-level responsibilities at both Alana and MFF&Co, and over 70% of our senior roles held by women, we’ve woven together diverse voices to foster innovation at every level — strategic, operational, and creative. Our impact comes not from any one individual but from the unity and strength of a team driven by shared goals and a profound commitment to the greater good.”
The women leaders of Alana and MFF&Co.
These values and goals are not just nice words with this group; they have evidence of the impact that is possible when you merge philanthropic capital with partner investments. The success they've had proves that such collaborative models can have impressive impact.
From productions like the international franchise "The Beginning of Life" (premiered on Netflix, available now on Apple TV), which inspired parental leave policies in companies and was used by UNICEF worldwide to raise awareness of early childhood development, to "Aruanas," which attracted 35 million viewers and helped change public opinion about the value of the standing forest in Brazil.
“Through the lens of women’s leadership, we seek to address complex global issues with empathy and collective action, creating content that goes beyond entertainment to drive meaningful, systemic change,” says Ana.
Since its inception, MFF&Co has never seen national borders as limits on its work and impact. Guided by global causes, they have always sought to transcend geographical barriers to achieve broader impact. For MFF&Co, it's not countries that define their efforts but the urgent needs of humanity and the belief that cinema and media can be transformative forces on a global scale.
Ted Turner believed that, too, and he created a transformative force with CNN Productions. Jeff Skoll also proved you can make Oscar-winning films at Participant Media — nearly 100 nominations for Academy awards and 11 Best Pictures — and also impact public opinion and policy.
Sadly, there are few visionaries like Turner and Skoll, and the inspiring Ana Lúcia and her team, as most media companies abandon the potential for positive social impact in the pursuit of box office revenues as their only measurement of success.
Media is just too powerful for the one imperative of profit. History has too many examples of misinformation, disinformation, and negative media impact, and today, too few examples like Alana and MFF&Co.
I want to elevate their leadership model and their success in Brazil as that country will play a most critical leadership role next year as the host country for both G20 and COP30. In both convenings, world leaders will grapple with the existential threat to life as we know it on planet earth, and engage policymakers to make their right moves.
We need more people everywhere to be better informed and engaged. We need a new collective force of public pressure to demand that world leaders take the actions necessary to restore our natural systems that are necessary for life, moving us off reliance on fossil fuel. Leaders must embrace the adaptations of the innovative and regenerative practices that exist and will move us towards a liveable future for everyone.
That is the purpose and the shared mission of Project Dandelion, to elevate and amplify the work of companies like Alana and MFF&Co — stories that inspire hope, communicate solutions, and spark change. We will need all the collective intelligence we can bring forward to solve the polycrisis the world is facing.
I know that Ana Lúcia, Alana, and the MFF&Co teams are preparing stories and films with the imperative to inform and activate. Watch for their stories and support the films, the stories, and the social media that lifts us up and moves us forward.
Onward!
- Pat
