Brave New Films Reviews

Over 35 people have come and gone from BNF in less than 1 year. Also note, BNF only has 10-20 staff at a given time. Why is this? Senior management -- which includes 90% white men and run by an out of touch president that knows little to nothing about real organizing -- creates a culture of fear, intimidation and "do as your told" environment. They hire bright and energetic staff that they end up not trusting and keep completely under their thumb. And let's talk about the sexist/racist environment. One of Brave New Films' issues is racial justice. At any given time, BNF hires mostly white men. The first to be fired, questioned, or dismissed? Women, latinos, blacks, and any other person of a minority. As I said, the leadership is mostly white men. Women are usually paid less and given less opportunity to grow at the organization. Women are also more likely to be bullied, ignored, and dismissed. For a time, BNF had a latino organization called Cuentame. Once the director of Cuentame left, the president dismantled it (even though their was interest from another organization - Presente - to keep it alive) and fired all of the employees of this campaign (all latino) or forced them to quit. The organization is known to throw staff under the bus, not pay overtime for hourly employees, hire people on contracts so they can avoid paying for healthcare and benefits, bully staff when standing up for themselves, and give 5 PTO days a year ( this counts for sick AND vacation and they usually making you work while on vacation), and 10 "hiatus" days which fall around 4th of July and christmas (these are not vacation days, they're days when the office is closed.) I thankfully was not on the production side but it is so awful. Producers frequently work 60-80 hours a week, this is including hours of back and forth emails after hours with the president. The president punishes and patronizes employees for not checking their email before they go to bed and before 8am - even if they just worked a 12-16 hour shift. Producers and editors are hired to carry out the vision of the president, any objection could lead to termination. The editors literally work in a 4 person cave with no windows. This is no joke. Working weekends is very common. Campaign staff's experience? A constant smash against the wall. There is no consistency, long term strategy, vision, goals, mission. The point of the organization is to get press for the president. Campaign team spends hours on work plans to only be trashed or changed without input, notice, or reason why. Campaign and production staff are expected to write daily reports and weekly reports on all things the president might be interested in. Why? He comes to the office TWICE A WEEK. Oh and did I say there's NO flexibility at this organization? Well, there isn't. All staff must be willing to do the most ridiculous and out-of-classifcation work. I'll never forget the time the development associate (her job is to raise money for the organization) was in charge of getting the president to and from the airport in a black car for his child's graduation or some event not having anything to do with our work. If she refused? Retaliation for sure. So many great employees have been let go or forced to leave because of opposing believes with the president or senior staff. For standing up for the same social justice that BNF claims to fight for. I could go on but I think you get the point.

The company's premise is to make relevant social justice features and shorts. A noble cause to be sure, unfortunately, that worthy mission is completely obscured under terrible mismanagement. The company president, CEO Robert Greenwald, micro-manages the staff to an almost pathological extent; sending out demanding emails every five minutes at all hours of the day and night - even on weekends. Worse, he second guesses every decision his staff makes (no matter how small, petty, or routine), making it almost impossible for anyone to get their work done. It is not uncommon for the company president to become obsessed with a simple task, like writing an internal memo, and demand it be rewritten 20 times in a row wasting an entire day. People come into Brave new Films excited about changing the world, then they quickly become burnt-out and leave. When I worked there, half the staff of 25 would quit or leave within a year - which is an incredibly high turnover rate, even for a non-profit. The company seems to be about serving the emotional needs of CEO Robert Greenwald, rather than making a real difference on social justice issues. It's really sad.