Catalyst Films
We believe in the power of stories to engage, teach, and persuade. Our work focuses on sharing the stories of people and organizations to the audiences that matter–from communicating with your team to broadcasting to the general public.
Memorable characters. Factual Information. Inspiring Action.
Recent Work: Alabama Bound
Feature-length award-winning documentary Alabama Bound explores the legal roller-coaster ride of LGBTQ family rights in the South over the last decade. The film offers an intimate view into the lives of three lesbian families in Alabama as they set precedents and fight the courts for their children during the time that federal marriage equality comes to a head. This is the story of a powerful community living with both frustration and hope in a conservative state, where the line between church and state is often blurred.
Alabama Bound won numerous awards during its 2017 film festival run, including New York’s NewFest Grand Jury Best DocumentaryAward, the Sidewalk + Shout Jury Award and Best Alabama Film Audience Award, The Shindig Film Festival Best Documentary, Atlanta Out on Film Best Women’s Film, and Fairhope Film Festival Grand Jury Best Documentary and Audience Award Best Documentary.
Alabama Bound is now being broadcast via PBS as part of the film series Reel South.
Producer Michele Forman
Michele Forman is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and Director of Media Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Forman gained her experience as an executive in feature films. As Director of Development at Spike Lee's 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, she was responsible for the acquisition and development of new projects. In addition, Forman served as associate producer on Mr. Lee's Academy Award-nominated film 4 Little Girls, a feature-length documentary for HBO about the bombing of the Sixteenth Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.
Since 1997, Forman has been directing and producing documentary projects for film and television, earning an Emmy nomination for Coat of Many Colors in 2001. Her feature-length documentary Climb for the Cause: A Breast Cancer Story (2007) documents five women who became activists for women’s health after surviving breast cancer. The film sent Forman up Mt. Kilimanjaro, one of the world’s tallest peaks.
Community-Based Documentary
CASE STUDY: The Birmingham Movement
Media Consulting
Catalyst Films works alongside a number of non-profit and educational organizations to produce media for screenings, live events, broadcast, and social media.
We can help organizations develop internal capacity for producing polished media pieces and create interactive engagement on social media with community members.
We have worked with National Collegiate Honors Council, Peace and Justice Studies Association, Alabama Rivers Alliance, Greenbelt Alliance, Names Not Numbers, San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, National Endowment of the Humanities, and National Endowment of Art.
We welcome the opportunity to speak to your group, screen our work, and lead a hands-on production workshop.
Media Education
Michele Forman is the Founding Director of Media Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The aim of the program is to educate college students in media production practice, as well as connect them with crucial community issues in the Greater Birmingham area through documentary filmmaking, oral history, and multimedia-based research.
The UAB Media Studies Program has created a student-produced archive of over 400 community-based social justice short films. Program partnerships have included The Jefferson County Memorial Project, McWane Science Center, UAB School of Public Health, Sidewalk Film Festival, Vulcan Park and Museum, Red Mountain Park, WBHM, and StoryCorps. Media Studies has been supported in part by the Ford Foundation Difficult Dialogues Initiative.
News & Reviews
Harvard Magazine
GROWING UP in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1970s and ’80s, Michele Forman ’93 loved visual art and reading. At Harvard, she chose a double concentration in visual and environmental studies and English, and felt particularly drawn to documentary filmmaking, which “revolves around talking to people and being curious about their lives.” As a senior, she took a screenwriting seminar from Spike Lee, who returned a draft
Bay Area Reporter
In "Alabama Bound," filmmaker Carolyn Sherer tackles the rather prickly subject of same-sex parenting and adoption in a state that could easily be considered the nation's most deeply "red." The film takes us directly into the lives of lesbian women and their children, whose constitutional and human rights are put on hold while the state's white Christian oligarchy fights a rearguard battle against justice, led by a right-wing state judge, Roy Moore.
The Advocate
Of course, there’s a ton of amusing and uplifting experiences in our lineup, but given the divisive cultural rifts of modern day, I wanted to highlight some films that highlight the diversity and momentum of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community, even as our fellow Americans are denied basic rights, while others are molded into their respective society norms.
Alabama Bound: As the first openly gay representative in Alabama, Patricia Todd serves as the lone voice of the LGBTQ community in the deeply conservative state. Meanwhile in this doc, lesbians face the courts to demand legal protections for their families.
Let’s Talk
Tell us about the stories you and your organization want to share. We would love to help you produce powerful media.