Is Sparkwise the future of visual data to tell a new story of impact?

Last week, BAVC was a part of launching the new platform Sparkwise to help collect and compare the data on an entirely new visual platform. As they state, "Sparkwise was created by a team of world-class technologists, data visualization experts and social impact strategists. It is free, open source and available to anybody with a story to tell." So, is it really time to dust off those monthly analytic reports sitting on your hard-drives to build a data driving story of your film's impact? Maybe not quite...yet!

This new platform seems more like a great tool to assess a crisis than assess impact. From the first platform launched, by the documentary The Revolutionary Optimists, they seem to best use the impact of data through the visualization of the hard statistics of the color and odor of drinking water, immunization percentages, along with splashes of photos and videos. But, what is the impact? What is the moving story to show social impact?

At Quiet Little Place, we believe a film's impact is more than just hard statistics to show the void a story can fill. It's about tangible impact! Impact our your film being shared from community to community and those golden nuggets that rise to the surface. For example, with the Sin by Silence postcards that are still making an impact since we incorporated them as part of the first year of outreach. Since then the women in the film have been receiving countless letters and postcards. But, one story of impact is from a women in a shelter who we found out has her postcard of Rosemary Dyer framed on her nightstand. Every day she wakes up and sees Rosemary's smile it is another reminder of why she must not return to her abusive boyfriend! Incredible that just a printed postcard can turn into a life altering decision for a woman to make sure she continues down a path to ensure a safer future for herself. That is data that cannot be given a number. Cannot be given a statistic. Cannot be lumped in with random facts. It is a life changing moment that proves how documentaries can become more than just a film - it represents what great storytelling can do when we act with creativity and strategy to make an impact!