Client: PAI
Year: 2026
The Challenge: PAI was launching the Youth Institute for Reproductive Rights, a new program that adapts advocacy strategies from decades of work in over 30 countries for young people in the US. The film had to capture the energy and purpose of a week-long program in about a minute, in a format that works on social media, where attention is short. It also had to be the opening chapter of a larger series of videos about the Freedom Starts With Her Campaign that would be filmed in four cities over the year, so it needed to set a look and tone that later films could build on. On top of that, we were working with young participants on a personal and politically charged subject, so the footage and the interviews had to feel authentic and respectful.
The Solution: We filmed on location in DC over two days, capturing participants in workshops and conversations and recording short interviews with the program’s leadership and with participants. In the edit, we built the teaser around the participants’ own words. It moves from PAI’s reason for launching the Institute, to participants describing what it gave them, and ends on the organization’s hope that young advocates leave with the tools and direction to be more effective. The result is a one-minute film that PAI uses across its social channels to promote the program and the campaign, and that sets the visual and narrative approach for the rest of the series.
