Challenge

The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has a vision for violence free communities, where women and children are safe, and men are working to heal and make positive change. All across the nation, men are levelling up as partners, fathers, brothers, and mates, and proving that this change is possible by asserting their masculinity in different, more positive ways. How can we use these inspiring stories to help encourage men and society at large to rethink harmful norms that limit our perspectives on what makes a man?

Solution

In close collaboration with the MSD team, we honed in on fatherhood for our storytelling vehicle and gathered stories from five men about their experiences. Through a series of videos, the men share stories about how parenting has changed their thoughts and ways. Disrupting commonly held views on manhood is good for everyone — men have more freedom to be themselves, relationships are stronger, challenges are easier to navigate.

To communicate this, we designed the interview and filming process to capture moments of humour, joy, and satisfaction, as well as reflection. As a set, the four-minute videos show there are many ways to approach fatherhood, and to be a good man. The series asks viewers to question what they expect from men as fathers, and broaden their view of what’s possible.

Impact

The stories feature on the Change is Possible website to help inspire men all across the motu to rethink what it means to be a man and drive social change. In addition to the five episodes, we also created a 30-second cutdown of each film for use on social media and a trailer to celebrate the series as a whole.