During his time working for the international NGO Global Brigades in Ghana, Honduras, and Nicaragua, Luke Namer saw first-hand how media sensationalism distorted lives and issues around the world.

Media influenced beliefs of false ebola outbreaks in Ghana and gang violence throughout Central America, which directly impacted local development goals. First-hand exposure to how journalism directly impacts communities fueled Luke to create a media organization that focused on positive human character, communities, and cross cultural projects. The result was Redefined Films.

Redefined’s mission began by making documentaries that focused on powerful stories of adversity and local innovative solutions. These stories covered a variety of topics such as an activist turned educator in Myanmar, developing mobile classrooms to educate a large child working population, a scientist turned activist in northern India, organizing women collectives to save and regenerate ancestral grains, and a social entrepreneur in New Jersey using the art of photography to highlight art over violence and raise awareness of event programming in the community.

Redefined has also worked with the NGO's Global Brigades, WorldWide Orphans, and Conscious Impact to create media that showcases local partners in global development. Working with NGOs to highlight their beneficiaries as partners rather than helpless victims not only changed donor perception of international aid work, but also galvanized immense support. Some examples of this include the over $1 million raised for child education and the thousands of students who formed a grassroots movement to screen Redefined’s first documentary ‘Lenscapes’ at over 25 universities.

The Redefined Films team has recently discovered the powerful nature of collaborative filmmaking while collaborating on the script for Memoria Nueva with the indigenous Wayuu community in Colombia. Going forward, Redefined will scale the process of collaborative filmmaking for documentaries and branded content by both incorporating film and story workshops into their production methodology and developing an open source curriculum that other filmmakers and journalists can use.   

Follow Redefined Films on Facebook or on Instagram. You can also message Redefined with ideas on stories and/or collaborating or hosting an interactive film experience for their new films Memoria Nueva or Steep Education.