Story Movements 2026
Hosted by the Center for Media & Social Impact, Story Movements is the national convening where creative and civic storytelling meets strategy, and collaboration fuels change. This is not just a conference—it’s a catalyst. Join a dynamic mix of filmmakers, journalists, comedians, creative artists, scholars, and media leaders as we explore how civic storytelling and community power drives real-world impact.
Story Movements 2024
Our 2024 Story Movements convening took place on March 7th and 8th at Planet Word Museum in Washington D.C. The convening brought together people from the worlds of tech, comedy, media, activism, philanthropy, filmmaking, and more to share and examine how storytelling can impact the world and create social change. We also enjoyed standup from a stellar lineup of comedians in our comedy show, “Oh, We Can Joke About That?” proving that humor can be a powerful tool to help inspire important conversations.
Story Movements 2021
Our 2021 Story Movements convening took place on October 14th and 15th at Planet Word Museum in Washington D.C. The event, hosted by CMSI, gathered a group of media makers across a broad continuum of talent to share their culture, work, storytelling best practices, outreach strategies, and media technologies. In the act of coming together for two days, filmmakers, movement communicators, comedians, and journalists generated new ideas for using evocative storytelling to inspire deep conversations in our communities and propel social and cultural change.
Story Movements 2019
Our 2019 Story Movements convening took place on March 1st and 2nd at Katzen Arts Center at American University. At the event, CMSI hosted a wide spectrum of social justice-oriented media makers from the worlds of documentary film, journalism, podcasting, comedy, community organizing, and tech. It was a meeting of passionate voices who use the power of media to shift and shape culture and policy and hold power to account.
Story Movements 2016
Our 2016 Story Movements convening took place on September 15th and 16th at the Greenberg Theater at American University. The event was catalytic two-day convening that examined platforms and genres of civic media storytelling through the lens of contemporary struggles for social justice. From documentary film to investigative journalism to virtual reality to participatory storytelling to persuasive gaming to photography, the convening examined and captured the current and future-looking moment in story-led demands for social change.