good.film
3 years ago
“There is no greater power on this earth than story.”
Libba Bray
Nicely put, Ms Bray. We tip our digital hat to you! At Goods, we too believe that storytelling - that wonderful, shapeshifting art - can truly change the world.
It certainly had an impact on all those flickering cave walls 30 millennia ago. And you could safely label storytelling a hit back in 1599, when the Globe Theatre exposed Londoners to a few ideas some bloke named Shakespeare decided to scribble down.
Streak forward to 2022, and we’re living in the age of global streaming: a torrent of powerful stories releasing all around us. And for the very best of them - the movies, documentaries and TV series that can (and do) lead to change - there’s a handy term we can apply: social impact entertainment.
If you’re keen for a deeper dive, we’ve hooked together a full 101 on social impact entertainment here, but the TL;DR version is that stories that make us feel an emotion can prompt us to change our behaviours. In fact, studies have shown that we humans (emotional beasts that we are) only make major behavioural adjustments after an emotional driver pushes us to change.
How does that relate to streaming? Well, we might see a classic climate change documentary like An Inconvenient Truth and adjust our energy usage or recycling habits as a result; or perhaps we’ve watched the latest Euphoria and we’re moved to make a donation to a cause highlighted in the show, like Addiction or Mental Health.
That’s social impact entertainment at work - and it was our light bulb moment. Stories make us feel, and feeling leads to action - so we created a gateway to connect stories to action (in our case, the action of donating). A platform to harness those good-giving feels and put them to good use, right in the moment, to do good… are you getting a sense of where our name comes from yet?
Lo and behold, the good.film platform. A place where movie buffs, documentary connoisseurs and streaming lovers alike can search, share, curate and discover content they love. We’re pretty chuffed with the result - so let’s explore how it works.
Good.film explores every streaming service to help you discover movies and TV around the causes you care about - and more importantly, where to watch them.
Type any title into the good.film search bar and voila - within seconds, it’s linked to the platform. You’ll see topline info about the film (like the cast, crew and runtime) along with a list of the different streaming services where you can watch it instantly.
Just click the logo of your preferred streamer, and it will take you directly to the title on that streaming service. If you’re already logged into your streaming account, then fire up the popcorn and start watching straight away! But hey, if you need time to shop for that three-course cheese platter (we feel you), then you can always add the title to your Goods watchlist for later. Too easy.
You’ve probably noticed we’ve mentioned causes a few times - so what's a 'cause'? Well, it’s any area in our society (or on our planet) that needs and deserves positive change. We don’t claim to have the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, but in a purely coincidental nod to Douglas Adams, the Goods platform supports 42 different causes. You can check out the full list here - but if you’re thinking of causes like Climate Change, Disabilities, Female Empowerment, Racism or World Hunger, you’re absolutely on the right track.
When you’re looking at movies and shows on Goods, you’ll see the chance to tag them with their most relevant causes. Take An Inconvenient Truth as an example: it makes sense to tag the film with causes like Climate Change, Environment, and Democracy & Politics, say. Just finished Euphoria? Go ahead and hit those LGBTIA, Mental Health and Female Empowerment tags, gurl.
If a movie’s already tagged with the cause you were thinking of - great! Vote that cause so your voice is being heard too. The more Votes on a cause, the more easily discoverable that title becomes for everyone in the Goods community.
How you tag & Vote is up to you. By choosing the causes you think are the most relevant, you’ll help other people who are into the same causes discover things you think they need to see. And naturally, it works in reverse too: when you browse Goods and filter by causes, you’ll find all the TV & movies that other users have tagged and Voted by cause. You’re part of a community, baby!
Oh, one more thing: when you create a good.film profile, you can prioritise what you care about - by adding causes to your favourite causes list. That way, we can show you content we think you’ll love first, based on the causes you’ve chosen. Because who doesn’t love a personal touch?
It’s one thing to discover movies that get your heart soaring - but it’s even better to inspire others with the stories you find powerful. At good.film you can curate lists of favourites to share with friends, family and the Goods community.
Lists are the perfect way to group content - and they can be about any topic that grabs you! Here’s a few examples of lists that really got us doing a Redford nod of appreciation:
Bravo team - now that’s how you get a conversation going. Especially when you share your lists among your fellow cause-minded chums. Okay, here’s the GIF:
So you’ve watched something great, and you’re feeling inspired and motivated - what now? Goods helps you turn this feeling into action, by supporting your chosen causes with one-off or monthly donations to drive real change. You choose the cause that moves you the most, and we split 100% of your donation evenly between three charities doing amazing work in that cause's area.
That’s right, good.film isn’t just a movie search tool - it’s a touchpoint to the very best charities in Australia. We’ve vetted and verified every charity we support through a strict obstacle course of research and review - landing on some of the organisations making the biggest impact. And the best part? Since your donation is shared equally between three charities, you’ll never face a Sophie’s Choice scenario where you have to choose one charity and discard the rest.
One thing we really want to make clear: no matter the amount, Goods doesn’t take a cut from your donation. Nothing, nada, nix. So you can feel great knowing every cent of your welcome donation reaches the charities working directly on the causes you care about. As the platform grows, we’ll add the option to ‘tip’ Goods - which helps us keep things humming here at Goods HQ - but we plan on staying free forever.
Keep an eye out for our newsletter: we’ll keep you updated with the best shows coming out every month, and our picks of what to save to your watch list. We’ll also let you know what’s new on the platform itself as we add new features and functions. And if you’ve been getting tag-happy that week (matching tons of films to causes), you might even find yourself in the spotlight - as one of the ‘top voters’ in our Goods community. We love to see it!
So that about wraps up the Goods platform. Got the idea? Why not give it a whirl. Sign up at good.film today, to help make change where you feel it matters most. Discover inspirational movies and TV exploring a variety of causes. Tag movies and streaming series with causes you care about. Create lists and share them with friends to keep the conversation going - and inspire others. Feel good. Do good!