company
We make narrative and documentary video and write code.
history
From 2007 to 2010, smallpower was based in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo. While we were there, we made, marketed, and distributed music, music videos, a documentary, a concert film, and a television show. We also produced live concerts, theatrical performances, and public screenings of our work.
The work we did in the DRC addressed social issues around HIV/AIDS, sexual and gender-based violence, and conflict resolution.
people
Ben Olander is a co-founder of smallpower, where he is a writer, director, designer and show runner. Ben ran the HIV/AIDS platform for PSI (Population Services International) in the Democratic Republic of Congo and worked with a microfinance bank for UK-based VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) in Cameroon. Ben also has an extensive background in new media as the co-founder of San Francisco-based Angry Monkey and the former Executive Creative Director at web-development agency Organic.
Tomas Apodaca (website) is a co-founder of smallpower, where he is a writer, director, and the technical lead. He worked at Stamen Design where he helped build sites and applications like cabspotting and the MoveOn.org national town hall map. He was a co-founder of the web development, entertainment, and R&D company Angry Monkey.
Peregrine McCroskey has been part of the smallpower team since the filming of the Rien Que La Vérité pilot in 2007 during which time she also co-directed an original music video raising awareness about sexual violence against women in the DRC. She has a masters in Global Communications and specializes in Franco-American production work, negotiating cultural logistics, and creative problem solving. Her first feature length film debuted at the UrbanWorld Film Festival in New York in 2010. In 2013 she is returning for her third year as the Senior Logistics Coordinator at the Cannes Film Festival for the American Pavilion working as a linguistic and cultural translator. A producer on many different levels, Peregrine especially enjoys the hands-on aspects, from making trash jello molds, to sewing costumes for puppets. Peregrine proudly hails from Kansas, but considers France her second home.
smallpower.org
The generative smallpower logo on this site was coded in Processing.js. The logo is based on a design by Gillian Evans (pdf). This site is running on the Stacey content management system.
contact
We're based in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can reach us at info@smallpower.org
alumni
Tunga Mbia was smallpower’s Executive Producer. She’s worked behind the camera, as a documentary director (Miseducating the World: The Misrepresentation of Africans in the Media), and a production assistant for 40 Acres and a Mule. She’s also worked in front of the camera, as a presenter for Imagine Afrika, a pan-African reality show, and as a VJ for MTV Europe.