Change My Mind

Change My Mind is a television series that will tackle a different social issue each episode.
The program will take one adult and one child with opposing opinions on a social issue and throw them together for 48 hours to see if the enthusiastic voice of a child can change the mind of a resolute adult. Each participant will be given 24 hours to plead their case or enact their campaign to change the others mind.
The current landscape sees the older and younger generations polarised like never before – this show gives us an opportunity to bridge that gap and create a bit more tolerance and understanding on both sides.

The main impact of our project is to bridge the divide between the current generations. With such polarising opinions between people across a range of social issues, the goal of the program is to unite people and show where are how opinions have come from depending on any one individual’s life experiences. The first part of implementing change is by curating empathy and this series hopes to accomplish this both within the show through its participants and to the audience watching it.

Short term, we hope that just watching the participants in the show go on their journey that people may re-think their particular stand point on that particular issue. Putting faces to stories always has an impact on how people see an issue and if they are able to really relate to the people in the series, it could be enough to change an attitude or an action that they are currently doing in their lives.
Medium term we would hope to see more dialogues between generations taking place about a whole raft of issues: Climate change, racism, gender inequality, immigration etc. Exchanges of ideas and experiences will be encouraged as part of the shows social media channels.
Long term ideally we would build a new global level of tolerance between people of all ages. Change can happen very quickly and very slowly, but it cannot happen without a discussion because ultimately someone has to change someone else’s mind to implement a change in any scenario where there was once polarising views.

After winning the Mip International Format Pitch we were able to partner with a large international production company to co-produce this series with us. Our partners have great experience in the factual television arena and are assisting in solidifying the format with us. This reach gives us access to a larger audience than just Australia as well as resources outside of Australia. We also have relationships with many organisations that have huge access to young people across the world that are interested in activism and global issues.

We hope that after people watch an episode of the show they will walk away and rethink their approach to how they interact with people that have differing opinions than they do. It’s easy to dig in and stick firm to ideas and beliefs that you have always held to, but it takes a lot of reflection and bravery to re-examine those ideals. We want people to go and join a Facebook group they wouldn’t normally engage with, spark up conversations with people they wouldn’t normally converse with. Essentially, we want to create new dialogues. Change My Mind provides a platform for discussion of issues affecting all of us. The characters and their strongly held views will at times provide laughter and at times move us to tears but moreover will surely be powerful and entertaining viewing for audiences worldwide.