Zylbersztejn Ariel
Organization: Cinepop
Year Founded: 2004
Country: Mexico
Website: www.cinepop.com.mx
Geographic Area of Impact: Mexico.
Model: Social Business
Focus: Civic Participation ,Education,Technology.
Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Mexico, 2006 video (Spanish) The Innovation On the surface, Cinepop is an innovative way of providing free access to family films for the urban and rural poor in Mexico. But delve deeper and one finds that Cinepop is about much more than Hollywood’s latest releases. Rather, using movies as an entrée, Cinepop confronts society’s greatest challenges. Working collaboratively with business and government, the organization aims to improve housing, education and health, and provide access to microcredit. Cinepop is a self-sustaining social business that generates income through the sale of sponsorships to corporate partners. These profits are then reinvested to generate further social impact. To date, Cinepop’s efforts have affected the lives of over 350,000 people. The organization has been established in 8 major Mexican cities and over the last six months, has shown a 600% increase in sales and an 800% jump in profits. Background Movie going has long been a popular activity with Mexicans- regardless of income level. However, during the last decade, large movie chains have emerged and bought out the smaller, more affordable theatres frequented by lower-income families. As a result, the price of a movie ticket has dramatically risen, to US$4 per ticket, and limited film access to wealthier groups. Family movie outings are no longer a popular option with poorer populations. In a country where the average monthly income ranges between US$160 and US$800, treating a family of 5 to a movie at $4 dolars is quite simply not an option. The result is that children, adolescents and adults in lower income groups are limited to poor quality television programming for their entertainment. Ariel created Cinepop because he was convinced that large corporations wanted to become involved in socially oriented but sustainable endeavors. He has committed to a vision of cultural citizenship, a community where the most privileged commit to education and cultural inclusion of the most disenfranchised. And people are taking notice. Increasingly local governments have joined in this partnership, with growing benefits for all involved. Strategy Cinepop targets large poor urban areas or isolated rural towns in Mexico. Using popular communications vehicles such as megaphones and fliers, Cinepop publicizes upcoming feature presentations, usually Disney films such as “The Little Mermaid” or “Finding Nemo”. For the event, Cinepop inflates its enormous German-made film screens in the middle of the town plaza, and thousands of families- usually several generations – flock to the movies. Once the audience has gathered and before the film is featured, Cinepop opens the stage to socially oriented business and government initiatives to make their services known to the wide population. For example, Cinepop has teamed up with Compartamos, Mexico’s largest microcredit organization (founded by José Ignacio Avalos, Schwab social entrepreneur). To kick-start the collaboration, it coordinated a direct outreach effort, canvassing 3,600 small enterprises in a prospective event site- an urban slum- several weeks prior to the movie event. The aim was to encourage small entrepreneurs to come see the film and learn about credit opportunities. As a result, 250 micro loans were disbursed to provide working capital to small enterprises in the population. Cinepop also partners with local government to educate citizens about specific benefit programs. For example, Cinepop is teaming up with urban slum dwellers and local government in an area outside Mexico City to spearhead “Revive”, an integrated development initiative that seeks to provide thousands of disenfranchised citizens with greater economic and educational possibilities, as well as access to basic health care, dental work and legal advice. “Revive” seeks to foster employment opportunities by tapping into businesses seeking to establish branches in its participating communities. In addition to employing local citizens in these franchises, new hires must agree to attend the “Mid-life School”, a continuing education program training participants in both work related areas and life skills. Finally, Cinepop also works closely with companies around areas focused on improving quality of life. For example, in urban slums there is a problem with pet overpopulation, approximately 1.6 pets per household. People have little knowledge of how to care for them and how to ensure proper disposal of animal faces, which can present a health hazard. Cinepop has teamed up with Pedigree and Whiskas to catalyze a campaign called “One Pet, One Responsibility” providing thousands of pet owners with information on how to care properly for their household pets. During the last 4 years Cinepop has worked with more than 20 large corporations. The Entrepreneur The son of Uruguayan immigrants who came to Mexico via Israel, it is hard to believe that Ariel is just 26 years old. His experience and knowledge of the Mexican film world, and his vision and commitment to the poor, set him apart from his peers. At 18 years of age, Ariel began studying communications in Mexico, eventually traveling to New York to learn about film. As he learned, he began to reflect that Mexico’s social conditions affected more than just the content of its locally produced films- those conditions dictated basic audience access. He thus identified an opportunity where film could both serve to entertain and to educate while also contributing to the economic and cultural advancement of poorer communities. Ariel has directed and produced a number of short films. His film, Jai, has been featured in over 60 film festivals in more than 30 countries, including Cannes, and received a Prize at the German International Short Film Festival in the category of “Confrontations- Shorts against Violence and Intolerance”.
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