What We Do

Can Stories Really Change Lives?

"Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever." — Native American Proverb

What We Do

Forward Ever Media offers creative communications strategy, design, and video production for representation of brands, projects, and organizations.

We work with a variety of clients, from c-suite executives to creative teams, across various sectors, incl. tech, retail, public health/healthcare, philanthropy, social equity/inclusion, education, public policy, etc..

Our Game Changers Films division produces compelling digitals for corporate and non-profit leadership messaging, award-winning short films and docu-series, leadership podcasts, and more. We also produce content for film, tv and digital media for the entertainment industry, public television and the arts.

All of our work can be summed up as "storytelling to change the game."

What is Social Enterprise Consulting?

"Direct action, creativity, courage, and fortitude to create a new stable equilibrium that benefits society, ultimately on a global scale."
— Roger L. Martin & Sally Osberg, “Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition” - Stanford Social Innovation Review. Spring 2007

What can the power of Story do for your organization?
• Connects people to brands.
• Creates new networks from strategic digital sharing.
• Communicates company vision in compelling manner to employees, customers, or shareholders.
• Engages your target audience and reinforces messaging.
• Increases recall and awareness about what people are saying about you, your organization & the people you serve.
• Builds donor retention, sales, and/or brand awareness.
• Promotes conversation with your clients, board, staff, or volunteers and builds trust & authority.

List of Services

• Strategic communications for CEOs of corporate, philanthropic, and non-profit institutions
• Directing, writing, and producing advocacy-based micro-documentaries and narrative digital films for organizations and networks
• Strategic communications: blogs, op eds, executive speechwriting, editorial campaigns, etc.
• Multi-platform communications and social media for community based organizations, foundations, advocates, etc.
• Technical assistance & media literacy workshops/trainings for advocates, organizers, etc.
• Website design and multi-platform social marketing campaigns for organizations
• Targeted blogs, Op-eds, executive speechwriting, editorial campaigns, etc.
• Policy briefs, research, and web-based communication toolkits for practitioners, policy groups and foundations
• Web-based tools and multimedia applications/plug-ins for social media optimization

"The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our Work

Some recent clients.

Strategic Comms and Digital Media Production Services – we deliver a full suite of creative services, specializing in writing, producing and directing digitals for docu-series, scripted shorts, episodic, narrative, podcasts, and more.

The California Endowment

Provide strategic communications counsel to foundation's Senior Vice President. Executive writing and editing, including op eds, talking pts., white papers, and PSAs related to state and national public health and justice policies. Thought partner on DEI and Belonging.
Services/Credits:
• Strategic Comms, DEI, Research, Exec Writing, Producing;

Building Healthy Communities

“Together We Rise” is a 10-part documentary film series about everyday people building power to create greater health for their communities. It follows the lives of high school student activists, elected officials, tribal leaders, healers and trauma-informed care workers, food justice advocates, school administrators, policy leaders and others working with local BHC leaders from Tribal Lands in Del Norte County to San Diego to create lasting health equity in communities across the state of California. Part of a ten year, $1 billion statewide initiative to change the narrative about health inequities. -- Series to be completed: Nov.2020.
Services/Credits:
• Exec Producer, Director, Producer, and Writer

Kenneth Rainin Foundation

The Kenneth Rainin Foundation is a maverick in philanthropy, taking smart risks to seed start-up research and social impact-producing work across health, education, and the arts. We're proud to have helped produce their video series "Further Together." Produced Jan 2020
Credits:
• Comms, Director, and Producer

Equal Justice Society

We produced the mini-doc "Eva" on EJS founder Eva Paterson and an exclusive performance-based historical film called “Remembering 1619” marking the 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans at Jamestown, Virginia. Screened to a sold-out audience on August 20, 2019, at SFJAZZ. tinyurl.com/rc3u8ge
Services/Credits:
• Producer and Director

For more info: https://remembering1619.org/artisticpresentation/

KingMakers of Oakland: OUSD Office of Equity

Wrote, directed, and produced 8-episode series about the nation's first African American Male Achievement Program embedded within a school district (OUSD). Follows the work of the founder, teachers, and students. Available for festivals, broadcast, and curriculum. More at www.kingmakersofoakland.org
Credits:
• Creator/EP, Director, Writer, Producer

Kaiser Permanente Nat'l Diversity & Inclusion

Directed short video series for Kaiser Permanente's Office of National Diversity & Inclusion. Series focused on the importance of inclusion and valuing diverse perspectives in organizational culture. Strategic internal comms; Distributed company-wide across all employee sectors with online survey. - Sept. 2017

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Forward Ever Media produced a five-part web series for Nat'l "Gathering of Leaders" Conference, incl. Keynote Addresses w/ TED speaker Bryan Stevenson; 30 min (long version)

Association of Black Foundation Executives

Forward Ever Media produced six-episode web series for ABFE's Learning and Action Network for distribution to major foundations and media networks. Each episode covers philanthropic efforts in cities like Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Atlanta, Oakland, etc.

Walk with Me: Living under Stop & Frisk in New York City

Forward Ever Media produced (for Game Changers Project) this 2-min short captures the impact of racial profiling and discriminatory policing on the lives of young men and boys of color in New York City.

Digital Production and Content Development – we deliver editorial, design, and consulting services using the latest open source, standards based, plug-in free, mobile-friendly web technologies

Museum of the African Diaspora

Co-founded and direct the Museum of The African Diaspora's "I've Known Rivers" Stories Project, an online repository for digital first-voice stories and podcasts. Developed website front and back-end.
Content development
• Editorial
• Podcasts
• Video
• Promotion
• Web design
• Web application development
• Content administration (custom content management system)

• Outreach (Bamako project)
• Media production
moadsf.org/ikr/

Kaiser Permanente: Health Disparities Program

Forward Ever handled the communication campaign, wrote and produced content for website, and developed the toolkit for Kaiser Permanente's health disparities program.

• Content development
• Editorial Oversight
• Script Development (video)
• Op-Ed and media coverage
http://info.kp.org/

Simply put, we believe in the power of media to advance change.

The Team

Cheo Tyehimba Taylor

Cheo Tyehimba Taylor, is a former award-winning journalist-turned-filmmaker and multimedia strategist with years of extensive collaborative experience with media networks, non-profits, arts organizations, healthcare groups, foundations, and more. As founder of Forward Ever Media, he provides strategic communications consulting support to thought leaders of major corporations, agencies, and non-profits. In 2012, he launched Game Changers Films/Media, a nat'l fellowship program for BIPOC filmmakers and a full-service production company specializing in short- and long-form non-fiction, scripted development and production, branded entertainment content, campaigns, and programs for distribution. A graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television's Screenwriting Track (PP) and the City University of New York Graduate School (English: Creative Writing), he’s written/produced creative content for various enterprises and networks, including Comcast, Time, Inc., Entertainment Weekly, People, The Washington Post, MSNBC, the Open Society Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Ford Foundation, etc. As a filmmaker committed to telling stories that change lives, he has written/directed/produced documentary and scripted films on a range of subjects, incl. African American male achievement, belonging, racial and restorative justice, the arts, tech, and more. In 2022, he was selected as a Resident Filmmaker with SF FILM.

David Goldberg

David Goldberg, lead web developer, designer, and educator is a 25 year veteran of the online space, having begun his research and development efforts in the days of dialup connections to BBS services. Formally trained in computer systems engineering and visual culture studies, he works from from a client and community-centered philosophy. Currently a doctoral candidate in American Studies at University of Hawaii, Goldberg brings a unique blend of technical, design, aesthetic and social expertise to Forward Ever Media. He plays a key role in our efforts to deliver digital solutions that unite client-specific customization and the leveraging of social networking platforms.

Amani Martin

Amani Martin is a New York-based television, film and digital producer and director, and a multiple Emmy Award winner, specializing in short- and long-form non-fiction development and production. He also develops branded entertainment shows, campaigns and programs for major corporations and non-profits. He is a former director for HBO, a member of the Director's Guild of America, and in the Production Executives group of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Game Changers Films

Game Changers Films

About

The GAME CHANGERS PROJECT is a national film fellowship program for emerging filmmakers of color in partnership with community-based organizations dedicated to improving outcomes for under-represented groups.

The purpose of the fellowship is to catalyze "activist storytellers" across the nation who will regularly shoot, edit, and produce 6-minute "micro-documentaries" and short narrative films about males of color (and other underrepresented groups) in America who are "changing the game" in various areas such as education, health, justice, wellness, entrepreneurship, fatherhood, gender equity, etc.. During a six-month fellowship, Game Changer fellows are "embedded" within local community-based organizations and produce short films to advocate the organization's mission. Fellows produce short films on the work of unheralded community heroes, social equity and health advocates, tech and science innovators, political and judicial activists, thought leaders, and individuals and organizations working to transform lives and improve our society. We strive to inspire change by revealing a more complex narrative about people and ideas that are often under-represented in the media.

The Game Changers Project is a non-profit enterprise of Forward Ever Media and is generously supported by the Heinz Endowments, The California Endowment, the Open Society Foundation, and others.

To learn more, VISIT THE SITE

GCP at Sundance

GCP encourages its filmmakers to attend and participate in national film events such as the Sundance Film Festival, where we strive to change the conversation about inclusion and diversity of stories screened.