New Film Series Explores How Three MIT Solve Innovators are Changing the World
Passion Point Collective
Want weekly exclusive brand storytelling content like this direct to your inbox? Subscribe to the Brand Storytelling Newsletter.
Innovation starts with the spark of a big idea. If the idea gets traction, it can mean months and years of development, pitch meetings, tech revisions, and funding challenges. The pace is brutal, but for a small group of people looking to create radical, systemic change—it’s all worth it.
The Big Idea is a three-part documentary short film series that follows the lives of three innovators who are brilliant, bold, and united by the desire to use technology, science, and engineering to solve global challenges. From access to life-saving vaccines, to antiracist technology aimed at reducing the Black maternal mortality rates, to hands-on robot-building kits for underserved Indigenous youth, their big ideas are meant to shake up the status quo and ultimately change lives.
Each of the subjects is competing to be an MIT Solve innovator, or ‘Solver’, a highly-coveted program to help scale and grow their big idea. This win would raise the profile of their projects and put them in front of the MIT community, global leaders, and major tech brands. But, do they have what it takes to elevate their work to the next level?
The films have been an official selection of eight film festivals, including the Tribeca X Festival and the Women Deliver Festival, and have won numerous awards from the Telly Awards, Series Fest, and IFFBoston for unscripted storytelling. The film's launch and marketing campaign have been orchestrated by Passion Point Collective.
About the films:
The Big Idea: Last Mile features cryogenics expert Kitty Liao, founder and CEO of Ideabatic, an award-winning social enterprise tackling the crucial ‘last-mile’ of vaccine journeys and cold-chain issues. The episode follows Liao as she initiates her SMILE vaccine program in Cameroon.
The Big Idea: Birth Without Bias features maternal health advocate Kimberly Seals Allers, founder of IRTH, a first of its kind “Yelp-like” app intended to address bias and racism in maternity care for Black and Brown mothers-to-be.
The Big Idea: Indigenous Robotics features STEM educator Danielle Boyer, an indigenous (Ojibwe) and Queer robotics inventor and author who creates equitable and innovative learning solutions for minority youth with robots that she designs, manufactures, and gives away for free.
Share the trailer here.
About The Filmmakers
The Big Idea is directed by Sarah Klein and Tom Mason. Together they created Redglass Pictures in 2008 and since then have co-directed and produced many notable projects, including the New York Times short, Miracle on 22nd Street, which was optioned by Tina Fey and Universal Pictures, Out of The Dark, a series of short films on mental health for Ken Burns and PBS that screened at 20+ film festivals, and the Webby Award winning series History of Memory.
About MIT Solve
Solve is an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a mission to drive innovation to solve world challenges. Solve is a marketplace for social impact innovation. Through open innovation challenges, Solve finds incredible tech-based social innovators all around the world. Solve then brings together MIT’s innovation ecosystem and a community of supporters to fund and support these innovators to help them drive lasting, transformational impact. Three of these inspiring individuals were selected to be the subjects of The Big Idea based on their innovative solutions that are creating positive, life-changing impact in their communities and around the world. Join Solve on this journey at solve.mit.edu.
