Paul Collins

What I do

I am the media officer for the anti-poverty charity War on Want, supported by volunteers. Our work entails initiating, answering, monitoring and evaulating press, broadcast and online coverage. It means writing news releases, quotes and comment pieces and organising interviews with spokespersons, partners and people trapped in poverty through the policies of British companies and ministers.

Have you been involved with film in your work? If so, how and what was your role?

I have joined forces with filmmakers to make short videos about UK mining, flowers and palm oil firms profiting from Colombian human rights abuse. War on Want has used the films to press the British government to regulate UK industry and drop its military aid to Colombia. Other work has featured publicity to promote events where the charity addressed cinema discussions at hosted screenings of the new movie The Yes Men Fix the World.

How would you like to work with film in future?

The charity would relish the chance to engage with more films which help us towards campaigns success. It has already collaborated with flagship current affairs television programmes such as Panorama to reach mainstream audiences. This programme, shown at peak time, drew more than four million viewers, who saw how Primark exploited children producing its clothes. The challenge remains to make issues connect with mass public opinion in a way that will help introduce new laws.

3 things you've worked on that have done real good in the world

I have:
*reminded the G20 group of the world's leading economies of the need for alternatives to free market greed by securing pictures on the front page of the Financial Times, as a double-page spread in the Independent on Sunday, a big show in the Guardian, and on Reuters.
*backed South Africans battling for justice by contributing to a two-page Guardian spread which cited people kicked out of their homes to make way for the 2010 World Cup.
*raised higher up the political agenda the plight of women exploited by UK flowers, clothes, fruit and wine retailers.