Technology for Change: Deja Movie Film Bags

When Julie Lewis had the idea of making film industry waste into chic handbags, wallets and accessories, she turned to Kickstarter, an online crowd funding platform. Crowd funding through companies like Kickstarter and Launcht are a popular way for social entrepreneurs like Julie Lewis to fund their startup companies. Crowd funding involves small donations or investments made by many people (the “crowd”), who pool together their resources in support of a cause, company or project. For Deja Movie Film Bags, 86 “backers” provided 105% of the funding needed.

Deja Movie Film Bags are made from 35mm polyester film, which is more durable than the celluloid film used prior to the 1980’s. The line includes bags made from the film of popular movies such as “Twilight” and “Slum Dog Millionaire”. Materials that would otherwise end up in a landfill are re-used. The construction of the bags provides a fair wage for workers at a women’s cooperative in the Philippines. The durable bags are hand-crocheted by the women’s cooperative, who benefited from this work after an earthquake hit Manila in March 2010.

Social media outlets like Facebook and Boing Boing Blog were used to take the business to the next level. Check out Julie’s video on Kickstarter.com for a demo of the handbags and to read more about how she turned her vision into a sustainable and successful business.

We at Singlebrook are happy to share this story of technology for change! If you know of other great examples of T4C, we urge you to join our movement by sharing them on Twitter using the hashtag: #SinglebrookT4C or in our LinkedIn Group: Singlebrook Technology for Change. Any tweets that use our hashtag will automatically get re-tweeted to our following.