Vimeo Taps Filmmakers To Spotlight Pandemic-Stricken Businesses With ‘Stories In Place’ Series

Vimeo is tapping its filmmaking community to spotlight small businesses who have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic through a new initiative dubbed ‘Stories In Place‘.

Vimeo chose filmmakers for the project by inviting all Staff Picked creators to apply. (Staff Picks is a long-running designation that the platform uses to signify hand-selected, top talent). Eight filmmakers were ultimately chosen to helm videos about small businesses that meant something to them. Vimeo then provided creators grants to fund production, and also matched these grants with a donation to each of the featured businesses. All of the films were created in 12 days while sheltering in place, Vimeo says.

For instance, Law Chen made a film about New York Chinese restaurant 886 (see below), which has been shut down by the pandemic but is making bento boxes to donate to hospitals and healthcare workers, while Danny Madden made an animated film

about how Los Angeles bike shop Coco’s Variety is handling a high demand for repairs, and Rachel Knoll created a piece about an African contemporary dance studio called Afro.Cont.Igbo, documenting its pivot to virtual classes.

“In true Vimeo spirit, we wanted to tell the stories about adaptation and ingenuity, about bootstrapping business owners and their very creative, very scrappy ideas,” the company said in a statement. “We also wanted to support filmmakers who have recently found themselves without projects. And we wanted to connect them in the best way we know how: with video.”

You can check out the entire ‘Stories In Place’ series right here:

Stories In Place: 886 from LAW CHEN on Vimeo.