TigerLily Launches Powerful Documentary Shorts for Goodwill Industries of North Florida

Creative and production studio TigerLily recently produced a trio of documentary shorts in partnership with Goodwill Industries of North Florida. The films showcase the journeys of individuals empowered by Goodwill programs, unveiling transformative narratives of courage, resilience, and triumph. They premiered at the annual “Gather for Goodwill” luncheon and fundraiser and will be used across Goodwill Industries of North Florida marketing channels and locations.

The series spotlights the 2023 Goodwill honorees Belkis Plata, Phillip Roop Sr. and Phillip Roop Jr., and Nia Cason. Goodwill’s community programs remove barriers to employment, providing education, training, and career development to individuals struggling with a range of issues, such as generational poverty, abuse, disabilities, and ageism in the workplace. Each of the 2023 honorees embodies how Goodwill’s programs offer life-changing opportunities. 

“The team at TigerLily are masterful storytellers. They have the unique talent to weave together disparate threads of often complicated stories behind each of the achievers we profile and honor at our annual event, and they distill them down and make them fit within our time constraints without sacrificing any important details or emotions,” said David Rey, ceo of Goodwill Industries of North Florida. “Each vignette is like a mini-documentary unto itself. We consider ourselves very lucky to work with them and grateful for the work they've done to help us communicate our mission in the North Florida community.”

The series marks another fruitful collaboration between Goodwill Industries of North Florida and TigerLily, with the latter serving as the creative and production partner of the annual honoree films since 2011.

For the resonant stories of this year’s honorees, TigerLily visually captured the emotional depth of each subject’s story, particularly that of Plata's, where every moment honors the rawness and authenticity of her journey. Plata is a testament to how the organization can change an individual’s and their family’s trajectory. Its Take Stock in Children program supports underserved children through high school and helps them earn a college scholarship. Plata’s participation in the program led her to excel in school and to open her own law firm in Jacksonville, Florida, where she specializes in criminal justice and juvenile law with a focus on fighting for the underserved in the community. 

“When your pre-interview starts in such a vulnerable place, as a director, you feel an immense amount of responsibility to the subject and their story,” said Gina Fallon, SVP of production at TigerLily, who co-directed the films with chief creative officer and principal Andrew Fallon. “This helped us to keep our focus on creating really intimate spaces that echoed the emotional weight of each interview, ensuring authenticity in every frame, down to the breaths they took between moments.”

TigerLily director of photography Nicholas Lorini captured B-roll around North Florida to pull focus on the subjects with creative visual impact: “At the end of the day, this is documentary filmmaking, so we knew that we needed a structured roadmap in order to react to things in a more deeply personal way than in years past.”

“Our partnership with Goodwill underscores our dedication to social responsibility,” concluded Fallon. “We work on so many different types of projects that when an opportunity comes through to tell real stories of change happening to the families within our community, we light up. It takes us back to the root of our ‘why.’ I think we all need that reminder from time to time.”