Moving picture: free documentaries spreading message.

Trudy Holmes, chief development officer of Parents Helping Parents, a California nonprofit, knew darn well that a short, powerful documentary film about the work her organization does--helping the parents of kids with life-threatening chronic illnesses--would be an invaluable fundraising tool. She knew the right video could raise the community's awareness of Parents Helping Parents (PHP) in a way almost nothing else could.

The problem was how to make it happen.

"It's something that's generally unaffordable for most nonprofits," Holmes said recently from her Santa Clara office.

She said a counterpart of hers at another nonprofit told her they were getting a great deal on a short documentary--for $27,000. Unable to afford even that amount, PHP tried working with a graduate film student at a local university, but the resulting video "didn't have the quality we could use in a public setting," Holmes said.

Now, however, Holmes is eagerly anticipating the completion of a 15-minute documentary that will tell the PHP story with all the verve and emotion of a Hollywood production. And best of all, it won't cost her a cent.

"We're very excited to have this opportunity," Holmes said.

The opportunity, which has also been extended to seven other California nonprofits, was made possible by a partnership between Film Garden Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based production company founded in 1994 by Nancy Miller, and the Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation, a Studio City-based grantmaker.

Film Garden has produced more than 600 television shows during the past 11 years for clients such as ABC, The Discovery Channel and MSNBC. The Frieda C. Fox Foundation works with nonprofits "to improve the lives of California's youth," says executive director Dana Marcus, who together with Miller selected the organizations to be included in the pilot filmmaking program, called The Greenhouse at Film Garden. All of the groups in the program were chosen from the approximately 40 grantees the Fox foundation supports.

"We're working with grantees we already have a relationship with, and programs we already know," Marcus said. "The family foundation is already pretty adept at assessing and evaluating the impact of dollars given."

Miller sits on the Fox board of directors, and knew the difference a video could make for many of the nonprofits the foundation supports. "I had gone on site visits to a couple of the nonprofits funded by the foundation and was really impressed (by the work they were doing)," Miller said. "I was speaking to directors who said they had a significant need for this kind of documentary to help them as a fundraising tool and an outreach tool--to tell the stories of the work they're doing in an impactful way."

Miller and Marcus launched The Greenhouse at Film Garden this past January, pairing novice filmmakers with nonprofit organizations to create documentaries for the nonprofits to use, free of charge, for promotion and fundraising.

The filmmakers, who are guided through the entire process by industry veterans acting as mentors, gain much-needed experience producing the documentaries, and end up with professional quality films for their portfolios. The novice filmmakers began in February by attending an intensive four-day workshop covering each stage of documentary production, from pre-production through videography, writing and editing.

"We have extremely talented aspiring filmmakers willing to work long hours in entry level jobs to get access to experience to become filmmakers," Miller said. "I thought perhaps we could offer them the training and equipment and support and get hands-on experience by pairing them with nonprofits organizations with a need, serving both communities."

Miller said Film Garden and others in the film community are donating the labor, equipment and facilities needed for the project. An anonymous private donor is picking up the tab for travel, film stock and other expenses required to make the films, plus some equipment purchased specifically for the program.

In addition to Parents Helping Parents, films are under way for A Place Called Home, No Limits for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children, and Venice Arts in Los Angeles; Hospice of the Valley in San Jose, Jeremiah's Promise in Palo Alto, and Relampago del Cielo in Santa Ana.

"The Greenhouse provides a truly unprecedented experience for a filmmaker like myself trying to break into the business," said Kate Ward, who has been paired with Hospice of the Valley. "I have the creative freedom and opportunity to complete my own documentary about something that really matters, with hands-on training, guidance and access to every aspect of film production throughout the process and, in the end, a professional-quality documentary to show for the experience."

"We're delighted so far with the progress," Miller said, adding that the initial filmmakers for the project were hand-picked. "We wanted to control the process very carefully," she said. "Obviously we wanted the first batch of documentaries to be really good."

Holmes doesn't doubt that the PHP video is going to be good. She said she has met with the supervising producer, and that she has had ample opportunity to articulate what her nonprofit hopes to see in the finished video.

She said the documentary will include interviews with families helped by PHP, and will show how the services offered by the nonprofit have changed their lives.

"There's nothing like a film that can move somebody into action," Holmes said. "We hope people will watch this and say, 'It's amazing what they accomplish, have you ever heard of them?' That's how you get recognized, and long-term, that's how you get funded."

Holmes said the Greenhouse video will make PHI' a more efficient organization by freeing staff to concentrate on providing training, education and peer counseling to parents of children with life-threatening diseases, instead of spending their time promoting PHP to the public at agency fairs and health fairs.

"Our primary goal is to empower families to be their child's best advocate to secure services," Holmes said. "If we can have a video running at these events that is going to have complete information, we may be able to utilize volunteers more effectively, and the service staff is still here serving families."

Miller said Greenhouse plans to work with 40 filmmakers and nonprofits in this first year of operation. There's already a buzz surrounding the project, she said, and in the future there will likely have to be a selection process for participants similar to the one used by foundations to make grants, based on need and "who will use (the film) the most effective way."

That would be fine by Marcus, who would like to see the Greenhouse buzz travel far and wide.

"We are hoping that this is the first step to having the nonprofit community and the philanthropic community take notice of a tremendous way to help nonprofits use their limited resources more efficiently," Marcus said.

For more information on The Greenhouse at Film Garden, visit www.flimgardentv