Ben Affleck, Lady Gaga, Garth Brooks Make Case For Kindness In New Doc

In a segment in new documentary Case For Kindness, a scientist details the ways engaging in acts of kindness releases endorphins and oxytocin—and how simply witnessing an act of kindness activates the neuropsychology of kindness in the viewer.

In the case of the film, a salient patchwork of interviews that has been amassing dozens of awards as it continues its run across the international festival circuit, these premises prove out in spades both through its compelling lens of exploring the impact of kindness on our society, and its origin story of kindness that snowballed around the project.

“I’ve traveled to 126 countries without knowing a lot of the culture and people and language in many, and the thing that bound us together was kindness,” says filmmaker Steven Sawalich, who believes the time has come to put the topic in the spotlight.

“I looked at the state of the world and at film, and there weren’t a lot of things about kindness. There’s a lot of things about happiness. And I‘ve always looked at is as, Happiness is for the individual, and kindness is for the whole group.”

Case packs both star power—Ben Affleck, Lady Gaga, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Norman Lear and Tim Shriver are among those interviewed—and everyday people engaging in acts of good will. The common threads are the stories of how they are bringing kindness into the world, from combatting bullying and elevating mental health to working to quash racial injustice and addressing food insecurity.

Referencing Lady Gaga’s organization The Born This Way Foundation and its Channel Kindness initiative, he says, “I like that they used to be about anti-bullying and now they are about kindness. I remember Mother Teresa said she would never attend an anti-war rally but would attend a peace rally, and that’s what Lady Gaga did to shift their organization into a positive space.

“Garth and Trisha are just beautiful human beings and what they do for children around the world is amazing,” Sawalich adds. “And I thought Ben gave a beautiful, honest interview on his addiction. For me it was important to show self-kindness. If you can’t focus on yourself and who you want to be, then it’s hard to spread that to others. And Ben is a great example of that. He’s been able to realize what is needed to help other people.”

“Kindness involves taking a risk on other people,” Shriver, a disability rights activist and educator who’s chaired Special Olympics since 1996, tells Forbes. “When you see people open up it’s like a drug, right? It’s like almost, ‘My God, this is humanity at its best. This is who we really are. This is our deepest self.’”

Sawalich was deliberate in selecting the big-name talent he spoke with. While having them in the mix no doubt draws attention, “with today’s filmmaking people just want genuine stories that make a difference and can impact you,” he says, pointing to Best Picture Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All At Once as a case in point.

“It was all about being able to showcase their true stories. It’s important for the audience to be able to see themselves in each of them. And I wanted to focus on personal stories as well as expert opinion and the professors and scientists who shared how kindness can affect you mentally, physically, spiritually,” he adds. “So we focus on little dabs of viral videos but it was also about finding the [everyday] people that can inspire others to want to start something.”

The start of the film is itself a story of contagious kindness. Not only did many interviewees quickly connect Sawalich to others—who also include a mother who lost her son during the Sandy Hook massacre; two women who met on a neighborhood listserv and joined to help feed their neighbors; KIND founder Daniel Lubetzky and advocacy strategist and philanthropist Luis A. Miranda Jr.—but the circle expanded exponentially through happenstance when Sawalich met Greg Suess, a partner at Activist Artists Management, at a dinner party.

Activist was fresh out of the gate at the time, founded by a group of entertainment industry veterans to support clients including The Grateful Dead and The Lumineers around their initiatives of social impact. Sawalich talked with Suess about his project, and his need for resources to continue the journey.

“I felt like he was at a lull when we connected,” Suess says. “I followed up the very next day because I was so impressed by what he was doing and I thought, If this was not an Activist project, I didn’t know what was. We have a stadium-level team, and we come to the documentary with same philosophy and we treat Steven like he’s The Grateful Dead or The Lumineers. He’s getting the same thinking and the same relationships.”

Suess got busy reaching out to change makers in the Activist community, including self-made billionaire philanthropist John Paul DeJoria, co-founder of the Paul Mitchell line of hair products, and billionaire David Steward, whose Lion Forge Animation Studio created the animation for the film. Like Suess’ own reaction to Case For Kindness, the response consistently was an immediate Yes.

“That’s what’s been so amazing about this journey. I didn’t have to push anybody or sell anybody,” Suess says. “We’ve worked really hard at Activist to focus on our mission and in doing so we’ve attracted an ecosystem of people, I believe, who are awesome. We have 20-plus families we are working with now that are all in that Forbes 400-type category, and we only work with kind families.”

Bringing it full circle, Sawalich is quick to note community is at the heart of the film, which he’s currently shopping for a studio partner.

“Community is a topic that is reached throughout the stories,” Sawalich says. “If you can help the life a person, you help their family, and if you help their family you help the community. We’re not meant to be isolated—that was an important theme throughout.”