Today we’d like to introduce you to Bonnie Abaunza.
Hi Bonnie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have been a human rights and civil rights activist since the age of 15. As a student, I was actively involved in the anti-aparthied movement, the Central American sanctuary movement, Tibet, women’s rights, indigenous, environmental and other social justice causes. I joined Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union and my activism accelerated in college. I graduated from UCLA with a BA in Political Science, with a concentration in International Relations. My plan was to attend law school and become a human rights lawyer so I could eventually work for Amnesty International. But my career objective and trajectory changed unexpectedly.
After graduating, I decided to work for a year while researching scholarships and loans to pay for law school. A friend recommended I apply for an administrative position at the production company Vestron Pictures (the company that made “Dirty Dancing”). I was hired, trained to read and analyze scripts and was quickly promoted. I enjoyed the work and ended up not going to law school but staying in the entertainment industry for 15 years, working as a development and production executive and running a director’s film company.
After these 15 years, I decided to focus again on my passion for human rights and applied for a job at Amnesty International to be the organization’s Artist Relations liaison. Because of my depth of experience in the entertainment industry, my activism and deep knowledge of human rights issues, I was hired to launch the newly created Artists for Amnesty program and became its Director. During my tenure at Amnesty International, I worked closely with artists, filmmakers, studios, production companies, and distributors on films that focused on human rights. Working with my colleagues, we developed and executed campaigns that promoted the films aligned with Amnesty’s mission to millions of Amnesty members and provided calls to action for public engagement. I spearheaded the campaigns for the films “Blood Diamond”, “Hotel Rwanda”, “Lord of War”, “The Constant Gardener”, “City of God”, “Born Into Brothels”, and so many other films. Those human rights film campaigns were the precursor to what we now refer to as social impact campaigns.
After Amnesty, I went to work at Participant Media as VP of Social Action and was later hired by Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer to run his philanthropy and impact division at his studio, Remote Control Productions. After five years at RCP, I left and in 2014 started my own company, Abaunza Group, and began consulting for the United Nations agency, the International Labour Organization, launching its artist relations initiative, “Artworks”. Because of the campaigns I ran at Amnesty, filmmakers, studios, distributors, philanthropists, marketing, and public relations firms hired me to develop and execute impact campaigns for documentaries, films, series, social justice initiatives, and other media. I recently merged my company with another impact producer, Kathleen Rodgers, to start the social impact agency, GSD Group.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My career goal was to be a human rights lawyer working at Amnesty International, the first organization I joined as a teenager.
My career trajectory after college took an unusual turn. In a very circuitous route, I ended up working at the very organization that was my dream job. But instead of working at Amnesty as an attorney, it was my experience in the film industry that allowed me to carve out a unique position that allowed for the division I oversaw, Artists for Amnesty, to have a tremendous impact through the film campaigns and with the widespread support from artists, executives, studios and others in the entertainment ecosystem.
Although social impact campaigns are now widely embraced in the industry, it was challenging for many years to convince studios and distributors as to their value in reaching a wider demographic of audiences and mobilizing people to engage in calls to action that would benefit the films in both the short and long term, help generate more press and awards from organizations in the social justice space, and move the needle on the issues addressed in the films.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My activism: I have been an activist for 40+ years and have served on the board of nonprofits that focus on human rights, civil rights and civil liberties, human trafficking, gender-based violence, girls’ education, indigenous rights, refugees, homelessness, and veterans rights. I fund scholarships for girls in high schools in LA and donate to orphanages in Malawi, Honduras and Mexico as well as helping Afghan women and girls.
This winter, I launched a campaign in Los Angeles for Pope Francis’ Foundation, Scholas USA. The campaign is called Pelota de Trapo: https://www.scholasusa.org/
I continue to dedicate my life to human rights activism. A quote that I often include in speeches is a constant source of inspiration. It is from the Talmud: “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”
What’s next?
My daughter, Larissa, is also a human rights activist. Since I raised her as a single mother after my divorce, her “playground” was the Amnesty International office. She was there every day after school (from the ages of 5-12). She graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a BA in Genocide, Human Rights, and Holocaust Studies and an MA in Human Rights from Columbia University. She was also a Fulbright Scholar who worked with the Roma people of Hungary. She presently works for two NGOs.
She and I are co-authoring a series of children’s books focusing on human rights. The next phase in my career will be dedicated to writing these stories and to volunteering with humanitarian aid groups and organizations working in refugee camps.
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