Millennials have a bad (and undeserved) reputation for being egotistical, shiftless dilettantes, but director Pete Williams hopes to show a different side of the generation, documenting a collection of social entrepreneurs; people who build businesses to solve social problems.
Millennials catch a lot of flak in the media for being self-centered, or spending too much money, or not spending enough money (this lower consumption is, according to a report by the Fed, the result of lower earnings and assets, although it’s more fun to blame avocado toast). Despite the stereotypes, Millennials are a generation of go-getters, and one of the most interesting examples of this is the growth of so-called “social entrepreneurship,” in which entrepreneurs create businesses to solve social issues. Director Pete Williams recently produced a documentary on this phenomenon, The New Breed, and he stopped by the Digital Trends Studio to talk with host Greg Nibler about social entrepreneurship, the people he followed over the course of the film, and his next project.
First, where did Williams get the idea for a documentary about social entrepreneurs?
“About six years ago I had a TV show called Makers,” he says. The show aired on the British station Channel 4, which is “kind of like the HBO of Europe,” he explains.
