Filming with a mission: Why actor Chris Pine turned to this nonprofit film fund

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Actor Chris Pine was just 13 when his family’s finances took a turn and his parents lost their home.So when the “Star Trek” actor read the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” from author Matthew Desmond, about eight families who fight to stay housed in Milwaukee, he knew he had to make a film out of it.For the record:10:40 a.m.Feb.

17, 2026A previous version of this article stated that investor Shauna Ockey was from West Point, Utah.She is from Calgary.

Also investor Lloyd Roberts was listed as being from Calgary; he is from West Point, Utah.“The power of what we do as filmmakers ...is really to remind people that we are not alone, that our experiences are transcendent,” Pine recently told an audience at the Sundance Film Festival.

“This is one of those stories.”Pine is producing a documentary based on the book and it’s among several projects backed by Harbor Fund, an emerging Utah-based nonprofit investment group that leverages the donations of high-net-worth individuals and other investors to support films, television shows and documentaries that have a positive social message.“Good stories can change how people feel,” Lindsay Hadley, Harbor Fund’s co-founder and chief executive, said in an interview.“We just really believe in the power of film and the entertainment world to harness a society of compassion.” Hollywood Inc.

Four films so far have been sold out of Sundance, and the entrance of new distributors have given indie filmmakers optimism.Since it began about a year and a half ago, the fund has raised $15 million from 82 donors with an average contribution of $250,000.Already, Hadley said, $10 million has been deployed across 22 projects, including “Evicted.”“It’s rooted in housing policy and economics, but at its core, it’s about people — and stories like this aren’t always easy t...