Sandra de Castro Buffington
Main profile
Sandra de Castro Buffington is a global leader, executive and producer in social impact entertainment and conscious media. Sandra’s groundbreaking work with Hollywood and international creative capitals has ignited new narratives of transformation and innovation worldwide. She has worked in 50 countries over 20+ years on behalf of women, girls and families.
As Founder and President of StoryAction, LLC; Founder and former Director of UCLA’s Global Media Center for Social Impact; and former Director of USC’s Hollywood, Health and Society, Sandra has worked with film, television and emerging media professionals to accurately and consciously reflect the most important topics of our time from rape culture to human trafficking, immigration to mass incarceration, health to sustainability, nonviolence to mindfulness.
Working extensively with Hollywood, and creative communities in India, Egypt, and Brazil among others, has given Sandra a global perspective on the profound impact storytelling has on consciousness and behavior, and the limitless possibilities for the role media can play in transforming culture worldwide. She leads research to measure the impact of prosocial storylines on viewers’ knowledge, attitudes and behavior, and has published in numerous peer-reviewed journals.
Sandra is Co-Producer of an important new film entitled, BRAINWASHED:Sex~Camera~Power, directed by Nina Menkes with an all-female producing team, which had its 2022 premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, the “Berlinale” Berlin Film Festival, and CPH-DOX in Copenhagen. Using key scenes from A-list films and cult classics, the film reveals how shot design – framing, lighting, camera movement, angles – contributes to the twin epidemics of sexual abuse/assault and employment discrimination against women.
Sandra’s groundbreaking work led to social impact storylines including a Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) episode on rape that resulted in a 43% increase in calls to the National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN). For her work, she was named by PODER Hispanic Magazine one of “The Nation’s 100 Most Influential Hispanics” in 2012, and awarded the World Film Institute’s Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2014, The Female Eye Film Festival’s Honorary Maverick Award in 2015, and a Presidential Citation from the Society for Public Health Education in 2016. Sandra created, on behalf of the United Nations, the “Conscious Media Award” for the Cairo International Film Festival, the longest running festival in the Middle East, Arab World and Africa, and presented the prestigious award in 2018 and 2019.
https://sandradecastrobuffington.com
Stories in television and movies have the power to transform our world. To awaken us. To foster a revolution of the heart and a higher image of human potential. To create a new normal. To make every life count.