Our mission is to help people from diverse communities bring their perspectives powerfully to bear on public dialogues about a broad range of social issues that affect their lives. We use film, arts and other media as tools to educate and engage people, as well as to amplify the voices of those whose perspectives are not usually heard.

Vision
We envision a world where all people, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, language they speak, economic situation, or citizenship status are empowered to:

• Exercise civil and human rights;
• Make connections with one another;
• Participate in the democratic process as we face challenges of racism, civil and human rights, environmental crisis, hunger, economic and social inequity, and war;
• Work toward a common good for all people.            

Goals
Our goal is to use art, art exhibitions, publications, film and the Internet to:

1. Affirm people’s unique history and culture within their communities;
2. Create opportunities for people in diverse communities to tell their own stories;
3. Connect communities, historical events and current issues;
4. Make material available in multiple languages to reach broader audiences; and
5. Empower marginalized communities to have a voice in dialogues surrounding contemporary social justice issues.

History

In 1998, Many Threads (formerly known as Institute for Equity, Ecology, Humor and Art, or IEEHA) was established by journalist Pratap Chatterjee, filmmaker Lina Hoshino, and software engineer Derek Chung. Initially, our mission was to produce educational tools for social justice using the latest technology. We developed a series of educational games, websites and videos to engage young audiences in a range of social justice issues linked to the global economy and policies, including Global Arcade and the Whirled Bank. Our work evolved over the years as the organization matured. In 1999, IEEHA helped create Gold, Greed, and Genocide, a documentary and a website about the environmental and social holocaust of the native peoples of the state of California during the 1849 gold rush. 

After the September 11 attacks, IEEHA produced and distributed Caught in Between: What to Call Home in Times of War, a documentary that portrays Japanese, Muslim, South Asian and Arab Americans who came together in solidarity to fight against racist scapegoating. In 2005, IEEHA organized women's first-person narrative movie workshop, in which participants produced a short 3 minute video about issues that they face. In addition, IEEHA supported the production of "In God's House: Asian AmericanLesbian and Gay Families in the Church" a PANA Institute film that tells honest and thought-provoking story of Asian American Christian lesbian and gay people, their pastors, and their parents.

Our work reflects our belief that personal stories are a powerful way to capture what's happening in our communities, bring people together, and inspire them to participate in public dialogue and the democratic process. Beginning in 2007, we changed our organization’s name to Many Threads to reflect our sharpened focus on making people’s stories heard.