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Interview: Isolde Hilt

The range of good, constructive news is growing. We recently came across meet THE GOOD ONES – video creators from Berlin who tell stories about people who do good on their YouTube channel. Every two weeks, Guy Dimenstein and Mirjam Kornblum present a new GOOD ONE. Mirjam is the producer of the channel, Guy creates the episodes and hosts the series. They are so well received that they have just been nominated for two awards with two film productions.

Last week we met meet THE GOOD ONES online and decided that we wanted to work more closely together. We introduce them to you in a first interview.

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How was the idea for „meet THE GOOD ONES“ born?

Guy: I always wanted to make films and studied this at the university in Israel. But when I moved to Berlin, I quickly realised that it would be difficult for me to make films in Germany because of the language barrier. I became a tourist guide and had my own company. Everything was great until Corona came and made me unemployed.

To support my family, I turned back to editing. I remembered that my purpose in life is actually to make films. With the loss of my business, I had to deal with more difficulties in my personal life. I felt that everywhere I looked there were only bad things. And so I wanted to create something that would at least try to balance all that out. And then there was the idea of creating a YouTube channel that would be a platform for the good.

After some time, I met Mirjam during a film shoot about Ozeankind. An NGO where she worked as a volunteer. We quickly realised that we had a lot in common and started working together.

What do you mean by GOOD ONES?

Mirjam: For us, GOOD ONES are people who want to make a difference in the world and make it a little better. We realised that our GOOD ONES, even if they work in different areas, have one thing in common: They are all happy and fulfilled because they are actually doing something that is close to their hearts, fun, meaningful in their eyes and fulfilling. For themselves, for our descendants, for nature and for the planet. GOOD ONES wants to be a role model for people and encourage them to do the same and become active themselves. We always have an African proverb in mind: „Many small people doing many small things in many small places can change the face of the world.“

Who were your first GOOD ONES?

Guy: The first GOOD ONES were strangers. It was the pilot episode. I wanted to see if I could get strangers on the street to compliment each other. I was afraid it wouldn’t work, but soon found out that it was actually quite easy. Once people were willing to take the risk and try it, every encounter was the same – pure joy and fulfilment. And I realised that I was on to something big.

The interesting thing was that in that moment I understood how GOOD works. You send a little good out and it comes back to you a little bigger. In seconds, these strangers connected and their spirits lifted. It was so amazing because it touched not only them, but me and my crew as well.

I realised that there is good everywhere. We just have a hard time seeing it sometimes and we have to connect to see it. When I came home after that day of filming, I decided to make more episodes and show the world that it’s much better than you normally think.

How many people have you portrayed so far?

It’s almost 100 episodes. And we’ve produced countless reels that sometimes feature individual GOOD ONES or organisations that we haven’t made an episode about. Once we did an episode about World Cleanup Day. That was a collaboration with many volunteer groups around the world. We were able to document a few hundred of them alone.

What touches you in particular?

Guy: For me, it changes all the time, depending on the episode we’re doing. It can be something small like a homeless man telling me that this is the second time someone has touched his hair. A barber from Barber Angels Brotherhood had given him a free haircut. But it can also be something big like the episode about „Irrlichter“, an inclusive theatre group that doesn’t find the topic of „inclusivity“ all that relevant. They see themselves as a group of friends who make theatre together.

Mirjam: It’s similar for me. We meet so many people who selflessly do wonderful things and captivate us with their energy. For example Ebru and Daniela, who independently of each other both collect donations for children in need to make them happy at Christmas and give them materials for their first day at school. And they do it all in their spare time!

Is there an experience that has stayed with you for a long time?

Guy: For me, it was the episode where I tried to thank Yehuda Poliker. He is a famous Israeli singer who my mother adored. Before she died, he had done something incredible for her. In this episode I found out that he is at a concert in Berlin … Another GOOD ONE helped me get backstage and talk to him.

Mirjam: I had a little fan moment when we met Maike Plath for the first time. I had been listening to her audiobook for weeks beforehand and had been intensively studying her work and the veto principle. Suddenly she’s sitting in front of me and I’m talking to the woman whose voice was already so familiar to me. I think her work is extremely important, so I can only recommend everyone to take a look at her website and read her book „Türwächter:innen der Freiheit“.

We are currently accompanying a young theatre group at Heimathafen Neukölln that works with the veto principle. Young people aged between 13 and around 20 are developing a piece of theatre that strikes a chord with the times. It is wonderful, touching and incredible what these young souls bring to the stage and are prepared to show of themselves.

How does the public react to your news?

We use social media as our main platform. It’s easy to go viral there if you show a lot of naked skin. With our type of content, it’s more difficult, so it takes longer to grow. What we do know is that the people who find us usually stay and support us. It feels like we can build a wonderful community.

We also get a lot of support from other quarters. We recently filmed an episode about the „BerlinOdessaExpress“. This is a group of friends who help their friends in Ukraine. They deliver aid packages that have been specially put together according to a list and are tailored precisely to the needs of the people.

Our friend Rick accompanied them on one of their trips to Ukraine, and now this episode has been nominated for two film festivals. One of them is the prestigious „Smiley Charity Film Award“ in London. We are nominated for the Viewer Choice Award and you can vote for us here via this link.

The second award we have been nominated for is from Geographical Magazine. Here, too, you can vote for one of our two films. 

You report bilingually. How is it received?

The idea was to reach as many people as possible. We ask our GOOD ONES to speak English. If they don’t feel comfortable, they can speak German and we translate everything. We work bilingually as we are from Berlin. It’s very cosmopolitan here and just part of our life.

You don’t just leave it at reporting, but have also started to launch projects …

Yes, and we really enjoy it. We always try to do nice things. For example, we have created a festival in Berlin: „Berlin erntet“. In collaboration with „mundraub“ and „Freunde des Mauerparks“ in Berlin, we saved at least 200kg of apples from rotting. It was a great team effort.

We are currently working on our biggest project to date: „Peace by Peace“. We hope to create a work of art together with 450 people who will draw their vision of the words „I – YOU – WE“ on a piece of ceramic. All the ceramics will be joined together to form a large mosaic that creates the tree of life.

There’s an old saying in journalism: „Only bad news is good news.“ And the media landscape reflects exactly that … Can constructive news make a difference? What do you think?

Guy: I tend to agree. News by its nature is usually bad. The thing is: If we expect to hear good stories in the news, we’re bound to be disappointed. Good things happen every day. They are not news, they are routine. They are plentiful and not worthy of a headline …

We tend to think that the world is bad because good things are not shown in the news. Over time, we lose hope and that is very dangerous.

We try to create an archive of good things. That’s the beauty of it. When you visit our channel, you can watch any episode at random and there will always be a story that warms your heart. Plus, you see that the good guys are always out there and there are so many of them. Ordinary people like you and me who enjoy what they do, enrich their lives and make a meaningful difference as a side effect. It gives you a new faith in humanity.

We have similar concerns to yours and have decided to work together and support each other. What ideas and visions do you have in mind?

We firmly believe that the good guys need to come together and support each other. We love your work and your energy. From the very first moment we felt the connection and believe that we complement each other wonderfully.

We would love to share our stories and help people connect. The most important thing we can do is to help spread these stories and ideas. As a third pillar, our co-operation partner and wonderful soul Kathie supports us with her podcast: „Feel Good Happy People Happy Planet“. 

We are also very happy to work with you on projects. Would you like to take part in our „Berlin erntet“ festival and create „Bayern erntet“? That could be great and inspire even more people to harvest the fruits on their doorstep.

Anything else that is important to you and close to your heart?

We would be delighted if your community would also support us. Please take a look at our YouTube channel. If you like what you see, subscribe to us and help us spread the word.

We work on a voluntary basis and slowly but surely need to find a way to fund our project. To achieve this, we have founded the production company „Good Things Productions“. We create image films in the „GOOD ONES“ style to promote sustainable brands and businesses.

And anyone who would like to volunteer with us and support us with updating the website, social media, film work or organisation, for example, is very welcome. Simply send us an email.

And don’t forget to look for “THE GOOD ONES”! 🙂

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More good news!

Gina from Make Someone Happy:„We can make a big difference in the world.“