LOCAL director Pete Williams returned home to Gawler a few months ago after spending the past four years of his 15-year career on his new documentary – released last Friday – called The New Breed.

The New Breed focuses on the generational shift away from the Gordon Gekko-esque “greed is good” line of thinking, and embraces the concept of social entrepreneurship.

“While I was working in London I had a TV show called Makers, about crafts people around the world making things with their hands,” Mr Williams said.

“My ideology at the time was that big brands and corporations are spending too much time and effort worrying about branding, not about the products they’re making.

“Through making that series I was meeting a lot of entrepreneurs who had social impact or environmental impact built into their business model.

“I had no idea what it was called, but after I moved to Los Angeles in 2015 and did some more research on it, I found that the name for it was ‘social entrepreneurs’.”

Mr Williams decided to dive into the subject, and found himself in the process of producing and directing his first feature documentary.

“When I did Makers, or other commissioned projects, people just give you money to make things for them… I knew that wasn’t going to happen with this, so I had to go and hunt for funding for a long time,” he said.

“I spent months and months writing applications for grants and things that never eventuated, but I ultimately raised a quarter of a million dollars, mainly from individuals who were interested in the subject of social entrepreneurship.”

After a ton of research, Mr Williams located a sock company that donated a pair of socks to the homeless for every pair sold, a Chilean recycling company that makes items, like skateboards, out of plastic fishing nets in the ocean, and a t-shirt company that puts its exclusively-female Ugandan staff through a program to eventually create their own business.

“I think the main objective of The New Breed is to make social entrepreneurship mainstream, and to help people understand what it means to start a business based on ethical practices, and thinking about the planet, not just a profit,” he said.

“I just want to make sure we’re all conscious about the products we buy, and the businesses we support, because every purchase we make has a massive impact on people, and the world.”