About

WHY DO WE EXIST?

TO HELP YOU travel the world and tell stories that matter.

Actuality Abroad helps impact-driven storytellers get the training, experience and support they need to travel the world and tell stories that matter.

Our documentary travel experiences explore nonfiction mediamaking, ethical storytelling and responsible travel. In each destination, we partner with local changemakers and co-create media content that amplifies their work. Together, we learn how to tell better stories about real life around the world.

Meaningful travel isn’t just about a thoughtfully planned itinerary.

The real learning comes from opened minds, shifts in perspective, grappling with inequity and understanding our place in it. Our learning communities enable travelers to gain understanding through experience. Those who travel with us seek both personal and professional growth and are willing to risk a little discomfort along the way.

Meaningful travel is rooted in what is real about a destination.It fosters connection between people who live life differently and teaches you something valuable. Truly remarkable experiences abroad celebrate the uniqueness of a place while also elevating its people.

On every trip we learn from local changemakers and culturekeepers. We seek out the brilliant, the daring, the experts and the leaders that are investing positive energy in their own communities all over the world. Listening to their stories, documenting their work and sharing their wisdom, we too become inspired to do better.

You come home with remarkable stories to tell, new friends from other places, a changed lens from which to view their world, valuable skills or knowledge, a deep sense of accomplishment, and profound ideas about how to live.

FOR STORYTELLING ACROSS CULTURES

GUIDING PRICIPLES

The purpose of travel is to learn.
Relationships are the top priority.
Growth requires friction.
Collaboration leads to greater creativty.
The process is more important than the product.
Solutions stories matter most.
True consent can always be withdrawn.
Storytellers have power and that comes with responsibility.

Learn more →

"Those who travel with us seek both personal and professional growth and are willing to risk a little discomfort along the way."

THE BEGINNING

Our origin story

In 2010, we started what would become Actuality Abroad with one simple idea: what if we could combine meaningful travel with stories that inspire hope? Back then, we didn’t know exactly what it would grow into, but we knew we wanted to create something that mattered.

Aubrie Canfield and Robin Canfield, CoFounders of Actuality Abroad

Our journey began a few years earlier. Aubrie had spent her career in the high-pressure world of big-budget films and advertising, while Robin worked as a local community journalist, focused on sharing real stories from his hometown. Early in our relationship, we traveled together, meeting incredible changemakers—people in every community doing the hard, necessary work to make life better for those around them. These were the kinds of stories that stayed with us long after our travels ended.

Like so many others, we felt stuck at times—chasing careers that left us uninspired and disconnected. But through these travels, we began to dream: what if we could bring others into these stories? What if traveling and telling stories that matter could help us all feel more alive, more capable, and more connected?

With that dream in mind, we launched Actuality Media (now Actuality Abroad) and developed our first program, the Documentary Outreach. It was a way to bring storytellers and changemakers together—a month-long workshop where students could learn the art of documentary filmmaking by collaborating with local leaders around the world.

At first, it was a leap of faith. Aubrie focused on shaping the programs, drawing from her production background, while Robin’s knack for listening and connecting with people helped shape the stories and relationships that became the heart of our work. Over time, we realized that what we were building wasn’t just about making films—it was about the process.

Documentary storytelling demands presence. You can’t rush through it or stay on the surface. It requires listening deeply, noticing details, and building trust. And when you do that alongside people who live and think differently, something shifts. You start to see the world—and yourself—in a whole new way.

Together, we’ve mentored hundreds of storytellers and partnered with changemakers around the globe to produce over 100 short documentaries. Along the way, our vision expanded: we didn’t just want to teach filmmaking; we wanted to create learning experiences that help people connect—with themselves, with others, and with the world around them.

Actuality Abroad is, and always will be, a work in progress—a reflection of the values and lessons we’ve learned along the way. It’s a story of collaboration, growth, and hope. And it’s a story we’re still writing, with every traveler who joins us to connect with stories that matter.

We invite you to be part of it.

Aubrie talking about Actuality Abroad’s origin story at TEDx Orlando