Calendar – Past Event

The Bertha BRITDOC Connect Fund is the first European-based outreach and engagement fund, and is open to filmmakers from around the world.

Films have inspired people to engage and to act. They have led to changes in law, policy and practice. They have led viewers to question the status quo and to care more about their communities and the world around them. They have affected the way people give and/or invest money.

But for a film to achieve all this, it needs a structured outreach and audience engagement plan, and the capacity to implement it.

The Bertha BRITDOC Connect Fund is a joint initiative between The Bertha Foundation and the BRITDOC Foundation.

The fund is looking to support smart, strategic outreach campaigns for ambitious independent documentary films with a social issue at their core; films which have the ability to achieve real change on a local, regional or global level.

Social impact can be achieved in a myriad of ways and we are looking for outreach plans that engage audiences, have identifiable goals and partners to help achieve them.

Grants will be in the range of £5,000 – £50,000.

Applications can come at the planning, trial, delivery or evaluation stage of a campaign. Films can apply more than once, for different parts or phases of a campaign.

There will be two application rounds per year.

The next round closes at 6pm UK time on January 31st 2012. There will be no deadline extensions.

For example our funds could support:

• Funding a strategic summit with potential partners including media, NGOs Foundations and Campaigners, to identify target audiences and brainstorm how best to use the film to augment existing campaign strategies.
• The development and production of school curriculum packs.
• Support for design and build of innovative online tools to enhance audience engagement.
• Funding for the re-versioning of the feature documentary into shorts, which could be used on multiple platforms including online and on mobile devices.
• Funding for strategic screening tours: through schools, universities and relevant community groups, for political or corporate lobbying.
• Support for an outreach staffer to action the outreach plan, book the screening tour and act as point person between the filmmakers and NGO partners.
• Support for evaluation analysis, capturing data on the social impact of the film.