Join Ranell Shubert, IDA Nonfiction Access Initiative (NAI) Funds Program Manager, and Keisha Knight, Director of Funds and Advocacy, to discuss the NAI program and launch of the NAI Nonfiction Media Makers with Disabilities Survey. Ranell and Keisha will present information about the survey, discuss how it was developed, and answer any questions.
Panels & Workshops
Our year-round series of topical seminars led by experts in the documentary field.
In this IDA members’ only workshop, veteran marketing expert and researcher Fred Greene will give a brief presentation on different moments filmmakers can position and present themselves in their projects. Greene will follow this talk with a series of short strategy sessions with pre-selected projects workshopping their written materials and conclude with an audience Q&A.
This 90-minute event is developed through IDA’s Getting Real Fellowship and will bring together filmmakers from Bangladesh and Taiwan who have experience negotiating the international film circuit. Facilitated by programmer Pei-hua Chung (Taiwan International Documentary Festival), filmmakers Huang Yin-yu (Green Jail) and Farid Ahmad (Waiting for Winter) will share a film with event registrants ahead of their conversation around shared concerns. They will discuss this complicated landscape, touching on topics from international co-productions, the assumptions behind ideas of universality in narrative structures, and the unsaid challenges of being platformed. This event is presented in partnership with Dhaka DocLab, TFAI and Taiwan Docs.
A 90-minute workshop with Maya E. Rudolph, Vice President of Non-Fiction at Louverture Films.
Please note that this event is postponed and the new date will be announced here. All existing registrants will be able to join us at the new set date. Please also check your emails for further notices.
A four-part virtual summit that collaboratively explores the disparate yet interconnected fields of visual journalism and documentary film — and best practices that lie at the intersection of both.
When presented with a seemingly infinite number of possibilities, documentary filmmakers sometimes find themselves frozen in indecision about the direction of their project. In those moments of indecision, the emotional core of the film can get lost. In this 2-hour event, dual Emmy award-winning filmmaker Geoffrey Smith will help attendees to unearth “the beating heart of their film story, and to draw the most clarity, emotion, and drama from it.”
How do you make a film about the experience of incarceration? Given the complexities of consent and power, what are the ethics this work requires? What is an ethic of narrative reparation? With an introduction from filmmaker Anyé Young, filmmaker Adamu Chan thinks through these questions with award-winning filmmakers Brett Story, Jasmín Mara Lopez, and co-host and co-producer of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated podcast “Ear Hustle” Rahsaan Thomas.
A very small number of film festivals seem to hold an enormous amount of sway over a film’s sales and distribution prospects, as well as the filmmakers’ chances at creating a sustainable living through filmmaking. This perception drives many filmmakers to pin their hopes on just a handful of market-driven festivals that are most important in their region, whether it’s North America (where Sundance looms large), Europe (Cannes, which accepts very few documentaries), Asia (A-list festivals like Busan or Singapore) or elsewhere. In reality, there is a vast ecosystem of film festivals that can all contribute to the healthy life of a documentary film project, and distribution that doesn’t rely on the catalyst of perceived film festival success.
How much does it really cost to make a documentary? What does sustainability look like? What changes do we need to make for the well-being of the field?