Follow the Money: New Economic Models Member Only

Conversations about documentary funding tend to focus on who is giving—philanthropists, governments, platforms, investors—and less on how money moves, who controls it, and what mechanisms exist to get it to filmmakers or artists. Levies, obligations, lotteries: these are not new ideas, but they are being reinvented, and not only by governments. From a South African lottery redistributing proceeds directly to artists and cultural workers, to a democratically governed investment fund that puts financing decisions in the hands of community members rather than accredited investors, to the rise of film production incentives—this conversation brings together people building new infrastructure from the ground up, in places and at scales that documentary filmmakers rarely hear about. Moderated by Sanjay Sharma, a digital media pioneer who has spent a career figuring out the economics of independent media, this session aims to get past the DIY playbook.

Moderator: Sanjay Sharma (Marginal MediaWorks)
Panelists: Tiny Mungwe (The People's Commons), Julia Parker (Boston Ujima Project), and Grace Porras (#MakeItBay)