Join us for a one-of-a-kind Master Class that will shed light on the art and craft of documentary filmmaking from two-time Academy Award®-winner Barbara Kopple.
Here's What Really Happened
No tweeting. No press. No industry. Filmmakers-only conversations revealing personal insights into the art and business of documentary filmmaking.
“Here’s What Really Happened” are signature sessions from IDA's biennial Getting Real Conference that began as a filmmaker-led solution to combat the lack of transparency that continues to plague the community. These intimate conversations allow filmmakers to speak openly about what actually happened in the production, sales and distribution life of a film. The rules are, everything said in the room, stays in the room. Our goal is to create a safe space for discussion that allows filmmakers to have frank, meaningful discussions without the influence of industry in the room. We believe that one of the greatest resources for a filmmaker is another filmmaker.
In building a more knowledgeable and transparent community together, IDA tours “Here’s What Really Happened” sessions to various festivals and conferences around the world. These private conversations have focused on security/surveillance, sales agents, festival strategies, fact-finding, ethics, work/family life balance, truth-seeking in production, and other themes.
Learn what really happened behind-the-scenes in an upcoming session. It’s personal, it’s intimate, let’s get into it.
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Join Kartemquin Films for the first IDA Conversation Series event in Chicago, an exploration of the extraordinary work and career of the Academy Award® nominated director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters, Life Itself).
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Join us for a special event to discover and analyze the qualities that make some documentaries stand above the rest. This three-hour interactive workshop offers an in-depth analysis of recent Academy Award-winning documentaries to reveal what makes them great.
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Join us and Showtime Networks’ Vinnie Malhotra, Senior Vice President, Documentaries, Unscripted, and Sports Programming, for the next installment in our What’s New series, in which prominent industry leaders in documentary present up-to-the-minute information about what’s happening in the documentary landscape and discuss new opportunities for filmmakers.
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Join us for a very special Virtual Reality (VR) Documentary Workshop that features a hands-on approach to the new world of VR, discussing current tools, emerging techniques and methodologies as well as the ethical concerns of this rapidly evolving medium. This daylong workshop is specifically designed to give nonfiction filmmakers practical knowledge in every major aspect of crafting VR in documentary.
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Join us for the first ever public event in Los Angeles to explore the many points of intersection between the documentary and VR worlds. This wide-ranging panel discussion will provoke your curiosity and raise as many questions as it answers about the vast possibilities and possible limitations related to documentary and VR.
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Join us for a special presentation featuring John Hoffman, Executive Vice President, Documentaries and Specials for Discovery, who will be discussing Discovery’s exciting new commitment to documentary. This event marks the first of IDA’s What’s New sessions, in which prominent industry leaders in documentary present up-to-the-minute information about what’s happening in the documentary landscape and discuss new opportunities for filmmakers.
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Join us for a rare career examination of one of the most influential auteurs in the personal documentary genre, Ross McElwee.
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Join us for this essential exploration of the art and craft of directing with Academy Award®-winning director Morgan Neville.
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Free for IDA members on a first come, first served basis. Learn about the latest developments and best practices coming out of the educational distribution and outreach/engagement worlds as, together, we explore these topics with a highly impressive array of panelists.