Center For
Independent
Documentary
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Remembering Lucia Small (1963 - 2022)
We are heartbroken to share the loss of New England filmmaker, Lucia Small.
CID is honored to have worked with Lucia when she directed her film, "My Father, The Genius" as well as when she produced Beth Harrington's "The Blinking Madonna and Other Miracles" and Laurel Chiten's "The Jew in the Lotus."
Lucia has left an indelible mark on the documentary filmmaking community and will be greatly missed.
Read more about Lucia's life and work here.
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Resources & Opportunities | |
LEF MOVING IMAGE FUND & HARVARD FSC-LEF FELLOWSHIP
Through the Moving Image Fund, LEF supports the work of New England-based filmmakers across all phases of a project's production. In November, LEF opened up Letter of Inquiry (LOI) submission forms for projects in Production and Post-production to award grants of $15,000 and $25,000, respectively. To be eligible for Post-production funding, the project must have already been supported by LEF at a previous stage.
The Harvard FSC-LEF Fellowship is an additional opportunity for one Boston-area director to receive a $10,000 grant, access to a pool of production and post-production equipment, and the ability to participate in the Harvard FSC community through work-in-progress screenings, workshops, and other activities over the 2023-2024 academic year. To apply for the FSC-LEF Fellowship, filmmakers who submit a Moving Image Fund Letter of Inquiry by January 20 will be able to express interest in this additional opportunity.
Deadline for applications is January 20th. Learn more and apply here.
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[Image Description: LEF Foundation logo] | |
ITVS OPEN CALL
ITVS Open Call for funding is now accepting applications. Open Call gives independent producers up to $350,000 to complete production for a standalone broadcast length documentary to air on public television. The documentary can be on any subject, viewpoint or style as long as it is in active production already, as evidenced via a ten to fifteen minute work in progress sample. Open Call is not a grant. You will receive funding in the form of a co-production agreement that assigns ITVS certain broadcast and streaming rights to your project during the term of the contract.
Deadline for applications is December 16th. Learn more and apply here.
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[Image Description: ITVS logo] | |
2023 SUNDANCE PRODUCERS TRACK
Applications for the 2023 Sundance Producers Track are now open. This program supports emerging independent producers with a work-in-progress feature-length film to be considered for the Producers Lab and Fellowship (yearlong program commencing July 2023) and the Producers Intensive (two-day concentrated program in Fall 2023.)
Deadline for applications is February 15th. Learn more and apply here.
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[Image Description: Sundance Institute logo] | |
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Jewish Story Partners are now accepting applications for their next funding round to support feature-length documentaries by U.S.-based producers and/or directors. Films should explore some aspect of Jewish experience and should have footage to share from the submitted project.
Deadline for applications is January 13th. Learn more and apply here.
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[Image Description: Jewish Story Partners logo] | |
DIANE WEYERMANN FELLOWSHIP
Points North is now accepting submissions for the Diane Weyermann Fellowship! This new collaborative fellowship includes a $100,000 non-recoupable grant, 18 months of mentorship, and professional development for up to 3 director/producer teams making films that take artistic risks and highlight stories of moral and ethical urgency.
To learn more about this exciting opportunity, please join a live virtual information session and Q&A on December 13th at 1pm ET. Register here.
The Fellowship was established in partnership with the Skoll Foundation and Participant, and contributions to support the Diane Weyermann Memorial Fund to honor her legacy can be made here.
Deadline for applications is January 13th. Learn more and apply here.
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[Image Description: A pink square graphic with white text that reads "Diane Weyermann Fellowship. Live Virtual Info Session + Q&A. 12/13/2022, 1pm ET." The Points North logo is at the bottom of the graphic.] | |
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The IDFA Bertha Fund supports independent, critical, and artistic voices from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania (IBF regions) with the aim of stimulating and empowering the creative documentary sector in these regions. The Fund provides development and production grants through two funding schemes. Filmmakers from and living in the above-mentioned regions can apply for IBF Classic.
Deadline for applications is December 10th. Learn more here.
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[Image Description: IDFA logo] | |
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As part of CAFILM’s DocLands Documentary Film Festival, DOCPITCH is back! This is a special opportunity for documentary filmmakers to receive funding for their projects.
Past winners have gone on to see their films produced and viewed around the world. A total of $100,000 will be awarded to five documentary projects, selected by vote.
Deadline to apply is December 11th. Learn more here.
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[Image Description: DocPitch logo] | |
THE BIG PAYBACK BROADCAST PREMIERE ON INDEPENDENT LENS | |
THE BIG PAYBACK, directed by Erika Alexander and Whitney Dow, will have its nationwide broadcast premiere on PBS' Independent Lens on Martin Luther King Day on January 16, 2023.
A rookie alderwoman from Evanston, IL, led the passage of the first tax-funded reparations for slavery bill in U.S. history for Black Americans. While she and her community struggle with the burden to make restitution for its citizens, a national racial crisis engulfs the country. Will the debt ever be addressed, or is it too late for this reparations movement to finally get the big payback?
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[Image Description: Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee in a yellow suit being interviewed as press hold microphones around her.] | |
FOUR WINTERS - FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION, BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE ACADEMY AWARDS
On Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 5:30PM, filmmaker Julia Mintz will present FOUR WINTERS and receive the "Human Rights Award" at the Bay Street Theater. Hamptons Doc Fest tickets can be purchased here.
For Oscar Consideration: FOUR WINTERS is one of 144 documentaries that have qualified for this year’s Academy Awards and is now officially in the running for “Best Documentary Feature.” The film is available to voters on the Academy Screening Room and is now playing at New Plaza Cinema for its 10th week in NYC theaters, tickets here.
For more information on the film, visit the website or follow FOUR WINTERS on Facebook.
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[Image Description: A sepia toned photograph of a Jewish partisan in the wintry woods looking down the barrel of a rifle.Text at the top of the image reads "For your consideration, Best documentary feature, FOUR WINTERS". To the right is a laurel for the Hamptons Doc Fest Human Rights Award. At the bottom of the image is a quote from Jeffrey Lyons, Lyons Den Radio, that reads "Easily ones of the best films of the year."] | |
JEWISH STORY PARTNERS FALL 2022 GRANTEES | Jewish Story Partners has awarded $550,000 in new grants to 20 feature documentary projects in their fourth round of granting. Their mission is to support films that reflect the full spectrum of Jewish experiences, cultures, and encounters. Grantees include CID sponsored films NATHAN-ISM (directed by Elan Golod, produced by Melanie Vi Levy) and BECOMING ELIE WIESEL (directed by David Fisher, produced by Michael Berenbaum.) | |
[Image Description: Jewish Story Partners logo] | |
A DECENT HOME STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME
After a successful, award-winning run on the festival circuit for most of this year, A DECENT HOME is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
A DECENT HOME is a feature-length documentary by Sara Terry that addresses urgent issues of class and economic inequity through the lives of mobile home park residents who can't afford housing anywhere else. The film asks, Who are we becoming as Americans? - as private equity firms and wealthy investors buy up parks, making sky-high returns on their investments while squeezing every last penny out of the mobile home owners who lack rights and protections under local and state laws, and must pay rent for the land they live on.
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[Image Description: A person stands looking out from the porch of their light blue mobile home. Flower baskets hang from the rafters of the porch, and manicured shrubbery and plantings surround the home.] | |
THIS IS JESSICA STREAMING
Andrea Meyerson’s latest documentary, THIS IS JESSICA is scheduled to be released on Amazon, iTunes and video streaming platforms on December 13, 2022. The film is being distributed by Freestyle Digital Media/Entertainment Studios. If you missed seeing it during its festival run, now you can stream it at home.
THIS IS JESSICA paints an intimate, emotional portrait of a woman forced to make a heart- wrenching decision in order to save herself. When Jonathan finally comes out as Jessica, it’s a leap off the edge of life as she knows it. Will her family reject or accept her? Will the Mormon church to which she’s given her life cast her out? This is the story of a woman faced with an impossible choice between the life into which she was born, and the one she was born to live.
Andrea Meyerson is an award-winning creator of film, television programming, and live productions. As founder and president of AMP (Andrea Meyerson Productions), formerly StandOut Productions, she has produced and directed over 30 feature films, television specials and series episodes which have aired on Showtime, Viacom’s Logo Network and several Canadian networks.
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[Image Description: A sepia toned photograph of Jessica wearing a glamorous dress and staring wistfully into the distance. Festival laurels line the side of the poster. Text at the bottom reads: THIS IS JESSICA, a documentary by Andrea Meyerson.] | |
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Check out two new podcasts from CANADALAND!
RATF*CKER: Meet David Wallace, political fixer. After decades in the game he says he’s getting out, telling all, and dumping his files in public. The result is the viral #KlondikePapers theory of conspiracies, conservatives, and cults. But are the allegations true? And why is he really implicating himself, and so many others? A wild, true story.
COMMONS: MONOPOLY: From broadband to banking to blueberries (yes, even blueberries), life in Canada is ruled by monopolies. In the latest season of the critically acclaimed podcast COMMONS, host Arshy Mann and producers Jordan Cornish and Noor Azrieh bring you the stories of how these monopolists bullied their way to the top, strangled their rivals, and cornered their markets with help from the government.
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[Image Description: A headless body in a very prim and proper blue suit and red tie is being ominously consumed by demonic looking rats.] | [Image Description: A silver top hat is floating above a swath of very dark clouds.] | |
REALITY WINNER KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN
Filmmakers Sonia Kennebeck and Ines Hofmann Kanna launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to finish and release their new independent documentary film about whistleblower Reality Winner. At age 25, Reality Winner disclosed one document about Russian election interference to The Intercept, which for the first time confirmed threats to the U.S. election system. On June 3, 2017, 11 male FBI agents raided her home, and interrogated Reality for hours without an attorney. Then they arrested her.
In a dramatic turn of events, in August 2022, Donald Trump was searched under the same Espionage Act as Reality Winner. The filmmakers are now finalizing their new film, titled REALITY WINNER, with Reality’s release from prison, first interview, Trump’s espionage investigation, and exclusive FBI materials. They are planning to release the film in 2023 - if the Kickstarter campaign is successful. Please support by spreading the word on social media and following them on Twitter here and Instagram here.
You can watch a teaser for this film here and donate to their campaign!
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[Image Description: A photograph of Reality Winner wearing a dark tank top and staring straight ahead. Overlaid text reads "This is the true story of Reality Winner. Donate to our film today on Kickstarter."] | |
CURED WINS AUSTEN RIGGS ERIKSON PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN MENTAL HEALTH MEDIA
CURED has been selected from among more than 100 submissions as the recipient of
the 2022 Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media. This award recognizes media professionals who create work that encourages greater understanding and awareness of mental health issues. Previous recipients include cartoonist and graphic novelist Alison Bechdel; writer and lecturer Andrew Solomon; and the Hidden Brain podcast. On January 12, 2023, the Austen Riggs Center will host a
screening and Q&A featuring CURED co-directors Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer.
Learn more about the film (which premiered last year on PBS’ Independent Lens
series), the prize, and the January event, here.
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[Image Description: A brown poster for the film "Cured" with an image of a person wearing a rainbow-colored shirt waving a microphone in the air joyfully. Text reads: "CURED. Doctors called them sick. The remedy was rebellion. A film by Bennett Singer & Patrick Sammon." A series of laurels are at the top of the poster. At the bottom are logos for supporters of the film.] | |
FWD-DOC UPDATES
Several FWD-Doc members had projects at IDFA, and FWD-Doc Interim Director, Amanda Upson, presented on an IDFA panel.
FWD-Doc Interim Director, Amanda Upson, was named one of DOC NYC’s 2022 Documentary New Leaders, which honors figures in the American documentary industry whose work to date and potential for leadership brings greater inclusion and equity to the field.
FWD-Doc co-founder, Jim LeBrecht, received an award for Justice and Inclusion in Film from the Berkeley Film Foundation.
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[Image Description: Amanda Upson presents at an IDFA panel discussion. ] | |
SOMETHING IN THE WATER WINS AWARD AT BERKELEY VIDEO FILM FEST
SOMETHING IN THE WATER won the 31st Berkeley Video Film Fest Grand Festival Documentary/State of the Nation award on October 28th! The filmmakers believe our country is facing a lot of challenges and in a small way, this film addresses those concerns through the testimonies of people across America.
SOMETHING IN THE WATER was also chosen by the Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival in Atlanta in September and will make its Texas premiere at the 10th South Texas Underground Film Festival in Corpus Christi on December 4th.
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[Image Description: Filmmakers Joseph C. Stillman, Jeri Wachter and BVFF Executive Director, Mel Vapour at the Berkeley Video Film Fest.] Photo Credit: Maria Farrington | |
THE SONGPOET TAKES HOME AWARD
THE SONGPOET has won the 53rd Annual ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Broadcast/Media Award in pop music. Produced by Paul Lamont and Scott Sackett and directed by Lamont, The Songpoet was filmed over the course of eight years in the US, Canada, and Europe and delves into the life and career of Eric Andersen, a singer-songwriter at the vanguard of the folk music scene in the 1960s. It takes a deep and thought-provoking look into conflicts of career, ego, relationships, and the unrelenting pursuit of purpose while exploring what it takes to
keep moving forward despite crushing setbacks. The film is currently streaming on-
demand at pbs.org.
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[Image Description: A black and white photo of the back of a man's head. He wears a faded collared shirt and has light-colored shoulder length hair. Large white text reads "The Songpoet" with small text at the bottom of the image that reads "A Paul Lamont and Scott Sackett film.] | |
TIME AWAY FROM TIME DURING MIAMI ART WEEK | During Miami Art Week (November 28th - December 5th), Viviane Silvera presents an installation of hand painted videos in, "Time Away From Time", created from her animations for her FEEL MEMORY series. | |
[Image Description: A hand painted drawing by Viviane Silvera of a woman in a rowboat looking out at the moon. Text reads "By Viviane Silvera. TIME AWAY FROM TIME: Video Installation. Miami Art Week, November 28th. -December 5th 2022. 1438 Washington Ave. Miami Beach, FL 33139] | |
[Image Description: A collage of three Chinese immigrants. From left to right, a woman talking to the camera, a man holding a megaphone, and a man wearing glasses and painting.] | |
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"DISSIDENTS"
Directed by Yi Chen
A feature-length documentary about three exiled Chinese dissidents’ pro-democracy activism challenged by China’s cross-border espionage and repression on American soil. An activist imprisoned as a mastermind of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests dedicates himself to building an opposition movement in exile, but is attacked by pro-Beijing demonstrators during Taiwan President Tsai Ing-Wen’s U.S. visit. A human rights artist’s new sculpture in the Mojave Desert is burnt to the ground a month after its unveiling. He is determined to rebuild the sculpture and the FBI indicts three individuals conspiring as agents of the Chinese government to spy on him and destroy his artwork. A protester fled China to seek asylum in the U.S. She lives in a tent outside the Chinese Embassy but is arrested and charged with a criminal case for blocking Chinese Vice Premier’s motorcade during the U.S.-China trade talks.
With the current protests in China, the film tells a timely and urgent story about political awakening, the determined and unceasing work of Chinese dissidents defending democracy and the struggles of exiles.
The film is in the post-production stage and is seeking completion support. Watch the trailer and contribute to the film here.
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Featured Resource Of The Month | | |
[Image Description: Pay Transparency Project logo] | |
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The Pay Transparency Project (PTP) is a community-driven database that offers non-fiction video professionals timely insight into constantly evolving hiring trends. and pay parity practices.
View the database and join here.
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Want to support CID while you shop? Sign up for AmazonSmile and select The Center for Independent Documentary, Inc. as your preferred charity at smile.amazon.com/ch/04-2738458. Remember to shop for deals at smile.amazon.com, or with AmazonSmile ON in the Amazon app, and AmazonSmile will donate to us at no cost to you.
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We are grateful for the generous support of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, and the Boston Cultural Council, a local agency which is funded by the Mass Cultural Council, and administered by the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture. | |
Center For Independent Documentary | 1-339-364-1278 | www.documentaries.org | | | | | |
