The Third World Newsreel Production Workshop is a unique “hands-on” media production training program providing practical skills and resources for emerging filmmakers. This intensive six-month program, now in its 45th year, is aimed primarily at members of historically marginalized communities, with limited economic resources and access to mainstream educational institutions or traditional training programs. Offering tools to create fiction or documentary projects, the Media Production Workshop carries on TWN's mission of promoting independent cinema by and about communities of color and other underserved groups and their progressive allies.
The Production Workshop curriculum integrates elements of new digital technologies and transmedia in its training, but its focus is the development of the pre-production, production, and post-production skills necessary to take a short 5-minute video project from conception to completion. Working in small groups, workshop members conceive and produce their films with the help of instructors and guest lecturers, professionals working in the field of film/video and transmedia. Students are expected to complete one individual short video project during the program.
The Production Workshop meets one evening a week at 6:00 PM virtually and an additional 6-8 Saturdays for labs. As the pandemic eases, the classes will move to in-person meetings near the Third World Newsreel office. The time commitment needed to participate in the program is high and selected fellows must be able to attend regular class meetings as well as meet the out-of-class demands of preproduction, production, and post-production.
Prior film, video, or related experience is helpful but not required; self-initiative, openness to feedback, a progressive and collaborative spirit are, along with a commitment to meeting class production deadlines and completing one’s film project.
The Production Workshop is limited to 9 participants. A written application is required and selected applicants are chosen for interviews. The cost of the workshop this year is $600, payable in installments.
The TWN Production Workshop is led by Chrystian Rodriguez and Daniel Kim and is dedicated to the memory of Herman Lew, longtime Workshop Director, filmmaker, and cinematographer. Past Workshop grads include award-winning filmmakers Daresha Kyi, Yance Ford, Byron Hurt, Paula Heredia, Renee Tajima-Peña, Jamal Joseph, and Randy Redroad, and many others.
Third World Newsreel works with New York City-based media centers, universities and community groups to host production workshops, seminars and events, and gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the governor and the State legislature, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the City Council, the Peace Development Fund and individual donors.
