Tribeca Film Institute has opened submissions for four of their programs: TFI Documentary Fund, TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund, Tribeca All Access and TFI Latin America Media Arts Fund. Beyond providing grants for non-fiction, narrative and new media filmmakers, these programs also include year-round support like resources and industry connections for the grantees who will participate in events during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. For more information, visit their website. The deadline is October 10th, 2011.
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is now accepting submissions. The festival will be held April 12-15th, 2012 in Durham, NC. Full Frame serves the documentary form and its community by showcasing the contemporary work of established and emerging filmmakers. The festival provides a space that nurtures conversation between artists, students, and the Full Frame audience. Full Frame is committed to enhancing public understanding and appreciation of the art form and its significance, while making films more accessible to a wider audience.
The Fledgling Fund supports innovative media projects that can play critical roles in igniting social change. The primary focus of The Fledgling Fund’s creative media initiative is outreach and audience engagement. Applicants are encouraged to review their written resources on assessing impact and understanding distribution, outreach/strategic communications and audience engagement prior to applying. The next deadline to apply is September 30th at midnight (EST).
Chicken & Egg Pictures’ Mother Wit Human Rights Fund is now accepting applications. Check out their mandate to make sure you qualify before applying. The deadline is September 30th at midnight Pacific Time.
Earlier this year, we posted an opportunity for the konsonant/ Sounding Together Initiative (STi) Fellowship. The fellowship gives free music licenses to independent filmmakers working on socially conscious films. The recipients were announced last month and we are excited to hear that two of the winning filmmakers found out about this opportunity from Working Films! Check out the video below to see the selected film projects.
Things are heating up at the Working Films’ firehouse this summer – literally, the heat index has hovered around 100 degrees the past month. I recently arrived to Wilmington in June as a 2011 George Stoney Fellow from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. I’m really excited and passionate about my work so far to help racial justice advocates across the country use the new Two Towns of Jasper Education and Outreach DVD. We’ve started partnering with an array of organizations so far, each one looking to host their own distinct event to inspire discussion and action that combats racial bias that continues to appear in our communities today.
Early last week, we were invited to brainstorm with chapters of the National Federation for Just Communities (NFCJ), a grassroots social justice organization whose former chapter memberships were known as the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ). The former NCCJ was a key partner around the original launch of Two Towns of Jasper in 2003 so it was great to reconnect these allies with the project.
In our conversation, representatives from eight current NFJC groups in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska and New York each saw potential in either screening the entire film or presenting selected clips from the film to youth and adults in their respective communities. Lana Benatovich, from NFJC of Western New York, brought major energy to the call, reflecting on the powerful impact Two Towns of Jasper had on her region in Buffalo, NY when they used the film for when it was first released. In the special DVD feature Two Towns of Jasper: Move Hearts, Minds and Policy (below), you can see firsthand how the film had the ability to push the Western New York citizens and government officials to consider the visible and all too dangerous “invisible” racial divisions in their area. Proving that Two Towns of Jasper is timeless tool for activists, Lana told us last week that she is eager to host another screening event with the new education and outreach DVD of Two Towns of Jasper. She noted that there is still much work to be done as her city of Buffalo was just named the 6th most segregated city in the U.S.
I couldn’t agree more with Lana and everyone on the NFCJ call that the issues the film brings up are just as relevant today as ever. That’s why we are working so hard to get the Two Towns of Jasper DVD into the hands of educators, community organizers and racial justice activists across the country. If you’re interested in hosting a screening, you can buy the DVD here.
This Education and Outreach DVD includes a host of resources that will help facilitators and audiences work through the essential but often difficult conversations that the film brings up. Two Towns of Jasper covers a city’s reaction to a horrible hate crime. At the same time, it uncovers the racism that can lead to this kind of tragedy. I found it difficult to get my head around. I thought to myself, “Why?”, “How?”, “And could this happen again?” The new resources on this DVD, including the educators guide written by Facing History and Ourselves and the interactive community discussion guide helped me process those questions, and I know they will provide screening hosts which a starting point for individual or group reflection and action.
Two Towns of Jasper truly does have limitless audience reach. Once only available on VHS and at film festival screenings, now you can feature Two Towns in:
local leadership development institutes
public forums on racial reconciliation
college campus discussions
civic response team workshops
educational film series
grassroots training sessions
youth leadership programs
town hall meetings
high school classrooms
diversity and inclusion training sessions
There is no better time than right now to bring Two Towns of Jasper to a community near you. Purchase the DVD and organize a screening today!
Christina Bryant is a George Stoney Fellow at Working Films for Summer 2011.
“Being part of this collaboration is saying we can work together to affect a larger issue; to affect change.” – Peter Bull, filmmaker of Dirty Business
As Judith Helfand states in the video, “There’s no silver bullet that is going to fix climate change.” If that was true, An Inconvenient Truth would have stopped climate change. We need many compelling stories from lots of different places to convey a comprehensive picture of the problem and solutions we can pursue. Reel Power films weave together the narratives of the different communities they feature to show the interconnectedness of the issues. Together they give the environmental movement a full picture of our opportunities for a just future.
“What the natural gas industry would like to do is split this movement. The natural gas industry would like to drive a wedge straight through environmentalism. Don’t let them fool you! As filmmakers, we have to make sure that we’re working together as one force because the whole point is to move to renewable energy.” – Josh Fox, filmmaker of Gasland
This spring Reel Power participated in Power Shift, the nation’s largest youth climate conference, where the films were screened throughout the weekend culminating in a filmmaker panel. A discussion on the ways film screenings can be used to generate action at the grassroots level energized both the crowd and the directors. The Reel Power team left inspired by commitments from some of our country’s brightest youth leaders and are now working with college campus organizers to bring screenings and actions that support the movement for a sustainable and just energy future.
Working Films is continuing to build alliances among related issue filmmakers and NGO’s . We are opening up new opportunities and foster stronger communities. Learn more about our thematic field building or connect with Reel Power and learn how to set up screenings on your campus or in your community: http://workingfilms.org/reelpower.
“What an amazing thing to join forces, and to share our ideas and to share resources and get that message out there.” Jennifer Redfearn, Sun Come Up
The Good Pitch San Francisco starts off with an intensive two-day campaign development workshop led by Working Films for the selected filmmakers September 24-25. A day-long event on September 27 will bring together the filmmakers with NGOs, foundations, philanthropists, brands and other stakeholders to forge coalitions and campaigns that are good for all these allies, good for the films and good for the world.
Below are descriptions of the six selected projects and their award-winning directors:
American Village(Dir. Mary Posatko, Emily Topper)
1972: a father of thirteen is murdered in Baltimore, Maryland. Three boys are arrested, represented by a famous civil rights attorney, and acquitted. Traumatized and confused, the victim’s family flees, and never looks back. Now, amidst a family crisis, his granddaughter returns – to uncover the era’s brutal history, meet the men involved, and begin to heal her family.
Gardens of Paradise (Dir. Bernardo Ruiz)
A veteran reporter and his colleagues at an embattled news weekly challenge the drug cartels and corrupt local officials during a wave of unprecedented violence against journalists in Mexico.
God Loves Uganda (Dir. Roger Ross Williams )
In a journey that spans two continents, African-American director Roger Williams, son of a Baptist minister, explores the nature of belief – in America, where congregants search for spiritual meaning, and in Uganda, where American missionaries and Ugandan evangelicals struggle for the hearts and souls of a people facing dire poverty and tumultuous social change.
How To Survive A Plague (Dir. David France)
Using never-before-seen archival footage, How to Survive a Plague is the intense story of how AIDS stopped being a death sentence, and the improbable group of young HIV-positive activists who, though lacking scientific training, infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry to help develop effective, breakthrough medications. They saved millions of lives – including many, though not all, of their own.
The Invisible War (Dir. Kirby Dick)
The Invisible War is an investigative and powerfully emotional documentary about the epidemic of rape within the US military, the institutions that perpetuate and cover up its existence, and its profound personal and social consequences.
Turkey Creek (Dir. Leah Mahan)
Turkey Creek tells the story of a group of determined Mississippians who struggle to save their endangered Gulf Coast community in the face of rampant development, industrial pollution and disaster. Bridge the Gulf is a citizen journalism and new media initiative designed to help the Gulf Coast’s most marginalized communities convey their stories and their vision for the future.
The Good Pitch was created by Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, in partnership with the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program. Support for The Good Pitch comes from Chicken & Egg Pictures, The Fledgling Fund, Ford Foundation, Impact Partners, Wyncote Foundation, CrossCurrents Foundation, Amnesty International and anonymous donors. Campaign support for filmmakers is provided by Working Films.
Tribeca Film Institute has opened submissions for four of their programs: TFI Documentary Fund, TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund, Tribeca All Access and TFI Latin America Media Arts Fund. Beyond providing grants for non-fiction, narrative and new media filmmakers, these programs also include year-round support like resources and industry connections for the grantees who will participate in events during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. For more information, visit their website. The deadline is October 10th, 2011.
The Fledgling Fund supports innovative media projects that can play critical roles in igniting social change. The primary focus of The Fledgling Fund’s creative media initiative is outreach and audience engagement. Applicants are encouraged to review their written resources on assessing impact and understanding distribution, outreach/strategic communications and audience engagement prior to applying. The next deadline to apply is September 30th at midnight (EST).
Chicken & Egg Pictures’ Mother Wit Human Rights Fund is now accepting applications. Check out their mandate to make sure you qualify before applying. The deadline is September 30th at midnight Pacific Time.
