Sheffield Doc/Fest - 2009 MeetMarket Applications Open NOW!
The call for applications for the 2009 MeetMarket at Sheffield Doc/Fest is now open online here - http://www.sheffdocfest.com/meetmarket - until 4 September. MeetMarket is Doc/Fest’s pitching initiative designed to match documentary makers’ most innovative project ideas with UK and international buyers. For more information on MeetMarket see here - http://www.sheffdocfest.com/view/meetmarket
Absolutely fantastic. The best documentary market in Europe, without a doubt - 2008 MeetMarket Participant
The Good Pitch comes to London!
The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP) announce the Good Pitch will be held in the UK on September 7 & 8, 2009. The Good Pitch is a collaboration with Working Films UK and will be hosted by Amnesty International at their East London auditorium.
The Good Pitch brings together inspiring social-purpose film projects and a group of expert participants from charities, foundations, brands and media to form powerful alliances around groundbreaking films. The call for film projects is now open – deadline July 6, 2009.
For more information, trailer and to apply visit http://britdoc.org/goodpitch
Sounds Like Teen Spirit opens to rave reviews!
We are dead proud to say that Jamie Jay Johnson’s fantastic foundation film has opened in cinemas across the country. Here’s the rather lovely q&a with one of the junior Eurovision competitors from the film, Giorgos (and his sister). Bless.
Call for Entries: The Edinburgh Pitch 2009
There is one week remaining to apply for the annual documentary pitching forum hosted by the Scottish Documentary Institute at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Deadline for project application: 11 May
Project selections announced: 27 May
Observer application deadline: 1 June
Cash Prizes will be awarded for Most Promising Project (£6,000) and Best Scottish Project (£2,000)
The Edinburgh Pitch will be held in the heart of Edinburgh’s old town The Royal Mile in John Knox’s former house which is now the national Storytelling Centre.
Held alongside the Edinburgh International Film Festival, this is an opportunity for filmmakers to pitch their ideas to a select panel of commissioning editors. Commissioners, sales agents and experts from the BBC, Channel 4 and various broadcasters and funders from around the world will be available.
The workshop is open to all filmmakers UK and abroad and is aimed at independent filmmakers and companies who are developing and raising finance for creative documentaries (52’-90’) and who are thinking about international co-productions. (Please note that only UK filmmakers are eligible for the cash prizes.)
Already confirmed for 2009: Wim Van Rompaey, (Lichtpunt), Belgium; Doris Hepp, (ARTE, ZDF); Ian Davies, (Initialize Films); Representative (Scottish Screen), Tabitha Jackson (More4), Outi Saarikoski (YLE), Beadie Finzi (Britdoc), Esther Van Messel (First Hand Films, Sales and Distribution), Line Sandsmark (EDN), Representative (BBC Scotland)
Please download information on how to apply with a project or as an observer from:
http://www.docscene.org/apply
or contact Rebecca Day on
Lineup for the Good Pitch at SILVERDOCS announced
The lineup for the Good Pitch, taking place at the the AFI-Discovery Channel SILVERDOCS Festival on 16 June 2009, is announced today.
The Good Pitch North America tour is a partnership between the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP), generously supported by the Fledgling Fund and Working Films. See http://www.britdoc.org/goodpitch
From over 300 applications, eight filmmaking teams have been selected to pitch their films and outreach campaigns to an invited audience, comprising leading national and international NGOs, foundations, broadcasters, campaigners and media in order to maximise the impact of their social-issue documentary projects. Those already confirmed to attend include: Cinereach, IMPACT Partners, Fledgling Fund, Moveon.org, Katahdin Foundation, Avaaz.org, Amnesty International, ITVS, Tribeca Film Institute, Wide Angle, Indiepix, BAVC Producers Institute for New Media Technologies, POV, Incite Productions, 1% for the Planet, The Impact Arts + Film Fund, Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media and the Phoebe Haas Charitable Trust.
The selected film projects are:
Budrus has a Hammer
Dir. Julia Bacha
A Palestinian community organizer unites Fatah, Hamas and Israelis in a Gandhian struggle to save his village, unleashing a non-violent movement - with women on the front lines - that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary by the makers of Encounter Point and Control Room, featuring exclusive footage of this movement from its infancy, Budrus has a Hammer will inspire, charm and challenge audiences worldwide.
Cape Wind: The Fight for the Future of Power in America
Dir. Robbie Gemmel
Cape Wind illuminates the divisive controversy surrounding the Cape Wind Project – a proposal to build 130 wind turbines off the coast of Cape Cod – translating the furor which exploded on the Cape Cod community into a story of transcendent national importance for the future of sustainability in America.
Ethiopia’s Exchange
Dir. Hugo Berkeley
Ethiopia’s Exchange tells the story of a woman on a mission - and a world of trouble standing in her way. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, a charismatic Ethiopian economist, wants to end hunger in her famine-plagued country. She designed the nation’s first commodities exchange, which she hopes will revolutionize an age-old market system.
Green Shall Overcome
Dir. Megan Gelstein
Green Shall Overcome takes an in-depth look at the green-collar job movement through the lens of Van Jones, an African-American civil-rights lawyer. Jones envisions the new green economy as a pathway out of poverty for low-income Americans while simultaneously solving challenges of environmental destruction. After years of advocating for change, Jones is recruited by the Obama Administration and appointed Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation by the White House Council on Environment Quality.
High Tech, Low Life
Dir. Stephen T. Maing
High Tech, Low Life is about one of China’s first citizen reporters and the achievements of a fearless new digital youth generation. The film follows the evolution of a young vegetable seller from blogger to internet celebrity as he reports on sensitive news stories in China.
Hungry In America
Dirs. Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush
Hungry in America will investigate why nearly 38 million Americans - including 14 million children - go hungry here, in one of the richest nations on earth. The film will explore the causes of this crisis and reveal that hunger in the U.S. is not only man-made, but solvable.
Out in the Silence
Dir. Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer
Out in the Silence uses the story of a small American town confronting the firestorm of controversy ignited by a same-sex wedding announcement to illustrate the challenge of being an outsider in a conservative environment and catalyze new ways of making resources and support available for those working for change.
Split Estate
Dir. Debra Anderson
Split Estate follows an unfolding conflict in the Rocky Mountains. With cries from Washington for more domestic gas and oil production, the citizens of Colorado and New Mexico find themselves in the path of an unstoppable rush to drill that is destroying their health, their homes, and their communities.
Heavy Water on More4, Tuesday 28th
Foundation-funded film, Heavy Water: A Film for Chernobyl, directed by David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky, will have an airing on Tuesday 28th April at 10pm on MORE4. Reviews have been great, so get it while it’s hot!
“more an art piece than a documentary but is powerfully imagined” - The Telegraph
“every frame is a stunning photograph in itself” - The Times
“haunting images of the devastation” - Radio Times
“Both an exquisite indictment of tyranny’s disregard for technology, and an articulate elegy for human rights. Magnificent” - The Guardian
Based on Mario Petrucci’s award-winning book-length Poem for Chernobyl; Heavy Water, this film tells the story of the people who dealt with the world’s worst nuclear disaster at ground level: the fire-fighters, the soldiers, the ‘liquidators’ and their families.
Petrucci’s poetry forms the backbone of the film’s narrative. The poems are cut together with revealing archive and evocative location footage of the ghost-town of Pripyat and the surrounding exclusion zone. The poems are read by actors Francine Brody, Juliet Stevenson, David Threlfall and Samuel West.
Directors Phil Grabsky and David Bickerstaff travelled to Ukraine and into the exclusion zone to film the deserted town of Pripyat and the interior of the destroyed reactor. They have made an intensely moving film, which, rather than relating the technical details of the world’s biggest ever industrial accident, emphasises the effect of the disaster on the people of Chernobyl.
Chosen wins a BAFTA for Best Single Documentary!
And the BAFTA for Best Single Documentary goes to...Chosen.
We are very pleased to announce that this evening’s Single Documentary BAFTA award went to Foundation film, Chosen. Receiving the award, director Brian Woods said, “This is a fantastic honour – thank you BAFTA for this. It is particularly wonderful because it was such a struggle to get this film made. We spent several years going round broadcasters. Seventeen commissioning editors turned it down - several of them several times - before finally BRITDOC...gave us the money to make the film.”
Well done Brian and all at True Vision!
The Call for Entries for The Good Pitch at IFP's Independent Film Week is now open
The call for entries is now open for the Good Pitch at IFP’s 2009 Independent Film Week. The Good Pitch brings together inspiring social-purpose film projects and a group of expert participants from charities, foundations, brands, government and media to form powerful alliances around groundbreaking films. For more information and to apply: http://www.britdoc.org/goodpitch
Deadline: Monday 25 May 2009
The Good Pitch in North America is a partnership between the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP), generously supported by the Fledgling Fund and Working Films.
“The Good Pitch expands much-needed support for creative social issue documentary storytellers,” said Cara Mertes, Director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program. “This innovative international initiative maximizes the partners’ resources and expertise, and provides another way for the independent documentary community to chart the future.”
“The Good Pitch at Independent Film Week builds perfectly on IFP’s program, ‘Envision – Addressing Global Issues through Documentaries,’ a partnership with the United Nations Department of Public Information” says Michelle Byrd, Executive Director of IFP. “We are looking for documentary projects from US filmmakers, which intersect with the eight UN Millennium Development Goals - http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals”.
THE UN MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
- End Poverty & Hunger
- Universal Education
- Gender Equity
- Child Health
- Maternal Health
- Combat HIV/Aids, Malaria & other diseases
- Environmental Sustainability
- Global Partnership for Development
The Good Pitch at IFP’s Independent Film Week, in New York City, will take place on September 24, 2009. Produced by IFP - America’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers - Independent Film Week is the oldest forum in the US for the discovery of new projects in development and new voices on the independent film scene. It is qualitatively and quantitatively the best and biggest opportunity for an independent filmmaker to find a funder or producer. IFP believes that independent films broaden the palette of cinema, seeding the global culture with new ideas, kindling awareness, and fostering activism. Formerly known as the IFP Market, Independent Film Week takes place September 19 – 24, 2009.
http://www.independentfilmweek.com
“We are excited to be collaborating with the team at Independent Film Week to bring the Good Pitch to New York – it is the perfect way to round off our North American tour in 2009” says Katie Bradford of the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation.
Selection for the Good Pitch at Hot Docs finalised!
We are very pleased to be able to announce the lineup for the first Good Pitch North America on 2009.
The Good Pitch North America tour is a partnership between the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP), generously supported by the Fledgling Fund and Working Films.
From 150 applications, five filmmaking teams have been selected to pitch their films and associated outreach campaigns to an invited audience, comprising leading human rights organizations, foundations, NGOs, campaigners and media in order to maximise the impact of their social-issue documentary projects. Pitching will take place on the afternoon of May 7th.
The selected projects are:
Resilient dirs. Sean & Andrea Fine
Executive produced by Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie, Resilient is a quest to answer Mariane Pearl’s question: “Can we spread hope as others spread fear?” It is a search for signs of hope in personal stories of individual women that, despite extraordinary odds, are finding ways to make a real difference.
The Promise of Freedom dir. Beth Murphy
The Promise of Freedom is a modern-day Oskar Schindler story that focuses on Kirk Johnson, a 27-year-old American aid worker fighting to save tens of thousands of Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they worked for the U.S. to help rebuild Iraq.
Our School dir. Mona Nicoara
A vérité documentary following three Roma children struggling to break the barriers of discrimination and segregation in a small Transylvanian town. Rejected by teachers, they find strength in the friendship of Romanian classmates. Our School documents one of Romania’s first school integration efforts, the result of a European Court of Human Rights judgment similar to Brown v. Board of Education in 1950s America.
Burma Soldier dir. Nic Dunlop
The powerful story of a former junta member and Burmese soldier who risks everything to become a pro-democracy activist. Told by photojournalist Nic Dunlop, this film offers a rare understanding of a brutal regime and the political and psychological power of the junta over this country.
Untitled Immigration Project dir. Marco Williams
In a nation of immigrants, the debate about ‘illegal immigrants,’ has become a barometer of American morality, the civil rights struggle of the twenty-first century. Focusing on the impact of one law, this project documents the trauma that the immigration causes, neighbor against neighbor, tearing a peaceful community apart.
Find out more at http://britdoc.org/goodpitch
We're Having a Hot Docs Party!
We are teaming up with our partners at Sheffield Doc/Fest to host a joint party at HotDocs. There will be a corner of a Canadian field (well, bar) that is forever England when THE BRITISH PARTY kicks off to celebrate British Documentaries at the fest.
The party will take place on Tuesday May 5th at 9pm. Destination: The Supermarket Bar and Restaurant, 268 Augusta Avenue, Kensington Market. All welcome. Come early before the tab runs out.
THREE Foundation Films at Hot Docs!
Congratulations to the teams behind Afghan Star, End of the Line & The Yes Men Fix the World - all three films will be playing at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival next month.
Afghan Star on More4 tonight at 10pm
Double Sundance winner Afghan Star is showing on More4 tonight (April 7th) at 10pm.
After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, Pop Idol has come to Afghanistan. Afghan Star follows the dramatic stories of four contestants as they risk all to become the nation’s favorite singer. But will they attain the freedom they hope for in this vulnerable and traditional nation? There’s really only one way to find out…
BRITDOC at the National Campaigning Conference
Foundation Directors Katie Bradford and Beadie Finzi will be running a session at the NCVO’s National Campaigning Conference on Wednesday April 1st. Making an Impact Through Video and Film will be a practical workshop on the use of film for greater impact in campaigning. Find out more at the NCVO website - http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/events/latest/?id=12674
BAFTA nomination for Chosen
We’re pleased to announce that Foundation funded film, Chosen, has been nominated for a BAFTA award. The Brian Woods-directed film has been nominated in the single documentary category alongside A Boy Called Alex, Morgan Matthews’ The Fallen and John Dower’s Thriller in Manila.
The full nominations list can be seen here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/mar/24/bafta-tv-awards-nominations
Sounds Like Teen Spirit sells out at True/False
Jamie Jay Johnson’s film went down a storm at the brilliant Missouri Festival True/False. It sold out 5 screenings - and was wildy applauded by audiences we are pretty sure had never heard of the Eurovision Song Contest. Result. Here’s Jamie doing his q&a with Ingrid Kopp from Shooting People
Call For Entry: IDFA Summer School 2009
From 15 until 20 June, IDFAcademy organises the Summer School 2009: a tailor-made training programme taking place in Amsterdam, aimed at strengthening the narrative structure of documentary film projects in script stage. Around fifteen projects from all over the world will be selected for the Summer School 2009. The filmmakers of these projects will be coached intensively by 10 international documentary experts. The deadline for submission is 27 March 2009.
For more information and the entry form, please visit the IDFA website.
The Good Pitch at Silverdocs is now open for submissions.
The Good Pitch at Silverdocs is aimed at directors and producers of any nationality with an ambition to work in partnership to harness the power of documentary to create positive change. The deadline for applications is 16th March 2009. Go here for more info http://britdoc.org/real_good/silverdocs/
Less than a week to go till submissions close for the Good Pitch at Hotdocs.
If you want to apply for the Good Pitch at Hotdocs, Toronto, you application must be in by the 20th Feb 09. For details, and how to apply look here http://britdoc.org/real_good/hotdocs/
The Yes Men Fix the World wins at the Berlin Film Festival.
Congratulations to The Yes Men Fix the World team who have scooped up the Panorama audience prize at Berlin Film Festival!
Session at the Bird's Eye Film Festival on using documentary to create social change.
BRITDOC Director Beadie Finzi and filmmaker activist Judith Helfand are to present a session at the Birds Eye Film Festival on using documentary to create social change.
When: 12.00 - 2.00pm on March 7th
Where: ICA
For more information go to http://www.birds-eye-view.co.uk
Afghan Star is a double Sundance winner!
Last night in Park City, Afghan Star scooped both the audience and the directing award in the world documentary section. Huge congratulations to Havana Marking and her team. Here's a short video of her accepting the audience award.
Click here to read Havana’s Sundance story
End of the Line featured in The Economist
Read The Economist’s feature on The End of the Line, fresh from its premiere screening at the
Sundance Film Festival. http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12970826
The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation & Sundance Institute DFP take the Good Pitch to North America in 2009!
We’re very excited to announce that we’ve partnered with the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and today announced our plans to take our innovative documentary pitching forum, the Good Pitch, on the road to Hot Docs Festival in Toronto, SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival in Washington D.C. and IFP’s Independent Film Week in New York City.
Here’s Cara Mertes making the announcement at Sundance Film Festival January 21st
To find out more go to http://www.britdoc.org/goodpitch
Afghan Star opens to packed house at Sundance
Havana Marking’s Afghan Star is creating much buzz at Sundance - the premiere was sold out and the press interview requests are pouring in.
Here’s Sundance documentary programmer David Courier introducing Havana and the film :
Critic Nick Bradshaw votes Solitary Life of Cranes as one of his top films of the year in Sight & Sound
IDFA announces its 2009 deadlines
IDFA Summer School:
From 15 until 21 June 2009 IDFAcademy organises a Summer School programme: a tailor-made training programme aimed at strengthening the narrative structure of documentary film projects in script or rough cut stage. Around fifteen projects from all over the world will be selected for Summer School 2009. The filmmakers of these projects will be coached intensively by 10 international documentary experts in Amsterdam.
The deadline for submission for Summer School 2009 is 27 March 2009. For more info : http://www.idfa.nl/industry/idfacademy/summer_school.aspx
Other IDFA deadlines:
The first round Docs for Sale Online: 1st February
The first round Jan Vrijman Fund: 1st February
The first deadline entries for IDFA Festival: 1st May
Animal Monday's Here's Johnny wins two Grierson awards!
A massive congratulations to the Animal Monday team for winning not one, but two Griersons -
Best Documentary on the Arts and Bloomberg Best Newcomer - for their documentary, Here’s Johnny.
Watch BRITDOC 07 winners new film The End of America.
Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern’s (winners of the BRITDOC 07 Best International Feature for The Devil Came on Horseback) latest film, The End of America, is now available to view online at http://www.snagfilms.com/films/watch/the_end_of_america/ Based on Naomi Wolf’s book and lecture tour of the same name the film takes a look at the erosion of civil liberties in America.
We are delighted to announce a new collaboration with the Straight 8 team – Apply now!
Your challenge; to make a 3 minute documentary on one cartridge of super 8mm film, editing only in camera.
The way it works; They send you a cartridge of film. You shoot. You send it back to them for processing. And if it’s a cracker, the first time you see your film is with a packed cinema audience. Nice!
Our aim; to put together a genius collection of Straight 8 documentaries, to go on festival tour with the Straight 8 and BRITDOC teams in 2009. To get more information on how to enter, go to http://www.straight8.net http://www.straight8.net
Goodfilm.org to launch in January – finally a website that links documentary projects to the third sector organisations who can make good use of them.
Supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute Goodfilm.org will help filmmakers and charities to work successfully together – connecting them and providing case studies and learning opportunities such as our Media Conference last summer (the conference video is online here) http://www.britdoc.org/conference
Chosen child protection campaign off to flying start. Parliamentary review announced.
Brian Woods’ Foundation film Chosen raises the issue of abuse in Britain’s private schools. Following the broadcast on More4 there were 28,000 hits to the guidelines for parents on the Chosen website. Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, has now called a review into safeguarding at independent schools. http://www.chosen.org.uk
The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation is working with films to do REAL GOOD
Working with films that create social change is a major new plank of the work of the Foundation. The Foundation has been joined by Naomi Alexander, a third sector expert who worked on the successful first Good Pitch at BRITDOC 08. We will also be continuing our partnership with US-based Working Films – who held our Films for Change workshop in the summer.
Grantee Jamie King (Steal this Film) was a guest speaker at the brilliant Power to the Pixel conference
(part of the London Film Festival). The event shares learning about new forms of digital filmmaking and distribution and the sessions, including his, are streamed here http://www.powertothepixel.com
BRITDOC festival is saying goodbye to Oxford after three brilliant years and heading to Sheffield.
After three brilliant years at Keble College Oxford, we have decided to take the BRITDOC brand online and on the road to deliver our services to British filmmakers wherever they are. The foundation is delighted to announce a major new partnership with Sheffield Doc/fest.
http://v2.britdoc.org/real_events/festival/
Adam Wakeling received a Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation grant after his Burning Needs pitch at the first Good Pitch.
The film, which follows a pioneer of new farming techniques that could end slash and burn practices, received wide interest from participants including Sundance Documentary Fund, ITVS and Greenpeace.
Nick Hillel receives funding to film the King of Laughter in Ethiopia.
Following his successful 3 Minute Wonder (which you can see at http://www.suso.co.uk/susology/features/king-of-laughter) director Nick Hillel has been given a grant to film Belachew as he tries to help people overcome adversity through laughter.
Chosen played on More4 on 30th September to amazing previews and reviews.
The Guardian, Times and Independent all devoted both editorial space to the film before tx and full reviews as well. Nancy Banks Smith said “Well and away the most wonderful thing last night, easily the equal of John Freeman’s classic Face to Face series, was Chosen”: Go here for all the press: http://www.chosen.org.uk/press/
Jamie Jay Johnson’s Sounds Like Teen Spirit makes a lot of people laugh at Toronto Film Festival premiere.
The film, which follows 4 characters through the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam, scored a rave Variety review and both UK and US theatrical interest - click here for the film profile