The Good Pitch is entering its third year with a new partner and a new venue, but the same ambitious goal; to fast-track effective, world-changing partnerships between documentary film and the brand, NGO, philanthropy and media sectors.
What: The Good Pitch San Francisco 2011
Where: Marines Memorial Theatre, San Francisco
When: 27 September 2011
The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, in partnership with the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, are delighted to announce that the touring funding and networking forum the Good Pitch will be returning to San Francisco in September 2011.
PROJECT LINEUP
We are delighted to announce the project lineup for the Good Pitch San Francisco.
The lineup features 6 award-winning directors: David France (How To Survive A Plague), Leah Mahan (Turkey Creek), Roger Ross Williams (God Loves Uganda), Bernardo Ruiz (Reportero), Kirby Dick (The Invisible War), Mary Posatko & Emily Topper (American Village).
The six selected projects cover an impressive range of issues including criminal justice and gang violence, LGBT discrimination and victimization, corruption and drug trafficking, industrial pollution, violence in the Armed Forces and the regulation of the pharmaceutical industry in a remarkable group of storylines from both home and abroad – from Baltimore to the Gulf Coast, from Mexico to Uganda.
More on the projects:
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.
Reportero
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.
WHAT IS THE GOOD PITCH?
The Good Pitch is an invitation-only event, starting with an intensive two-day campaign development workshop for the filmmakers September 24-25, followed by a day-long live event on September 27, which brings together invited foundations, NGOs, social entrepreneurs, broadcasters and other media to expand the resources aimed at maximizing the impact of social-issue documentary. Filmmaking teams pitch their project and its associated outreach campaign with the aim of creating a unique coalition around each film to accelerate its impact and influence.
“The emergence of Good Pitch as a must-attend international forum for understanding the potential of contemporary documentary has been one of the signature events of the last two years in the documentary field,” says Cara Mertes, Director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program. “Our original goal in partnering with Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation was to reinvigorate resources for the field and provide a space where actors in many sectors could come together to better understand documentary’s potential, and we are gratified to see this taking root.”
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
The call is aimed at filmmakers of any nationality working on documentary film projects which tackle important global and national issues and enhance our understanding of the world. If you are a filmmaker and would like to apply, please click to download the Entry Criteria and Forum Rules document on the right before beginning your application.
We want to see that you have thought about what you hope to achieve with your film through an associated audience engagement campaign. Your campaign can take any form, possibly using social media platforms in its execution, and could seek to effect behavioural change, policy change and/or engage with the issues raised in new and interesting ways.
We are looking for projects at any stage from early production to completion, provided projects have not received a major festival screening; rough cut stage is ideal. The call is open to projects looking for completion funding, outreach funding, campaigning networks or a combination of these. There is no fee for applying or taking part in the Good Pitch SF 2011 but selected pitchers will be expected to pay for their travel to and from the event, and their accommodation once there.
CHANNEL 4 BRITDOC FOUNDATION
The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation is a UK-based not-for-profit organisation backed by Channel 4 TV. It is dedicated to reinventing funding and distribution models for British documentary filmmakers. As well as funding ground breaking social-issue films (such as double Sundance winner Afghan Star, Berlin winner The Yes Men Fix the World, Sundance 09 feature doc The End of the Line and Tribeca winner We Are Together), the Foundation brokers relationships between filmmakers and the NGO and brand sectors in the UK to create better, more effective films. The Good Pitch is a key part of the Foundation’s important work in this area.
http://www.britdoc.org
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE DOCUMENTARY FILM PROGRAM
The Sundance Institute DFP supports contemporary nonfiction filmmakers globally with year-round activities, including the Sundance Documentary Fund, Creative Labs focusing on the art of documentary, the DocSource website and the Stories of Change partnership with the Skoll Foundation. The DFP has supported over 400 films since 1996, including Nerakoon: Betrayal, Trouble the Water, Iraq in Fragments, My Country, My Country, Why We Fight, and Long Night’s Journey Into Day. The DFP is a core program of the Los Angeles-based non-profit Sundance Institute. Founded by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences.
http://www.sundance.org/docsource
The Good Pitch NY 2011 is made possible by our generous major supporters, Chicken & Egg Pictures, The Fledgling Fund, Ford Foundation, Impact Partners, Tides Foundation, and anonymous donors. We are also grateful for the support of CrossCurrents Foundation and for the campaign support for filmmakers provided by Working Films.
