How can a filmmaker insure that their proposal gets to the top? What can you do to really stand out? Do you understand the distinction between distribution, outreach, and community engagement?

Attendees of Saturday, October 15’s Doc U: Focus on Funding – Getting Grants for Your Documentary were lucky enough to get the answers to these questions and more straight from the mouths of five documentary film funders from five leading organizations.

IDA Executive Director Michael Lumpkin gives his opening remarks and introduces moderator Morrie Warshawski.

The day began with the Meet the Funders panel, which was moderated by nonprofit and fundraising consultant Morrie Warshawski and included Tamir Muhammad of the Tribeca Film Institute, Rahdi Taylor of the Sundance Institute, John Lightfoot of California Council for the Humanities, Emily Verellen of The Fledgling Fund, and Lisa Kleiner Chanoff of Catapult Film Fund.


Established and emerging documentary filmmakers take down priceless advice from the funders.

Emphasizing that the morning would be full of dialogue, Morrie started off by asking everyone what makes each of them passionate about their work. The powerful and inspiring responses set the tone for the rest of the morning, which was filled with sound advice and practical notes on how to make sure your documentary project has the greatest chance of achieving success.


Our esteemed funders in front of an eager crowd at the Downtown Standard Hotel.

We have since received an overwhelming amount of support and praise for this Doc U:

"The fundraising speakers were all awesome, insightful and illuminating. I gained a lot from hearing how the different organizations approach the selection process."

-Anonymous seminar attendee

"The seminar with Morrie was one of the most interesting and enriching educational moments if my career. It totally revitalized and focused my current projects and kickstarted me into a new way of thinking about my work and the scope of it. He was engaging and funny and enlighting in many ways."

- Alessandra Pasquino

Upset to have missed out on such a unique opportunity? Register for a free IDA account and start receiving email updates and newsletters about upcoming events today!


After the panel, several lucky attendees got the chance to have lunch with one of the five funders. Here are several aspiring documentarians chatting with Tamir Muhammad.


Another table full of lunching documentarians.


After lunchtime, Morrie took over with his talk on The Art of Getting Grants.

All photos ©2011 Humberto Mendes, IDA

Doc U is the International Documentary Association's series of educational seminars and workshops for aspiring and experienced documentary filmmakers. Taught by artists and industry experts, participants receive vital training and insight on various topics including: fundraising, distribution, licensing, marketing, and business tactics.

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As reported earlier this month in LibraryJournal.com, a federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed a copyright infringement and breach of contract suit filed against The Regents of University of California and UCLA by the Association for Information, Media and Equipment (AIME), a nonprofit trade association of educational video publishers, and New York-based Ambrose Video Publishing (AVP).

As reported in February on www.documentary.org, the plaintiffs charged that UCLA had illegally streamed copyright-protected DVD titles hundreds of times for use by faculty and students both on and off campus on the University's Web-based Intranet, using a technology system called Video Furnace, which enables the recording of content and subsequent delivery as video-on-demand to computers and set-top boxes. UCLA countered these challenges, claiming fair use as well as a public performance exemption for face-to-face teaching and digital distance learning uses.

According to the court filing, UCLA has placed over 2,500 titles on its file server for use by students and faculty. The titles include hundreds of documentary films distributed by such respected companies as The Criterion Collection, California Newsreel, Women Make Movies, among many others.

Judge Consuelo B. Marshall, of the US District Court for the Central District of California, based much of her decision on the fact that AIME did not hold any of the copyrights. She ruled that "to establish a claim for copyright infringement, individual copyrights owners' participation is necessary." Marshall also ruled that given UCLA had the right of public performance of the DVDs, the university was entitled to post the content on its Intranet, which, according to the ruling "does not take the viewing of the DVD out of the educational context," regardless of the source of access. The plaintiffs had argued that streaming is not included in public performance because it can be accessed outside of a classroom.

Under Section 110 of the Copyright Act, the allowable contexts for educational performances of DVD  include face-to-face situations and transmissions.

As Kevin Smith, scholarly communications officer at Duke University, told LibraryJournal.com, "It is possible, at least, for a school to argue for what UCLA was doing based on an amalgam of these two exceptions, or based on fair use (which is a separate and distinct exception). As it turned out, however, UCLA did not need to make either of these arguments because of the license language that permitted public performances. The judge interpreted that language to include a closed performance over a campus network and thus ruled that the license settled that part of the matter."

For more commentary on the ruling, click here and here.

For a copy of the ruling, click here.

The International Documentary Association believes that the power and artistry of film is vital to cultures and societies globally, and we fiercely defend the rights of filmmakers and artists everywhere to practice their art and to seek and reveal truth in their work, however provocative that truth may be.

We strenuously uphold the principles of free speech and freedom from censorship. The expression of truth should never be silenced by the exercise of power by a State or system of authority that may feel threatened by the content of the artistic or journalistic work–both essential elements of democracy.

Together with our entire international community of documentary filmmakers, The International Documentary Association calls for the release and fair treatment of Iranian filmmakers, artists, and actors. These artists, and other filmmakers, actors and journalists like them, must be immediately released and allowed to continue their artistic and journalistic work without restriction or penalty. We stand united with them, as do artists across the globe. And we will continue to fight for their fundamental human right of self-expression.