Disaster Preparation: Building Your Support System

The drive for media industries to nurture the next generation of storytellers has resulted in a growing number of filmmakers and video journalists, often from underrepresented communities, making their first big projects and attracting high-level financing, distribution, and publicity. This should be a filmmaker’s dream, but the ride can be a wild one. Filmmakers are often unprepared for multiple pressures, be they creative, financial, legal, journalistic, or personal, and they are not always ready to manage difficult outcomes that might result in financial ruin, mangled creative relationships with crew and contributors, and dashed hopes in the industry itself. How can filmmakers avoid learning every lesson the hard way, and prepare themselves well to avert potential disasters that threaten to derail their projects?

Panelists will discuss what they have learned from their past experiences, how they plan to do things differently for their next projects, and the knowledge and tools they hope will help prepare other creators, both emerging and more established.

Moderator: Zara Meerza (Documentary -)
Panelists: Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh (Writing with Fire), Gema Juárez Allen (The Castle, Theater of War), and Emily Mkrtichian (There Was, There Was Not)