Now, while there may be greater attention to filmmakers’ proximity to their subjects and a push for more diverse directors, co-directors, producers, and crew members, there’s also a rise in what some call “cover-your-ass” hires over meaningful collaborations. If the U.S. industry, then, has accepted that documentary projects benefit from having creatives from similar races, genders, sexualities, or nationalities as their subjects, they might be included—but are they actual partners?
Field Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
With a flurry of announcements in the last six months, the Doris Duke Foundation’s Building Bridges program has stepped squarely into the film funding space in a concerted effort to broaden the pipeline of Muslim-American filmmakers in media and entertainment. The program is partnering with a handful of film institutions, most notably the Islamic Scholarship Fund, the Center for Asian American Media, Sundance Institute, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Hollywood Bureau, on a series of public activations, funds, and fellowships. The programs have taken place in a variety of spaces, from Sundance festival to IDA’s own Getting Real. The activities caught our attention.
During Ranell Shubert’s first eight-year span on staff at IDA, she has had the opportunity to work across many departments, giving her a unique
Essential Doc Reads is our curated selection of recent features and important news items about the documentary form and its processes, from around the
By May 2000, the fear of an impending apocalypse dimmed. The Y2K glitch, the much-hyped computer error that supposedly stemmed from the inability of
“Who is telling what story, from what perspective, using what form, through what gatekeepers?” This four-part question, posed by Chi-hui Yang of the
Sahar Driver and Sonya Childress recently announced their co-directorship of a new initiative to support the sustainability and strengthening of
True/False Film Fest, nestled in the college town of Columbia, Missouri, isn’t just a film festival. It’s a warmblooded celebration of creativity of
Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM) started as a secret. It was built to be a safe place for BIPOC women and non-binary filmmakers and industry professionals
The founding of FWD-Doc (Filmmakers with Disabilities-Documentary) can be traced to IDA’s 2018 Getting Real conference in Los Angeles. After a panel