Impact Partners Announces Emerging Documentary Producers Fellowship Recipients at DOC NYC 2015

Six of documentary’s most promising emerging film producers to participate in a yearlong workshop series with Liz Garbus, Morgan Spurlock, Thom Powers, Stanley Nelson, Dan Cogan, Amy Ziering, Julie Goldman, Caroline Libresco and other industry luminaries

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Impact Partners announced today the recipients of the Emerging Documentary Producers Fellowship, which was created to nurture the underappreciated role of documentary producing. The fellows will be recognized at the DOC NYC panel Supporting the Documentary Producer – Ask an Expert on Monday, November 16 from 3:30-4:40pm at Bowtie Chelsea Cinemas, 260 West 23 St., in New York. At the panel, the Impact Partners Emerging Producers Fellowship Mentors from the program will dispense their best advice on the dark arts of producing. Panel participants include Dan Coganand Jenny Raskin of Impact Partners, plus filmmakers Liz GarbusHeidi EwingRachel GradyAmy Hobby and attorneyVictoria Cook

The six recipients of the inaugural year fellowships are: 

  • Fazeelat Aslam – Nominated by Jimmy Goldblum
  • Iyabo Boyd – Nominated by Malika Zouhali-Worrall
  • Adrienne Collatos – Nominated by Amy Hobby
  • Katia Maguire – Nominated by Bernardo Ruiz
  • Kellen Quinn – Nominated by Dan Janvey
  • Pamela Ryan – Nominated by Julie Goldman, Ross Kauffman, Graham Leader, Jason Orans and Lois Vossen

The 2015-2016 Impact Partners fellows will participate in 10 in-depth workshops beginning in December and continuing through Fall 2016. Each fellow will be awarded a $2,500 stipend.  Impact Partners received over 130 nominations in its first annual call for submissions. 

Dan Cogan, Executive Director of Impact Partners, says “We were incredibly impressed by the caliber of producers that applied to our Emerging Documentary Producers Fellowship in its first year. The candidate pool was extremely talented, passionate, and hungry to learn more about the often unrecognized art of documentary film producing. We are excited to offer mentorship and support to this inaugural group of fellows, and add our vote of confidence to their promising careers as producers.” 

Thom Powers, Artistic Director of DOC NYC, says, “DOC NYC is extremely proud to participate in this new initiative. We hope it encourages more efforts to foster talent and takes advantage of the deep talent pool of guests at DOC NYC PRO events.” 

Guest luminaries who are confirmed to participate in the 2015-2016 year of fellowship workshops include: Victoria Cook (Page One: Inside the New York Times, The Reluctant Fundamentalist), Geralyn Dreyfous (Born into Brothels, The Square), Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp, Detropia), Liz Garbus (The Farm: AngolaUSAWhat Happened, Miss Simone?),Howard Gertler (How to Survive a Plague, Do I Sound Gay?), Julie Goldman (Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, Buck)Amy Hobby(What Happened, Miss Simone?Love, Marilyn), Director of the Documentary Film Program at Sundance Institute Tabitha JacksonAlexandra Johnes (The Square, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God), Sundance Film Festival Documentary Programmer Caroline Libresco (American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs), Stanley Nelson(Freedom Riders, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution), DOC NYC Artistic Director and Toronto Film Festival Programmer Thom PowersMorgan Spurlock (Supersize Me,  CNN's Morgan Spurlock Inside Man), and Amy Ziering, (The Invisible WarThe Hunting Ground). The workshops will be moderated by Impact Partners Executive Director Dan Cogan (How to Survive a Plague, Hell and Back Again, The Queen of Versailles). 

In conjunction with the Emerging Documentary Producers Fellowship, Impact Partners is launching a Documentary Producers Salon where experienced documentary producers will meet as a community throughout the year for peer networking, mentorship, and collaboration. Selected Salon members will be announced in the next month. 

Jenny Raskin, VP of Development and Filmmaker Relations at Impact Partners says, “We were blown away by the strength of applicants who applied for the Documentary Producing Fellowship and become acutely aware that there's a strong desire for community and mentorship even among more experienced producers. In addition to the Fellowship, we have highlighted 15 producers from the Fellowship applicant pool to participate in our inaugural Documentary Producers Salon. We keep hearing from producers that they’re hungry for more community and support, and Impact Partners is excited to be able to support both emerging and experienced producers in the documentary world.” 

Impact Partners is a leading financier and executive producer of documentary films with credits including The CoveHow to Survive a Plague, Hell and Back AgainThe Hunting GroundThe Queen of Versailles and many others. DOC NYC is the largest U.S. documentary film festival.

With the Emerging Documentary Producers Fellowship, Impact Partners celebrates the independent documentary producer and aims to foster emerging producing talent through a year-long series of workshops with some of the most prominent luminaries in the field of documentary film. The Impact Partners Documentary Producers Fellows will participate in ten development workshops to be held in New York City. Each session will explore a different aspect of film production facing young producers today, including film finance, festival strategy, marketing and distribution deal making, legal workshops and other critical topics. During each session, luminaries will work closely with each fellow to choose topics and issues with immediate relevancy to their current work, offering hands-on advice, strategies and best practices. 

For the inaugural 2015 program, six emerging producers have been selected.  Candidates were nominated by current or former colleagues. Nominations were accepted from directors, producers, editors and other key crew members who have worked directly with the candidates on a previous or current film.

For more information on the fellowship, please visit:

impactpartnersfilm.com/fellowship

Impact Partners Announces Emerging Documentary Producers Fellowship at DOC NYC 2015

Liz Garbus, Morgan Spurlock, Thom Powers, Stanley Nelson, Dan Cogan, Amy Ziering, Julie Goldman, Caroline Libresco and other industry luminaries to encounter documentary’s most promising film producers in yearlong workshop series

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Impact Partners announced today the launch of the new annual Emerging Documentary Producers Fellowship, which will be awarded to some of the industry’s most promising new producers at an inaugural ceremony at DOC NYC this fall. With the Emerging Documentary Producers Fellowship, Impact Partners will celebrate the independent documentary producer and foster emerging producing talent by launching a fellows program consisting of a yearlong series of workshops with some of the most prominent luminaries in the field of documentary film.

Guest luminaries who are confirmed to participate in the 2015-2016 fellowship workshops include:

  • Victoria Cook (Page One: Inside the New York Times, The Reluctant Fundamentalist),
  • Geralyn Dreyfous (Born into Brothels, The Square),
  • Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady(Jesus Camp, Detropia),
  • Liz Garbus (The Farm: AngolaUSAWhat Happened, Miss Simone?),
  • Howard Gertler (How to Survive a Plague, Do I Sound Gay?),
  • Julie Goldman (Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, Buck),
  • Amy Hobby (What Happened, Miss Simone?Love, Marilyn), Director of the Documentary Film Program at Sundance Institute
  • Tabitha Jackson, Sundance Film Festival Documentary Programmer
  • Caroline Libresco (American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs),
  • Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution), DOC NYC Artistic Director and Toronto Film Festival Programmer
  • Thom PowersMorgan Spurlock (Supersize Me,  CNN's Morgan Spurlock Inside Man),
  • Amy Ziering, (The Invisible WarThe Hunting Ground), plus others to be announced in the fall.

The workshops will be moderated by Impact Partners Executive Director Dan Cogan (How to Survive a Plague, Hell and Back Again, The Queen of Versailles). 

Cogan states, “People often say we are in a golden age of documentary filmmaking, and that’s true. The quality of documentary films, and their popularity among audiences, have never been higher. And yet this rising tide has not quite lifted all boats. Amidst growing institutional and popular support for great documentary directors, producers of documentary film are still underappreciated and underserved. At Impact Partners, we believe that just as documentary directors need to be encouraged and supported, so do documentary producers. Through our new year-long fellowship, we aim to support and cultivate a new generation of great documentary producers.”

Thom Powers, Artistic Director of DOC NYC, says, “Documentary producing isn’t something you learn from books. It’s like an occult knowledge acquired through mentors and practice. The most important secrets of massaging finances, personalities, legalities and unexpected situations are only shared in closed rooms. DOC NYC is proud to give a platform to this vital initiative.”

Impact Partners is a leading financier and executive producer of documentary film with credits including The CoveHow to Survive a Plague, Hell and Back AgainThe Hunting GroundThe GardenThe Queen of Versailles and many others. DOC NYC is the largest U.S. documentary film festival.
 
The Impact Partners Documentary Producers Fellows will participate in ten development workshops to be held in New York City, guided by eminent producers and industry experts with distinct areas of knowledge. Each session will explore a different aspect of film production facing young producers today. The workshops will cover film finance, festival strategy, marketing and distribution deal making, legal workshops and other critical topics. During each session, luminaries will work closely with each fellow to choose topics and issues with immediate relevancy to their current work, offering hands-on advice, strategies and best practices.
 
Each fellow will also be awarded $2,500.  
 
For the inaugural 2015 program, five emerging producers will be selected. Nominations will be accepted from directors, producers, editors and other key crew members who have worked directly with the person on a previous or current film. Candidates must be nominated by current or former colleagues and cannot nominate themselves.
 
The program is now accepting nominations through October 6th, 2015. Winners of the fellowship will be announced at a special awards event at DOC NYC 2015. For more information on the application and selection process, please refer to details below, or visit:
impactpartnersfilm.com/fellowship
 
How to Apply
 
Nominations are now being accepted from documentary filmmakers and other key crew members who have worked with an emerging producer. A short nomination form is currently available on our website here: 
impactpartnersfilm.com/fellowship. If you know someone you would like to nominate, please fill out the form and send it to fellowship@impactpartnersfilm.com.
 
The deadline for nominations is October 6th, 2015. 
 
If you are a producer who is interested in applying, we encourage you to get in touch with filmmakers you have worked with in the past and ask them to nominate you. As nominations come in, candidates will be contacted with a brief application form.
 
Who is Eligible?
 
This fellowship is created to support emerging documentary producers.

We want to hear from the documentary community — who are the young producers who are creative, resilient and eager to grow? Who would benefit from mentorship and becoming a member of a new network of documentary producers?

Applicants MUST have worked on at least one documentary film in a key crew position such as Producer, Line Producer, Co-Producer or Associate Producer. They may NOT have worked as “Producer” on more than 3 feature-length documentary films. Applicants must be based in New York City, or be willing to travel for all of the workshops. 


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About Impact Partners: Impact Partners is a film fund and advisory service committed to financing independent cinema that addresses pressing social issues. We bring together financiers and filmmakers so that, together, they can create great films that entertain audiences, enrich lives and ignite social change. Since its inception in 2007, Impact Partners has been involved in the financing of over 60 films, including: The Cove, which won the Academy Award® for Documentary Feature; How to Survive A Plague, which was nominated for the Academy Award® for Documentary Feature; The Hunting GroundThe Queen of Versailles, which won the U.S. Directing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival; Detropia, which won the Editing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival; Freeheld, which won the Academy Award® for Documentary Short Film;The Garden, which was nominated for the Academy Award® for Documentary Feature and Hell and Back Again, which won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize and Cinematography Awards at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award® for Documentary Feature. Impact Partners was founded by Dan Cogan and Geralyn Dreyfous.
 
About DOC NY: Documentary storytelling is flourishing like never before — encompassing reportage, memoir, history, humor and more. DOC NYC celebrates this cultural phenomenon and encourages its new directions.

Among its missions, DOC NYC aims to: 

  1. Curate: guide audiences toward inspiring work.
  2. Cross Fertilize: gather practitioners of many fields — filmmakers, writers, photographers and other storytellers to inspire each other.
  3. Cross Generations: use the festival’s partnership with School of Visual Arts as a means for younger and older voices to communicate.
  4. Cultivate New Audiences: attract newcomers with the excitement of a festival atmosphere.
  5. Expand Distribution: help documentary storytellers make the most of emerging technologies such as video downloads, podcasts and electronic readers.
  6. Create Social Space: bring people together in theaters, lounges, and discussion spaces in Greenwich Village and Chelsea. Make the Most of NYC: foster fresh connections between residents and expose visitors to the opportunities that happen only in New York.