Welcome to our resource center for documentary lovers and filmmakers. The Library @ NW Doc includes a collection of non-fiction films, books, and this lovely blog. The library and resource center was established to support and promote NW Documentary's mission to encourage and inspire those with a love for storytelling.
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Festival Tips
There has been a lot of talk about festivals around here lately. Our director, Ian, has been visiting festivals all over the world for his newest film Summer Snapshot.
In honor, I am posting an interesting article I found on the DocAgora blog about navigating the world of documentary film festivals. The article was written in 2009 by Peter Wintoneck and offers some interesting insights.
What is the future of independent documentary?
I really don’t know but it certainly is an interesting question. There is a lot of buzz around about the future of documentary distribution and funding and the current and future role social media will play. There are those who believe that self-distribution combined with intense social media marketing is the wave of the future. Gary Hustwit, director of Helvetica and Objectified, has had tremendous success using Twitter and other social media to build a strong following of his films and is a strong proponent of self- distribution. And then there is the relatively new concept of using crowdsourcing as a means of fundraising using platforms such as Kickstarter and SnagFilms. This is a fascinating topic that I have just begun to explore and I hope to continue posting new information and opinions as I stumble upon them. For now I have compiled a few links to peruse below.
A How-to guide to using crowdsourcing as a fundraising tool from Mashable. Jamie Dobie’s post for the POV Blog explores the concept of “crowd sourcing” and how it is effecting documentary media. And then there is Malcolm Gladwell’s perspective on the power of social media in his article, “Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted.” Lastly, tips for using social media to your advantage when self-distributing from Kino-eye.com.
What do you think is the future of independent documentary?
Do you have something important to say? A story that needs to be recorded for future generations? On October 10th, 2010 you can help document the world’s story by filming anything that inspires you on that day and contributing your footage to the One Day On Earth project. The goal of the project is to create a collaborative, open archive and a documentary film using the footage. This experimental project relies on community and participatory media and it will be very interesting to see the results. If you want to contribute you must first sign up on the project’s website, www.onedayonearth.org. Then mark your calenders for October 10th and get your cameras ready.
I guess my work here is done
I stumbled on a website this morning that I probably should have stumbled across many months or years ago, Snag Films. This website allows you to watch full length documentary films for free, “snag” them and embed them on other social media sites, and even donate to the filmmaker or cause the film supports. With over 1600 films in their library, Snag seems to have a nice selection of films ranging from well known, commercially successful documentaries like Super Size Me and Biggie and Tupac to small independently produced short and feature length films.
Snag allows you to search by film title or browse by topic or popularity and also incorporates a social aspect by allowing comments and feedback.
Filmmakers can also submit their films to Snag for consideration here.
FleetFlicks: Support the Short
First I would like to say that these guys have a great website. Well designed and easy to use, wow. Second, there website also has really great content, wow again.
Fleet Flicks is a website with that exists with the goal to “redesign what short film can be” by providing a place where quality short films can be displayed on the web giving new filmmakers a place to showcase their work and connect with other filmmakers. Anyone can submit a film to FleetFlicks but they won’t all make it online. The staff at FleetFlicks hand-picks films they believe fit their guidelines in an effort to keep home videos of your kitten falling into a glass of water off their site. As long as your film is under 10 minutes and tells a story it will most likely be accepted. Documentary films are accepted but they are severely out-numbered on the site by narrative films.
Submit films here and help them beef up their collection of docs!
Now What?
So, I made this short documentary, now what? You might want to consider submitting your short film to festivals or other video contests. Here is a list of festivals that accept short documentary (30 min. or less) submissions. Please note that this list is just the tip of the iceberg so for more information on additional festivals and current “call for entries” visit these sites, Withoutabox.com or The International Documentary Association. Also, please note that the dates included are festival dates—festival committees generally begin accepting submissions several months prior to the festival so check each website for submission dates.
1. Big Sky Film Festival, February
2. Florida International Film Festival, April
3. Full Frame Documentary Festival, April
4. Sarasota Film Festival, April
5. Seattle International Film Festival, May
6. Reel Facts Short Video Contest (films less than 5 min.), June
7. Docuweeks, July
8. Atlanta Shortsfest and Docufest, August
9. Chicago International Film Festival, October
10. Hot Springs Documentary Festival, October
11. Syracruse International Film Festival, October
12. Red Rock Film Festival, November
13. IDA Documentary Awards, December
Do you have other festivals to add to the list? Let me know.
