The rules for distribution seem to change with each passing season. Alternative venues can provide the platform you didn’t know you needed to get eyes on your film. Panelists Inney Prakash (Maysles Center), Lisa Hurwitz (The Automat) and Ingrid Raphaël (No Evil Eye Cinema) will talk with Alece Oxendine (Columbia University Film Program) about the unconventional and inventive ways they distribute artists’ films. Learn about little known yet effective distribution models that broaden the options for your audience to see your film including a triumphant self-distribution story.

Join us as we unpack the opaque world of sales agents! This session will provide answers to many questions based on the experience of ESPN Films producer Carolyn Hepburn (The Velvet Underground, One Child Nation), Anya Rous (Multitude Films) and Su Kim (Bitterbrush) moderated by film strategist Jon Reiss. Do you need a sales agent? What is the role of a sales agent in your distribution process? How do you find the right sales agent for your film? What can you expect from your sales agent? Our panelists will discuss these and other hot topics to equip the audience with tools and knowledge to embark on sourcing and working with an agent.

Finding an established EP for your project can be the ticket to not only financing and distribution, but to moving the needle in your doc career. Zak Kilberg (The Mauritanian), Kelsey Koenig (Impact Partners) and Rebecca Stern (Battleground) demystify the process of attracting established EPs, providing a frank discussion on the elements in doc projects that grab their attention.

While distributing your film on public media can feel like an intimidating process, there are tried and true steps you can take to get there. Learn about the wide variety of options and support available from public media leaders Selena Lauterer (Artemis Independent), Wendy Llinás (PBS), Chris Hastings (WGBH) and Chris White (American Documentary) as they provide actionable advice on how to distribute your film with PBS. Tricia Finneran (Story Matters) will guide this vibrant conversation.

Documentary filmmakers sit at the nexus of journalism and visual storytelling. Increasingly they find impactful stories from headlines and bring these to life in a new medium. Starting with “Dateline” segments reported over a dozen years, recently announced The Sing Sing Chronicles is the story of how five wrongly incarcerated men, serving a combined one hundred years, supported each other while they fought for exoneration. Join preeminent journalist and moderator Lester Holt, director Dawn Porter, producer Dan Slepian and participant JJ Velasquez to unpack this example of dogged journalism brought to life in a doc series that will inspire and equip filmmakers and journalists alike.

Today’s headlines are commercially popular source material for documentaries. But what does a filmmaker need to consider when approaching a journalist for their story? How does protection of intellectual property factor into these partnerships? What are the inherent dangers of the current streamer “land grab” for documentaries born out of journalism? Liz Cole (NBC News Studios), Sarah Amos (Condé Nast Entertainment), Nate Halverson (The Grab) and Alex Holder (Unprecedented) will explore these issues in a vibrant conversation moderated by Molly O’ Brien (NBC News Studios).

What are documentary filmmakers’ responsibilities to counter mis/disinformation and bring “truth” to public discourse? Brandy Zadrozny (NBC News), Vinay Shukla (While We Watched)  and Rachel Boynton (Civil War (or, Who Do We Think We Are)) will deconstruct this professional and ethical obligation and offer recommendations along with moderator Rick Stengel (former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs).

NBC News’ Jacob Soboroff poses difficult questions to journalists and filmmakers Evgeny Afineevsky (Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom), Carol Dysinger (Learning To Skateboard In A Warzone (If You’re A Girl)) and Matt Heineman (Retrograde). ​​What is the responsibility of a filmmaker to participants when documenting an international conflict? How do they document a story while maintaining their humanity and protecting their mental health and well-being? What unique considerations must be made when physical safety is in danger?

Be part of this current debate within the editing community: The editor as a writer. How does the documentary editor collaborate in the storytelling process and how is their role akin to that of a writer? What is writing in the edit room? This panel will examine the role that editors play in crafting, guiding and refining the final cut of a film. Cinque Northern (Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from A Plantation Prison), Nyneve Laura Minnear (The Art of Making It) and David Teague (Life, Animated) shed insight into their roles as writers in post-production and unpack this timely topic. Director/producer Cyndee Readdean (Boston School Battle) will contribute her insight.

From first-time filmmaker Rebeca Huntt and editor Isabel Freeman, Beba is a coming of age memoir where deep insight into the impact of generational trauma emerges in this award winning documentary. In conversation with Jevon Heyliger, Senior Editor at Warner Bros. Discovery, Rebeca explores the art of remaining vulnerable while editing self-portraiture with her stunning film. Rebeca will highlight the editing choices she made to impactfully tell her family’s story of love, trauma, and healing.

Don Argott (Framing John DeLorean) hosts a vibrant conversation with series director Ethan Hawke and editor Barry Poltermann as they go behind the scenes of their complex, acclaimed storytelling endeavor that explores the careers and decades-long relationship of Hollywood icons Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. Creating a compelling story in the edit room that honors Newman and Woodward’s expansive careers and rocky marriage is a feat. Add to the mix access to a treasure trove of rich archival material plus thousands of pages of written transcript from Newman’s unpublished memoir and we have a multilayered editing experience.

This panel explores how authorship plays out in complex, often messy ways during the creative process in the edit room. While there is a widening understanding of the importance of diverse teams, the reality is that BIPOC editors are sometimes brought in to mostly white productions to fill a checkbox for funders and streamers, or the editor is tasked with providing “authenticity” and expertise based on their identity. This panel will shine a critical light on these problematic dynamics, and in response, ask: What does a fruitful, creative collaboration look like when issues of voice, power, and authorship are navigated? Taking an unfiltered approach, panelists will share their struggles and triumphs of working in the creative documentary space. Moderated by Carla Gutierrez (Julia), panelists include Rebecca Adorno (Homeroom), Jason Pollard (Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues) and Gerardo del Valle from the Firelight Media and BIPOC Docs Editor’s Group communities.

Does your film rely on music to bring the story alive? Are you curious about which music needs licensing, who should be on your music team and how to navigate the process? You love that song but how do you legally use it in your film? Attorney and filmmaker Christopher Poindexter shepherds a conversation with directors Jessamyn Ansary and Joyce Mishaan (Lee Fields: Faithful Man), Al Hicks (Quincy) and music supervisor Doug Bernheim (Dick Johnson is Dead).  Bringing honesty and insight to the conversation, our speakers will equip the audience to move forward with certainty on their music license journey. Directors Ansary and Mishaan will share the lessons learned from their inaugural directing experience and director Hicks will share from his veteran point of view.

As a director, you have a vision, and your vision needs a score. So you hire a composer. But how do you effectively communicate with your composer to bring your vision to life? Hear from director/composer teams Paul Brill/Dawn Porter (Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer) and Blake Neely/Ryan White (Good Night Oppy) as they discuss the conversations that lead to the successful collaboration between director and composer and the spaces intentionally created for creativity to blossom in the process. Eric Johnson (Trailblazer Studios) will share his expertise and lead the conversation.

Go behind the scenes with director Isabel Castro and her award winning music documentary about emerging pop music manager Doris Munoz. Moderated by producer Liz Nord (formerly of Sundance and No Film School), Isabel will share how she expresses the complex emotional tapestry of Doris’ hopes and dreams through the lens of music as she navigates the challenges of being both a daughter of immigrants and an emerging visionary in the world of music management. With both an original score and performances by up and coming Latinx pop artists, Isabel will educate and enlighten about telling heartfelt stories with music as the backbone.

Hazing from award-winning filmmaker Byron Hurt, offers a deeply personal look inside the culture, tradition, and secrecy surrounding hazing rituals in fraternities and sororities, sports teams, marching bands, the military and beyond. In this case study, director Hurt and his music team, music supervisor Aurelia Belfield (Trailblazer Studios), and composer Wendell Yohannes Hanes (HBO’s Black and Missing) will explore how music plays a critical role in the storytelling. How does film’s music and score impact the tone and subject matter in a delicate balance? How can we use music to become a character in our films? Moderator Eric Johnson (Trailblazer Studios) will share his insight as an established music and sound professional.

In the ever-challenging funding landscape, alternative models for funding can be as innovative as they are necessary. Join filmmaker Yael Melamede ((Dis)Honesty, The Truth About Lies), distribution and branding consultant Brian Newman of Sub-Genre Media and filmmaker Sian-Pierre Regis (Duty Free) as they share new and expansive practices learned in the process of funding their doc projects with moderator and documentary film funding strategist Tracie Holder.

How are projects strategically acquired and sold? And what kinds of deals will trend in 2023? Sales agents have their fingers on the pulse of industry trends and the ever shifting funding and sales terrain. Led by Kevin Iwashina (Fifth Season), Charlotte Lichtman (CAA), Josh Braun (Submarine Entertainment) and Maggie Pisacane (WME Agency), these experts hone in on the direction funding and sales is headed.

Curious how to expand your project’s reach and find new collaborators abroad? Our expert panelists will discuss ways to lead an international co-production and the factors that contribute to a successful international collaboration. Klara Nilsson Grunning (Norwegian Film Institute) leads a panel of producers and executives, including producer Cynthia Kane (Dilemma of Desire), Igal Svet (discovery+) and Mandy Chang (Fremantle) to illuminate and educate. 

Join entertainment lawyers Lisa E. Davis, Caren Decter, Melissa Georges and Andrew Rossi (The Andy Warhol Diaries) for a discussion of this current US Supreme Court court case that threatens to alter the “fair use” landscape. Learn how changes in “fair use” affect selection of footage, your ability to obtain insurance for a project, and so much more.