Congratulations! Your short is complete but what are your next steps? Marketing, publicity and strategy gurus Ryan Ann Davis and Amie Simon of Smarthouse will illustrate how filmmakers can harness the life cycle of a short to meet career and filmmaking goals. Topics will include how to build an online presence to position yourself for success, how to make the most of the festival circuit, and options to distribute your film to build your audience for future projects.
Tickets for this event are $19. If you are interested in purchasing a Spring 2022 Season Pass, which will include live and recorded access to all April and May 2022 PRO programs, click here.
All registrants may participate in the live session, and will also receive access to the recorded event, a written transcript, and a copy of the slide presentation after the livestream. Tickets are non-refundable. If you have questions about registration, please email ticketing@docnyc.net. For questions about accommodations and accessibility, including requests for live ASL interpretation, please email accessibility@docnyc.net.
This event was recorded live on Monday, March 14 and Tuesday, March 15.
You have big ambitions for how your film will impact the world, but only a vague sense of how to make that happen. In this interactive two-part workshop, Ani Mercedes, impact producer and founder of Looky Looky Pictures (And She Could Be Next, Through the Night, Missing in Brooks County), will debunk the 6 most common myths about film impact campaigns, share behind-the-scenes examples, walk you through an impact audit to help you identify what you can do to confidently move forward with your film’s impact at any stage of production, and include breakout groups so you can connect with other impact-minded filmmakers. If you wish you had a cohesive impact strategy, are seeking helpful guidance, and want a community you could turn to, then this is for you.
Tickets for two-part workshops are $59 or buy a winter season pass to all four events for $99. Your ticket will include live and recorded access to the two 90-minute workshops taking place on Monday, March 14, 2022 at 12:00pm ET and Tuesday, March 15, 2022 at 12:00pm ET.
All registrants may participate in the live sessions, and will also receive access to the recorded events, written transcripts, and a copy of the slide presentations (if applicable) after the livestream. Tickets are non-refundable. If you have questions about registration, please email ticketing@docnyc.net. For questions about accommodations and accessibility, including requests for live ASL interpretation, please email accessibility@docnyc.net.
This event was recorded live on Wednesday, March 23, 2022.
Visual materials are more and more important in securing backing and support for documentary projects. But what should go into a pitch deck? And how do you make sure your visuals are appealing and tell a cohesive story? Your graphic materials are the calling card for your film so they have to look fabulous and communicate the right story. Olivia Klaus, award winning filmmaker and graphic designer (and the creative force behind the look of DOC NYC’s 2021 festival graphics), will provide a step by step roadmap for how to create a winning pitch deck.
Tickets for this event are $19 or buy a winter season pass to all four events for $99.
All registrants may participate in the live session, and will also receive access to the recorded event, a written transcript, and a copy of the slide presentation after the livestream. Tickets are non-refundable.
If you have questions about registration, please email ticketing@docnyc.net. For questions about accommodations and accessibility, including requests for live ASL interpretation, please email accessibility@docnyc.net.
This event was recorded live on Wednesday, March 9, 2022.
Music is an extremely essential (and often costly) element of your film/series so you want to be sure to set your composer up for success while also avoiding any music licensing pitfalls. Join Trailblazer Studios‘ SVP of Sound and Engagement Eric Johnson and Music Supervisor/Executive Producer Aurelia Belfield for a deep dive into the world of music for feature docs and docuseries, with additional insights from composer Paul Brill (Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Bobby Kennedy for President). Among the topics they’ll explore is the advantage of starting to collaborate with your sound team even before production begins—which can save time, money, and help materialize your creative vision at the highest possible level.
Tickets for this event are $19or buy a winter season pass for all four events for $99.
All registrants may participate in the live session, and will also receive access to the recorded event, a written transcript, and a copy of the slide presentation after the livestream. Tickets are non-refundable.
If you have questions about registration, please email ticketing@docnyc.net. For questions about accommodations and accessibility, including requests for live ASL interpretation, please email accessibility@docnyc.net.
This event was recorded live on Wednesday, February 23, 2022.
Ready to take your marketing game to the next level? Award-winning digital marketing director Daniel Kaplan from Fever Content, an LA-based digital marketing company that’s worked with DOC NYC through two festivals and multiple online events, will lead us in a crash course to market your film from festival submission through release. Joining us will be Emmy Award-winning producer Shawna Brakefield-Haase to share her digital marketing tips from her latest film ALa Calle which premiered at DOC NYC in 2020. They will discuss best practices for: marketing your film on social media; tactically planning, monitoring, and adjusting your digital ad strategy; building relationships with online communities that will support your film; converting your network into marketing ambassadors; and amplifying the online buzz around your film. You’ll come away with tangible next steps to build and run a successful marketing campaign for your documentary, armed with digital marketing tips and tricks so your project finds the audience it deserves.
Tickets for this event are $19 or buy a winter season pass to all four events for $99.
All registrants may participate in the live session, and will also receive access to the recorded event, a written transcript, and a copy of the slide presentation after the livestream. Tickets are non-refundable.
If you have questions about registration, please email ticketing@docnyc.net. For questions about accommodations and accessibility, including requests for live ASL interpretation, please email accessibility@docnyc.net.
DOC NYC PRO’s 2021 programs featured a robust lineup of online classes on all aspects of documentary filmmaking.
We are happy to offer the opportunity to access all of the 2021 recorded programs in just a few clicks! Registrants will receive indefinite access to the 2021 recorded events, plus a transcript of each live session all within the confirmation email!
Leading producers share expertise about impact producing, making a living as an indie producer, how to be an effective producer in fast changing landscapes and equity shifts in the profession.
Producing Day is dedicated to the memory of Diane Weyermann (1955-2021).
Producing Day is co-presented by:
The day starts with Breakfast (9-10 AM) and ends with a Happy Hour (4:15-5:15 PM) co-presented by Amazon Studios and community partner DPA.
10 am – 11:10 am
How to Make a Living and Build a Career as a Doc Producer
How do you build a thriving career as a doc producer? In a discussion with Dan Cogan,veteran indie producers Heidi Reinberg (93 Queen), Julie Anderson (Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street)and Jessica Edwards (Rams) will share insights that will educate and inspire as you craft your producing career.
Heidi Reinberg recently served as Consulting Producer on the documentary Born to Be, which premiered at 2019 NY Film Festival before being released theatrically by Kino-Lorber and being nominated for two Emmys. Prior to that, she produced 93Queen — a co-production with ITVS, arte SWR, and YesDocu. 93Queen had its broadcast premiere on POV before heading over to HBOMax.
Previously, Reinberg worked with Oscar winner Ross Kauffman and award-winning directors Mai Iskander and Jeremiah Zagar. Her work has been supported by the Sundance Documentary Institute; the Ford Foundation; the National Endowment for the Humanities; XTR; the Tribeca Film Institute; Catapult Film Fund; Fork Films; NYSCA; the IDA; the Economic Hardship Reporting Project; and the Austin Film Society. She is a frequent panelist on the subjects of grant-writing, fundraising, project development, and pitching. Reinberg is a member of the Documentary Producers Alliance, serving as a member of that body’s Structural Working Group.
Filmmaker (Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street)
Julie Anderson
Filmmaker (Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street)
A film executive and creative producer with more than twenty years experience, JULIE ANDERSON is an Emmy Award-winning, Academy Award nominated Showrunner, Independent Producer, Supervising Producer and Director.
She has just wrapped the upcoming HBO documentary series “Black & Missing” and is in production on Imagine/Apple TV produced documentary “Black and Blues, the story of Louis Armstrong”.
She is an experienced multi-hyphenate media executive and producer with a programming and production background in the global documentary community. Her expertise spans development, budgeting, negotiation, production, team building and managing a broad portfolio of production projects from development to delivery.
Over the years, she has built an extensive network of industry and filmmaker relationships with high profile, award-winning talent.
Some of Julie’s recent producing credits include:Emmy Award winning “We Are The Dream” (HBO), “Vick” (ESON’s 30 for 30), Emmy, Peabody and NAACP Spirits Award winning “The African Americans, Many Rivers to Cross” (PBS), “The Talk” (PBS), Academy Award nominated “God Is The Bigger Elvis” (HBO), “Dreamland, the Burning of Black Wall Street” (Springhill Productions/CNN).
Jessica Edwards has a broad background in the film industry as a director, producer, and publicist. She’s the founder of Film First, a production company that creates and distributes documentary features, shorts and new media projects including the award-winning Mavis! about soul and gospel pioneer Mavis Staples which won a Peabody in 2017. Edwards holds an MA in Media Studies from The New School in New York City and a BA in Cinema Studies from Concordia University in her native Canada. She lives and works in Brooklyn.
Dan Cogan is one of the most prominent non-fiction producers working today. Both an Academy Award®- and Emmy Award®-winner, Dan founded Story Syndicate with Liz Garbus in 2019. Previously, Dan was the founding Executive Director of Impact Partners. He has produced more than 100 films and series, including Icarus, which won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, which won the 2019 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary; The Cove, which won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; and The Apollo, which won the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Documentary.
11:30 am to 12:40 pm
Spectacular Failures and What We Learned
Veteran producers Xan Parker (Rebuilding Paradise), Yael Melameade (Salty Features) and Raeshem Nijhon (Culture House) reflect on how some of their greatest failures turned into invaluable learning experiences. This discussion, moderated by Dan Cogan of Story Syndicate, offers advice on how you can grow in the face of insurmountable hurdles in your producing journey.
Xan Parker is a documentary producer based in New York City. She executive produced the upcoming series “Mind/Trip” directed by the award-winning team of Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, Lana Wilson and Steve Maing. She was the creative producer of Ron Howard’s 2020 film “Rebuilding Paradise” (National Geographic) and of Ross Kauffman’s “Tigerland” (Discovery 2019). Xan produced Toby Oppenheimer’s “The End: Inside the Last Days of the Obama White House” (CNN 2017), Celia Maysles’ “Wild Blue Yonder,” Stephanie Wang-Breal’s “The Contested Convention” (ESPNFilms 2016), Rachel Boynton’s “Big Men” (2013), Kristi Jacobson’s “A Place at the Table” (2012), and Marshall Curry’s “Racing Dreams” (Best Documentary, 2009 Tribeca Film Festival). Xan executive produced Ivy Meeropol’s critically acclaimed 2007 series “The Hill,” and was a producer on the Academy Award nominated HBO film “LaLee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton” (2001 duPont-Columbia Award) directed by her mentors Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson and Albert Maysles.
Yael Melamede – Filmmaker. Yael Melamede is the co-founder of SALTY Features – an independent production company based in New York City whose goal is to create media that is thought-provoking, vital, and enhances the world. Melamede’s documentary credits include the Jigsaw Productions/Amblin Entertainment six-part series WHY WE HATE (2019), STRAIGHT/CURVE (2017), WHEN I WALK (News & Doc Emmy Award Winner, 2015), (DIS)HONESTY – THE TRUTH ABOUT LIES (2015), DESERT RUNNERS (2015), INOCENTE (Academy Award Winner, Best Doc Short, 2013), and MY ARCHITECT (Academy Award Nominee, 2004). Yael was an architect before becoming a filmmaker and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
Raeshem Nijhon is founder of Culture House – a Black, Brown and Women owned production company. Along with her partners, Carri Twigg and Nicole Galovski, they produce entertainment forward work at the intersection of pop and politics. Current projects include premium doc series The Hair Tales with Tracee Ellis Ross and Oprah Winfrey for Hulu and OWN, a Netflix series about women in music, a doc/narrative hybrid series for Disney+, and projects with Amazon and Freeform. Raeshem sits on the board for the New York Center for Communications. She serves on the Creative Council for EMILY’S List. Select pro-social work includes partnerships with Planned Parenthood, the National Council for Behavioral Health and the Committee to Protect Journalists. In 2021, Raeshem launched the Culture House Consultancy, a resource for networks and studios to engage with a range of experts across issues like race, gender, mental health, and socio-economic diversity.
Dan Cogan is one of the most prominent non-fiction producers working today. Both an Academy Award®- and Emmy Award®-winner, Dan founded Story Syndicate with Liz Garbus in 2019. Previously, Dan was the founding Executive Director of Impact Partners. He has produced more than 100 films and series, including Icarus, which won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, which won the 2019 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary; The Cove, which won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; and The Apollo, which won the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Documentary.
1:30 pm – 2:40 pm
Impact Producing: Case Studies
Documentary filmmaking has a long tradition of working to effect social change, but what can you do to make sure your work has an impact? In a conversation moderated by Hellura Lyle, Programming Consultant, Rosalina Jowers (John Lewis: Good Trouble), Beth Levison (Storm Lake) and Alice Quinlan, Engagement and Impact Strategist, will share their insights on how to elevate your film to inspire action.
Beth Levison is an independent Emmy and Peabody-winning filmmaker based in NYC. Her most recent film, STORM LAKE, which she directed alongside director/DP Jerry Risius and also produced, premiered at the 2021 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, won the Audience Award at AFI DOCS, and is about one family’s efforts to protect their Iowan farming town through their biweekly newspaper—come hell or pandemic. Prior to that, she produced WOMEN IN BLUE (2020 Tribeca Film Festival/Independent Lens), MADE IN BOISE (2019 AFI DOCS 2019/Independent Lens), Emmy-nominated PERSONAL STATEMENT (2018 AFI DOCS/PBS), 32 PILLS: MY SISTER’S SUICIDE (2017 Hot Docs/HBO), and her documentary directorial debut LEMON (PBS 2011). Levison is the founder of Hazel Pictures, a co-founder of the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA), producing faculty with the School of Visual Arts MFA program in Social Documentary Film, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Alice is an impact and engagement consultant with more than eight years of experience using storytelling to drive social change. At Red Owl, she leads campaigns with responsive strategies and an eye for creative partnerships and community-based work. Previously, as the Director of Community Engagement and Education at POV, Alice developed strategic national engagement campaigns for POV documentaries, produced resources around POV’s features, shorts and digital projects, and facilitated 700+ free screenings nationwide every year with her team. Prior to joining POV in 2014, she founded the KRTS Youth Media Project in Marfa, TX, a part of PBS Student Reporting Labs, and managed the American Graduate campaign at Marfa Public Radio, a project of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Her reporting work has appeared on Monocle Radio, Marfa Public Radio, PRX: ReMix with Roman Mars, Fronteras: The Changing America Desk and in Wherever Magazine and The Big Bend Sentinel. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a degree in Philosophy.
After twenty years of working freelance in film, television, theater and video production in New York City and Los Angeles, Hellura transitioned into programming. In 2008, she became Maysles’ Cinema’s first producing partner when she launched a community-based documentary film series, Doc Watchers. In addition to programming for Doc Watchers, she has served as a programming Consultant for the New York African Film Festival, and co-founded the Unmentionables Film Festival: Menstruation.
Co-presented by:
3 pm – 4:10 pm
Producing with Archival Footage
Learn tips and tricks on how to use archival footage to your best advantage. Moderated by programmer Hellura Lyle, Programming Consultant, we’ll hear from the My Name is Pauli team of producer Talleah Bridges McMahon and editor Cinque Northern, and the Val team of co-director/co-editor Ting Poo and post-production supervisor Chris Noviello as they share their insights on the secret to producing an impactful documentary with archival footage.
Talleah Bridges McMahon is an award-winning director/producer who has worked on documentaries for CNN, ABC and PBS. Most recently, she directed an episode of Through Our Eyes for HBO Max. Previously, she directed the Emmy-nominated series America Since MLK: And Still I Rise. Prior to that, she co-produced two episodes of the six-hour series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, which garnered Emmy and Peabody awards. Other projects include CNN’s THE NINETIES and The 2000s, MAKERS: Women Who Make America, and Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, which was nominated for an Academy Award. She has a B.A. from Emory University and a master’s degree from the University of Southern California.
Cinque Northern is an Emmy nominated, Peabody award-winning filmmaker and editor who’s passionate about the intersection of creative cinema, social impact, and the empowerment of artists. Recent works include The One and Only Dick Gregory (Showtime) for which Cinque was field director and editor. He also co-wrote and edited My Name is Pauli Murray (AmazonStudios) and directed Angola Do You Hear Us? (MTV Documentary Films) airing on Paramount Plus in the fall. Cinque has an MFA in filmmaking from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Ting majored in film at Columbia University, after which she began her career as an editor. In 2008, she edited the documentary “Britney: For the Record” which, at its premiere, was the most highly anticipated and watched program ever to air on MTV. She has worked on both independent features, and documentary series and is interested in storytelling across all platforms. In 2015, she co-edited her first VR piece, “The Displaced”, which won the Entertainment Grand Prix at Cannes and earned her an Emmy nomination for New Approaches: Current News Coverage. In 2018, the documentary short she edited, “Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405” won an Oscar. “Val” is her directorial debut.
After twenty years of working freelance in film, television, theater and video production in New York City and Los Angeles, Hellura transitioned into programming. In 2008, she became Maysles’ Cinema’s first producing partner when she launched a community-based documentary film series, Doc Watchers. In addition to programming for Doc Watchers, she has served as a programming Consultant for the New York African Film Festival, and co-founded the Unmentionables Film Festival: Menstruation.
…my babysitter scored beta tapes of jaws, empire strikes back and clash of the titans. after seeing those, I wanted to work in post production.
To experience the DOC NYC PRO lineup, purchase an individual PRO Day Pass (via the purchase button above) to hone in on a specific subject, or benefit from discounted pricing when you purchase Multi-Day Pass Packs to an assortment of topic strands.
All guests & staff will be required to comply with our Health & Safety protocols while attending DOC NYC events. For the latest information, please review our policies here.
Join us for conversations from noted funders tracking new trends and offering insights into funding your films. Includes a deep dive conversation unpacking success.
The day starts with Breakfast (9-10 AM) and ends with a Happy Hour (4:15-5:15 PM) co-presented by XTR.
10 am – 11:10 am
New Trends in Doc Funding
Explore new and evolving trends in the documentary funding landscape. Co-presented by XTR, this panel features major funders such as XTR’s Kathryn Everett, TIME Studios’ Alexandra Johnes, 30West’s Adriana Banta and Radical Media’s Jon Kamen. In a dialogue with Patricia Finneran from Storymatters Media, they will share their insights into what makes a project look promising to funders, as well as their thoughts on what the future might look like for doc funding. The panel will include a moderated Q&A session.
Kathryn Everett is an award-winning filmmaker who works at the intersection of politics, philanthropy and film. Kathryn is Head of Film at the premium nonfiction studio XTR and a co-founder of nonfiction streaming platform DOCUMENTARY+. In her tenure at XTR, Kathryn has executive produced Oscar-nominated, Emmy and Peabody award-winning documentary feature and short films. Previously, she worked in field and finance for President Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and as a producer and creative director for the artist activist collective We Stand United, co-founded by Mark Ruffalo. Kathryn’s work and approach are deeply informed by the years she spent working in Haiti as Chief Operating Officer of non-profit organization Artists for Peace and Justice, building over 100,000 square feet of permanent classroom space and the nation’s only colleges for film and music alongside board members Ben Stiller, Susan Sarandon, and David Belle. Kathryn serves as a board member for Iqra Fund, a non-governmental organization that provides girls’ education by establishing high quality, self-sustaining school systems in the remote, mountainous regions of northern Pakistan.
Patricia is founder of Story Matters which connects media artists and movement leaders with funders, platforms and partners to advance social good and support a vibrant public media ecosystem. Story Matters clients include: Alliance, BYkids, CPH:Dox, FIFDH, Harmony Labs, Hot Docs, and Kering. Previously, she led Doc Society’s Good Pitch Local program which seeds pro-social partnerships for local media artists and organizers. At Sundance, she was Creative Producer for the Sundance|Skoll Stories of Change programs, and represented the documentary fund at forums around the world. As Director of SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival she led its growth to become the largest documentary festival in the US and created the International Documentary Conference. She is a graduate of Barnard College, AFI Conservatory Producing program, and the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive and Rockwood Ford Just Films ‘Art of Leadership’ programs.
Jon Kamen, Chairman and CEO of RadicalMedia, has created one of the world’s leading producers of premium content across all media platforms. With over 175 film and television credits to his name, Jon’s artistic vision has been the force behind many Oscar®, Emmy®, Grammy® Golden Globe and Peabody Award®-winning and nominated titles. Kamen’s recent producer credits include Summer of Soul, the filmed versions of Emmy-winning Hamilton and American Utopia, as well as PBS’s American Portrait, Netflix’s Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, and History Channel’s mini-series, GRANT. Kamen is a recipient of a Grammy, the 2018 IFP Gotham Awards, Mayor Bloomberg’s “Made in NY” Award and the Smithsonian’s National Design Award. He currently serves as a Vice Chair of the board of trustees for Rhode Island School of Design, The Museum of the Moving Image, and Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation.
A primetime Emmy-winning producer, Alexandra has worked most notably as a producer of feature documentaries for acclaimed directors Alex Gibney, Jehane Noujaim, Lauren Greenfield, Lucy Walker and the filmmaking team of Amy Ziering & Kirby Dick. Johnes’ documentaries have received several awards and nominations, including an Oscar nomination for Jehane Noujaim’s THE SQUARE and a Primetime Emmy for HBO’s MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD, as well as multiple Grand Jury and Audience Awards at the Sundance Film Festival, a DGA award, and several Peabody and Emmy awards. From 2007 – 2012, Alexandra ran Alex Gibney’s company, Jigsaw Productions, managing all aspects of development and production, paving the way for the company’s 2012 sale to Content Media Corp and 2020 sale to Imagine Entertainment. Other recent film credits include: AMAZING GRACE (2019, Neon), ON THE RECORD (2020, HBO Max) THE KINGMAKER ( 2019, Showtime),, as well as THE MARS GENERATION (2017, Netflix Originals), HOLY HELL (2016, CNN Films) and the indie box office hit fiction film, THE WITCH (2015, A24 & Universal).
Adriana Banta is a Director at 30WEST, an investment and advisory company with offices in Los Angeles and New York that provides capital and strategic guidance for high caliber creative projects and forward-thinking companies operating throughout popular culture. The company’s corporate investment portfolio includes pre-eminent independent film distributor NEON, as well as the acclaimed UK film and TV studio Altitude.
Among her several essential roles at 30WEST, Adriana helps to spearhead the company’s nonfiction work, which includes investing, packaging and sales across a range of TV and film projects. Recent standouts include the feature-length untitled WILDCAT documentary which recently sold to Amazon Studios in a record shattering deal, Sundance 2021 Grand Jury Prize winner Flee (Neon), acclaimed documentary features Some Kind of Heaven (Magnolia) and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (Netflix) as well as the extraordinary break-out series Tiger King (Netflix).
Upcoming unscripted projects include work from acclaimed filmmakers Nanette Burstein, Orlando von Einsiedel, Chris Smith, Diane Quon, Josh Altman, and Cynthia Lowen.
Beyond non-fiction, Adriana is an invaluable team member championing scripted feature and TV projects as well as identifying corporate investment opportunities such as SPECIAL, an independent streaming platform which 30WEST helped to launch earlier this year.
Co-presented by:
11:30 am – 12:40 pm
The Nuts and Bolts of Equity Investing
Equity investing is a key source of financing for many docs, but it’s difficult, uncharted territory for many filmmakers. Led by moderator Patricia Finneran (Story Matters Media), Paula Froehle of Chicago Media Project, Susan Margolin of St. Mark’s Productions, producer Su Kim (Bitterbrush), and producer Daniel Chalfen (Naked Edge Films)will expand on how equity investing can be an important component of your funding strategy and how to decide if this funding approach is the right fit for your project. The panelists will also share advice on how doc filmmakers can prepare to secure investments. The panel will include a moderated Q&A session.
Paula is a multi-faceted human being who at any given moment is some combination of producer, director, visual artist, designer, educator, and entrepreneur – and equally loves it all. CMP is the culmination of her interests and abilities, which includes corralling large groups of people and getting them to move in (almost) one direction, thanks to growing up the middle child of 9.
She loves connecting good-hearted humans with storytellers that tug at your heartstrings and trigger you toward action. And she’s proud of CMP’s 50+ member community, its $5.5mil+ funding support to over 60 award-winning documentaries. While it’s hard to pick favorites, some notables are: Crip Camp, Knock Down the House, One Child Nation, On the Record, Athlete A, The Apollo, 16 Shots, Spaceship Earth, the top grossing biopic of all time Won’t You be My Neighbor? (she has a soft spot in her heart for Mr. Rogers), and Academy-Award winning Icarus.
Producer Su Kim has won multiple awards at Sundance and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2019 for “Hale County: This Morning, This Evening.” She received an Emmy in the Outstanding News and Current Affairs Documentary category, as well as two Peabody Awards and was part of the producing team for the Academy Award winner documentary short Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl). Her films currently in release include, Free Chol Soo Lee (dir Julie Ha & Eugene Yi), Sansón and Me (dir Rodrigo Reyes), Hidden Letters (Violet Du Feng) and Bitterbrush (Emelie Mahdavian).
Susan Margolin is a pioneer of digital film distribution and a creator of independent films with 25+ years’ experience. Margolin co-founded independent film distributor New Video/Docurama Films in 1992, and ran the company until she sold it to Cinedigm in 2012. As Co-President there she distributed critically acclaimed, award winning films including Destin Daniel Crettin’s Short Term 12 and Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s Academy Award nominated The Invisible War. In 2016 Margolin launched St. Marks Productions. She produced Nancy Buirski’s A Crime on the Bayou (Starz) and The Rape of Recy Taylor (Starz), Alexandra Codina’s Paper Children (YouTube Originals), Trish Adlesic’s Tree of Life and Executive Produced Judith Helfand’s upcoming Love and Stuff, Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbühl’s Obsessed With Light and Cheryl Miller Houser and Cynthia Wade’s Generation Startup (Netflix). Margolin serves on the board of directors of Chicken & Egg Pictures, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, BAFTA NY (emerita), and the Documentary Producers Alliance, and on the advisory boards of Hamptons DocFest and NYWIFT. Margolin is a member of the PGA, BAFTA and AMPAS.
Patricia is founder of Story Matters which connects media artists and movement leaders with funders, platforms and partners to advance social good and support a vibrant public media ecosystem. Story Matters clients include: Alliance, BYkids, CPH:Dox, FIFDH, Harmony Labs, Hot Docs, and Kering. Previously, she led Doc Society’s Good Pitch Local program which seeds pro-social partnerships for local media artists and organizers. At Sundance, she was Creative Producer for the Sundance|Skoll Stories of Change programs, and represented the documentary fund at forums around the world. As Director of SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival she led its growth to become the largest documentary festival in the US and created the International Documentary Conference. She is a graduate of Barnard College, AFI Conservatory Producing program, and the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive and Rockwood Ford Just Films ‘Art of Leadership’ programs.
Daniel J. Chalfen is a Peabody and duPont winning and multiple-Emmy nominated film and television producer, and a co-founder of Naked Edge Films. His films have premiered at the world’s foremost film festivals, including Berlin, Sundance, SXSW, Toronto and Tribeca, have been released in the US by companies including Samuel Goldwyn Films, Participant Media, Kino Lorber, and Focus Features, and have aired/streamed worldwide including in the US on Amazon, DirecTV, Discovery ID, HBO, Netflix, Showtime, and PBS, among others. Chalfen’s recent credits include Pray Away (executive produced by Jason Blum & Ryan Murphy), the Sundance award winners Always in Season and The Infiltrators, Bathtubs Over Broadway (executive produced by Jason Blum & David Letterman), United Skates (executive produced by John Legend), Prescription Thugs (executive produced by Vince Vaughn), Southwest of Salem, and Silenced (executive produced by Susan Sarandon). Daniel is a Documentary Branch member of AMPAS and a voting member of BAFTA.
1:30 pm – 2:40 pm
Thinking Strategically: Pulling Back the Curtain on Film Funding Success
How can filmmakers put their best foot forward to make their project look appealing to an investor, studio, potential broadcaster or grant funder? Grantmaking expert Tracie Holder talks with Fork Films’ Kat Vecchio and filmmaker Byron Hurt (Hazing) about how you can use the different tools that are within your reach to make your project stand out from the crowd. The panel will include a moderated Q&A session.
Tracie Holder is a filmmaker, consultant, producer and U.S. film funding specialist. A 2016 Sundance Creative Producers Fellow, Holder leads workshops, tutors and serves on juries at international pitching and training sessions. She is widely regarded as a “go-to” person and all-round resource for artists seeking U.S. funding having raised more than $3 million in grant funding for her own projects. Clients include: Documentary Campus, IDFA, EDN, Ramallah Doc, Lisbon Docs, Firelight Media, DOC NYC, Chicken & Egg, Black Public Media, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Creative Capital, Unions Docs, and Gotham Film & Media (formerly IFP), among others. Holder was a longtime consultant to Women Make Movies and served as the Development & Funding Strategist for Abby Disney’s Fork Films. She is a former board member of NY Women in Film and grant panelist for national and local funders. She co-directed/produced Joe Papp in Five Acts, (Tribeca Film Festival, PBS/ American Masters). Producing credits include Grit, (Hot Docs/POV) and The Quiet Zone, and One Person, One Vote? in production. She is currently developing The People’s Will, for which she was recently awarded a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities production grant.
Kat is the CCO at Fork Films, where she works across departments to guide the development and release of new projects in all media, and alongside the COO oversees and supports project distribution and impact campaigns. Previously she served as Fork Films’ Director of Grantmaking.
Byron Hurt is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and adjunct professor at Columbia University. Hurt is the former host of the Emmy-nominated series, Reel Works With Byron Hurt.
Byron Hurt’s acclaimed documentary Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006, and broadcast on PBS’ Emmy-award winning series Independent Lens in 2007.
Byron’s film Soul Food Junkies aired on Independent Lens in 2013, and in 2017 the cable news station TVOne.
Byron’s film, Hazing, premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, and aired on Independent Lens in 2022. His upcoming documentary, Lee and Liza’s Family Tree, airs on PBS NOVA on November 22, 2023.
3 pm – 4:10 pm
Building budget and Community on Kickstarter
Rounding out the day, Kickstarter’s Elise McCave leads a session with Iyabo Boyd and Emmett Adler. Emmett’s Kickstarter-funded debut doc End of the Line is premiering at this year’s festival, while Iyabo is a filmmaker and organizer who’s successfully leveraged the platform to fund multiple film projects. Iyabo also spent a season working on staff at Kickstarter, so she really knows the inside scoop! Learn what it takes to use the platform to build the community, independence, and finances you need for your next project.
Elise is Kickstarter’s Senior Director of Film. She works with filmmakers worldwide, providing tailored support and mentorship on fundraising and audience-building for films in development and production. She works to ensure the creative voices on Kickstarter come from all corners of the industry, producing work that explores the form to the fullest.
Based in New York, she joined Kickstarter in 2016 from Doc Society (formerly BRITDOC), a nonprofit based in London and New York that works with documentary filmmakers.
Elise is the producer of forthcoming feature documentary, Cisco Kid.
Iyabo Boyd is the founder and director of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, whose mission is to bolster the creative and professional success of women and non-binary people of color working in the documentary industry, and to challenge the often marginalizing norms of the documentary field.
Iyabo is also an award winning filmmaker that strives to tell stories from under-explored perspectives and reflect the dynamic humanity of women and people of color. Her latest short ME TIME is a black feminist comedy about masturbation, which has played over 20 festivals nationwide, winning 9 awards. She was a fellow in Sundance’s 2019 Talent Forum and their 2018 Screenwriting Intensive, and was awarded a 2019 SFFILM Rainin Screenwriting Grant for her first first feature screenplay, KAYLA & EDDIE EN FRANÇAIS, about an estranged Black father and daughter reconnecting in Paris.
As a producer, Iyabo was a Sundance Creative Producers Fellow and an Impact Partners Creative Producers Fellow in 2016 for the feature documentary FOR AHKEEM about a teenage black girl coming of age in St. Louis just after Ferguson, which premiered at the Berlin International and Tribeca Film Festivals. As a film industry professional, Iyabo has held positions in artist development, program management, and funding at the Points North Institute, First Look Media’s Topic.com, Kickstarter, Doc Society’s Good Pitch, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Tribeca Film Institute, and IFP.
Originally from Denver, Iyabo graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts for Film & Television, and currently resides in the Bronx, NY.
EMMETT ADLER (emmettadler.com) is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who has taught art in Shenzhen, China, was once a chess champion in the state of Illinois, and can juggle pins while walking on stilts. Emmett long specialized as a freelance editor before making his directorial debut with the feature documentary END OF THE LINE, a character-driven political drama about the New York City subway crisis and a long overdue reckoning on infrastructure.
To experience the DOC NYC PRO lineup, purchase an individual PRO Day Pass (via the purchase button above) to hone in on a specific subject, or benefit from discounted pricing when you purchase Multi-Day Pass Packs to an assortment of topic strands.
All guests & staff will be required to comply with our Health & Safety protocols while attending DOC NYC events. For the latest information, please review our policies here.
Hear from experts as we explore the nexus of journalism and doc filmmaking, digging into issues like journalistic distance, power dynamics, and ethics.
Journalism and Documentary Day is co-presented by:
The day starts with Breakfast (9-10 AM) and ends with a Happy Hour (4:15-5:15 PM) co-presented by NBC News Studios.
10 am – 11:10 am
Why Are So Many News Organizations Getting into the Documentary Business?
NBC News Studios. TIME Studios. The New York Times. Vox Media. The documentary industry is ripe with compelling stories and a burgeoning and hungry audience. Hear from thought leaders at five news organizations—Liz Cole (NBC News Studios), Kathleen Lingo (The New York Times), Yvette Miley (NBCU News Group), Rebecca Teitel (TIME Studios) and Emily Anderson (Vox Media)—as they explain their new and expanding role in the industry with moderator Molly O’Brien (NBC News Studios).
Editorial Director for Film and TV, The New York Times
Kathleen Lingo
Editorial Director for Film and TV, The New York Times
Kathleen Lingo is an Oscar-nominated producer and the first editorial director of film and television for The New York Times. She is focused on developing and producing nonfiction feature films and television series. In 2020, three feature documentaries she produced for The New York Times premiered: Time (Amazon Studios), nominated for a 2021 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; Some Kind of Heaven (Magnolia Pictures), which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and earned over $1 million at the box office in 2021; and Father Soldier Son (Netflix), recognized for Best Editing at Tribeca Film Festival and with two Emmy nominationsl. Before becoming editorial director, she was executive producer of The Times’ short documentary series Op-Docs. During her tenure, the series published 250 shorts, virtual reality and interactive documentaries that garnered accolades including three Oscar nominations, ten Emmy nominations, three Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and two IDA Awards for Best Short Form series.
Rebecca Teitel is the VP of Documentary for TIME Studios where she oversees the development and production of premium feature documentaries and non-scripted television. Rebecca works closely with filmmakers, TIME reporters and co-production partners to develop and pitch projects, secures financing and distribution, and provides creative and strategic support throughout production. In addition to her role as creative executive on TIME’s non-fiction slate, she helps oversee the Studio’s finance fund, reviews external pitches for potential partnership and investment, and identifies and recruits talent and emerging filmmakers. Prior to joining TIME Studios, Rebecca worked as a director, producer and journalist. Her work has been featured on National Geographic, the Sundance Channel, Discovery, NBC, the History Channel, BET, and The New York Times, among others.
Since launching NBC News Studios in 2020 Liz has developed and supervised a wide array of premium documentaries and series, including, most recently, Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11, which was featured at the Toronto Film Festival. In more than two decades as a journalist and storyteller, she has produced everything from breaking news to longform investigations to true crime. Liz is also the executive producer of Dateline, the longest running show in NBC primetime history and an executive producer of Studios’ first scripted project, The Thing About Pam, starring Renee Zellweger. Liz is the winner of multiple Emmy, DuPont and Peabody awards.
Emily is currently the Vice President of video and TV for Vox.com, where serves as an executive producer on longform TV and streaming projects, as well as overseeing digital video enterprises. Prior to joining Vox she led the news team on the Peabody and Emmy winning Netflix series Patriot Act. At HBO’s Vice News Tonight her work on immigration and the Trump administration’s abortion policies contributed to Gracie, Front Page, and Emmy award wins. She oversaw live video coverage of the 2016 election at The New York Times, and set up the first New York based video team for BuzzFeed. She’s also produced documentary shows for CNN and MTV, and got her start in news at the NYC staple: NY1.
SVP, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, NBCU News Group
Yvette Miley
SVP, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, NBCU News Group
Award-winning journalist Yvette M. Miley serves as SVP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the NBCU News Group. Her responsibilities include recruiting, training and development, employee engagement, and editorial initiatives across all four networks. Miley is also Executive-in-Charge of the NBC News digital platform NBCOUT, the first LGBTQ news vertical created by a major broadcast media organization.
11.30 am – 12.40 pm
Power Dynamics in Documentary and Journalism
Holding a mirror up to someone’s life imbues one with tremendous power. And when that person belongs to a vulnerable population, the power dynamic grows even more intense. Documentary filmmakers Dawn Porter (John Lewis: Good Trouble), David France (Welcome to Chechnya) and Diane Tsai (Be Our Guest) discuss the ethical and power implications of telling other people’s stories with moderator NBC journalist Jacob Soboroff.
Dawn Porter is an American documentary filmmaker and the founder of the production company Trilogy Films. Her award-winning films include Gideon’s Army (2013), about three black public defenders working in the southern United States, Spies of Mississippi (2014), about the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (MSSC) efforts to preserve segregation during the 50s and 60s, Trapped, about the impact of anti-abortion laws on abortion providers in the South, and Bobby Kennedy for President, which debuted on Netflix. As a two-time Sundance film festival director, Porter’s work has been featured on HBO, Netflix, CNN, PBS, MSNBC, MTV Films, and other platforms. Porter’s latest documentary, The Lady Bird Diaries, an all-archival documentary about Lady Bird Johnson debuted at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival where it won the Lone Star Prize. Her next project entitled Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court, a four-part docuseries, explores the history of the Supreme Court, the justices, decisions, and confirmation battles that have shaped the United States. The series will premiere on Paramount/Showtime on September 22nd. Other current projects include directing the MGM documentary Cirque Du Soleil: Without a Net which was a centerpiece at the 2022 DOC NYC Festival and directing/executive producing a 6-part series on the continuation of the historic civil rights documentary series Eyes on the Prize for HBO. Additional credits include The Me You Can’t See (Apple TV+), Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer (National Geographic), The Way I See It (Focus Features), John Lewis: Good Trouble (CNN, Magnolia Pictures), 37 Words (ESPN), Un(re)solved (Frontline PBS), and Gideon’s Army (HBO).
DAVID FRANCE is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, New York Times bestselling author, and award-winning investigative journalist. His latest book, titled HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (Knopf, 2016), received the Baillie Gifford Prize for best nonfiction book published in the English Language and the Green Carnation Prize, among many others.
His directorial debut, HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (IFC Films 2012), was nominated for an Oscar, two Emmys, and a Directors Guild Award. The documentary won the Peabody Award and top honors from Gotham Awards, the International Documentary Association and the New York Film Critics Circle.
His 2017 film, THE DEATH & LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON (Netflix), won numerous festival prizes and was awarded the Outfest “Freedom Award” and a special jury recognition from Sheffield International Documentary Festival. Critics put it on multiple “Best of the Year” lists.
David’s newest documentary, WELCOME TO CHECHNYA (HBO Max 2020), won the special jury award for documentary editing at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and it received the Panorama Audience Award and Amnesty International Film Prize at 2020 Berlinale. The film was further recognized with a Peabody Award, a BAFTA Award and a Primetime Emmy nomination.
He’s currently in production on a documentary taking an inside look at the global race to research, develop, regulate, and roll out COVID-19 vaccines in the war against the pandemic with a targeted domestic and international release in 2022.
Diane Tsai is a Taiwanese-American documentary filmmaker and journalist at TIME. Her award-winning documentary series FIRSTS, which she directed and produced with Spencer Bakalar, features 46 groundbreaking women from Hillary Clinton to Serena Williams. The series received POYi Documentary Project of the Year, a Webby Award nomination, SPD Gold Medal, official selection of the U.S. State Department’s American Film Showcase, among others. In 2018, she was part of a team named Livingston Award finalists for THE SILENCE BREAKERS, a short documentary on the women whose voices sparked the #MeToo movement. BE OUR GUEST is her first feature film.
Jacob Soboroff is a correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC and the author of the New York Times bestseller Separated: Inside an American Tragedy. For his reporting on the Trump administration’s child separation policy, he received the 2019 Walter Cronkite Award for Individual Achievement by a National Journalist and the 2019 Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Nicole Cari and their two children.
1:30 pm – 2:40 pm
Proximity, Access, and Journalistic Distance
As documentary filmmakers, how do we maintain objectivity while simultaneously going deep into someone’s life? We welcome Sonia Kennebeck (United States vs Reality Winner) and Julie Cohen (Julia, RBG) and CJ Hunt (The Neutral Ground), as they describe their process with moderator Nina Alvarez (Columbia University School of Journalism).
Julie is an Academy Award nominated documentary director whose films include RBG, JULIA & My Name is Pauli Murray (all directed with Betsy West), as well as The Sturgeon Queens, American Veteran and more. Before she started making docs, Julie was a staff producer for Dateline NBC and the creator and producer of Supreme Court Watch on Court TV.
Sonia Kennebeck is an independent filmmaker with 18 years of directing and producing experience. Her most recent feature documentary United States vs. Reality Winner premiered at SXSW 2021, and her documentary thriller Enemies of the State was selected for TIFF 2020.
Kennebeck’s first feature-length film National Bird premiered at Berlinale 2016, received the Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize and a 2018 Emmy-nomination for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary.
Foreign Policy magazine recognized Kennebeck as one of 100 Leading Global Thinkers, she was selected as one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine, and DOC NYC included her in the 40 Under 40 list of documentary filmmakers. She is the 2021 recipient of the Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award.
Sonia Kennebeck is a first-generation college graduate who worked full-time while completing her master’s degree in international affairs at American University in Washington, D.C. She was born in Malacca, Malaysia.
3 PM – 4:10 PM
Covid: Journalism And Documentary Filmmaking
As every news organization in every medium threw themselves at the story that dominated the world, how did documentary filmmakers create work that was unique, beyond the news cycle, but also rooted in the best journalism? What were the key considerations for these filmmakers in telling this once in a century story? Led by director Janet Tobias (Fauci), Noted documentary filmmakers Nanfu Wang (In The Same Breath), Ali Moss (Fauci) and Matthew Heineman (The First Wave) will discuss the choices they made during an ever evolving 24/7 story.
Ali Moss is an Emmy Award-nominated documentary producer. In 2012, she co-founded The Public Good Projects, whose mission is to leverage the power of the media to make complex problems easier to understand. She EP’d Sleepless in America (National Geographic); served as an executive at Discovery, where she co-produced Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman; produced the Emmy-nominated documentary Not Done: Women Remaking America (PBS) and produced Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn (HBO/Tribeca). Most recently, she produced Fauci (Telluride 2021/Disney+.)
Nanfu Wang is an award-winning Chinese filmmaker based in the U.S. She is a recipient of the 2020 MacArthur Genius Grant. Her feature documentaries include Hooligan Sparrow (Sundance 2016), I Am Another You (SXSW 2017, Special Jury Prize winner), One Child Nation (Sundance 2019, Grand Jury Prize Winner), and In the Same Breath (Sundance 2021).
In her films, Wang creates intimate character studies that examine the impact of authoritarian governance, corruption, and lack of accountability on the lives of individuals and the well-being of communities. With the rigor of an investigative journalist and immersive, emotionally powerful storytelling, Wang interrogates notions of responsibility, freedom, and truth.
Director, Producer, DP and Editor (The First Wave)
Matthew Heineman
Director, Producer, DP and Editor (The First Wave)
Matthew Heineman is an Academy Award®-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. The Sundance Film Festival called Heineman “one of the most talented and exciting documentary filmmakers working today”, while Anne Thompson of Indiewire wrote that Heineman is a “respected and gifted filmmaker who combines gonzo fearlessness with empathetic sensitivity.”
He most recently directed, produced, shot and edited The First Wave, a feature documentary film with exclusive access inside one of New York City’s hardest-hit hospital systems during the harrowing first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The First Wave received the International Documentary Association’s prestigious Pare Lorentz Award, was shortlisted for an Academy Award®, and was nominated for seven Emmy® awards, winning Best Documentary, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing.
To experience the DOC NYC PRO lineup, purchase an individual PRO Day Pass (via the purchase button above) to hone in on a specific subject, or benefit from discounted pricing when you purchase Multi-Day Pass Packs to an assortment of topic strands.
All guests & staff will be required to comply with our Health & Safety protocols while attending DOC NYC events. For the latest information, please review our policies here.
Explore the practical and ethical legal questions that face documentary filmmakers.
The day starts with Breakfast (9-10 AM) and ends with a Happy Hour (4:15-5:15 PM) co-presented by Cinépolis Luxury Cinemas.
10 am – 11:10 am
Ancillary Rights
The documentary is just the beginning! Attorney Brianna Hill, producer Rachel Boynton (Civil War (or, Who Do We Think We Are) and Daniel Chalfen (Naked Edge Pictures) discuss how to extend and monetize your film. Covering scripted film and TV remakes, spinoff podcasts, live touring events, and companion publishing, this panel will talk about the legal and deal making considerations when moving beyond a single film and will explain how filmmakers can best prepare themselves for success.
Daniel J. Chalfen is a Peabody and duPont winning and multiple-Emmy nominated film and television producer, and a co-founder of Naked Edge Films. His films have premiered at the world’s foremost film festivals, including Berlin, Sundance, SXSW, Toronto and Tribeca, have been released in the US by companies including Samuel Goldwyn Films, Participant Media, Kino Lorber, and Focus Features, and have aired/streamed worldwide including in the US on Amazon, DirecTV, Discovery ID, HBO, Netflix, Showtime, and PBS, among others. Chalfen’s recent credits include Pray Away (executive produced by Jason Blum & Ryan Murphy), the Sundance award winners Always in Season and The Infiltrators, Bathtubs Over Broadway (executive produced by Jason Blum & David Letterman), United Skates (executive produced by John Legend), Prescription Thugs (executive produced by Vince Vaughn), Southwest of Salem, and Silenced (executive produced by Susan Sarandon). Daniel is a Documentary Branch member of AMPAS and a voting member of BAFTA.
Briana C. Hill is a partner and Co-Chair of CDAS’s Entertainment group and Co-Head of the firm’s Beverly Hills office. She counsels clients in entertainment and intellectual property law matters, focusing on television, film and digital media. She is at the forefront of the continuing proliferation of new media and technology, assisting clients rework traditional structures to best exploit opportunities in new spaces.
Briana provides business and legal affairs services for studios, production companies, distributors, content creators, and rights holders in all aspects of development, production, and distribution. She has worked on a variety of scripted and unscripted television projects for network, cable television, and SVOD/AVOD platforms, independent and studio-based motion picture projects, as well as digital, podcast productions, and publishing agreements. Briana negotiates high level rights acquisition, talent, and licensing agreements and advises on intellectual property matters.
Co-presented by:
11:30 am – 12:40 pm
The New and Evolving Unscripted Episodic Landscape
Join Fox Rothschild entertainment attorneys Marc H. Simon, Daniel Benge, and Daniel Spencer and Matt Chazen (CAA) along with other industry leaders, as they discuss current trends in the unscripted episodic landscape and illustrate distinctions between traditional documentary deal constructs and new and evolving episodic deal structures.
Daniel Benge is a Partner in Fox Rothschild’s Entertainment & Sports Department who works advises clients in the documentary space and the live performance and digital media industries. He has experience counseling writers, producers, agents and corporate clients on a broad range of media projects, including acquisition and entertainment financing, production and distribution.
Daniel Spencer is an Associate, Entertainment and Sports, at Fox Rothschild’s Entertainment and Sports Department who advises clients in traditional and emerging media, including narrative, unscripted and documentary films, episodic series, podcasts, literary publishing, advertising and other digital media content. In the film and television sectors, Daniel counsels clients in all stages of project development, rights acquisition, financing, production and distribution. Daniel represents production companies, producers, financiers, on-camera talent, directors, writers, and other content creators, as well as businesses in the digital, gaming and new media industries. With experience on both the business and creative sides of the entertainment industry, Daniel provides clients a collaborative approach while obtaining favorable terms at the bargaining table. He is passionate about connecting key players with creatives to help bring projects to life.
Matthew Chazen is a Television Agent at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Chazen is based in the New York office and represents many of the world’s leading media organizations, production companies, directors, and independent producers in the non-scripted space including BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, Group Nine Studios, Radical Media, DIGA Studios, North South Productions, All3 Media, and Pulse Films.
Chazen began his career in NBCUniversal’s prestigious Page Program. He joined CAA in 2012.
Chazen graduated from Davidson College in 2009, with a degree in Economics.
Co-presented by:
1:30 pm – 2:40 pm
New Trends in Ethics and Documentaries
Attorneys Nicole Page and Michelle Lamardo from law firm Reavis Page Jump LLP discussethical and legal issues in documentaries along with producer Jessica Devaney (founder of Multitude Films and producer of Pray Away and numerous other films)and another established director. This session will dive into a variety of subjects from the trend towards compensating subjects to when, if ever, it is appropriate to provide subjects rights of review or approval.
Head of the Media and Entertainment practice and Partner, Reavis Page Jump LLP
Nicole Page
Head of the Media and Entertainment practice and Partner, Reavis Page Jump LLP
Nicole Page is the Head of the Media and Entertainment practice and Partner at Reavis Page Jump LLP, where she represents film, television and podcast clients in connection with issues ranging from financing, rights acquisition, production, talent and distribution agreements, exploitation of ancillary rights, content licensing, fair use and clearance issues and an array of related matters. She also represents creative talent, athletes, and authors in their various endeavors and negotiates executive compensation deals for top talent at leading entertainment companies.
Michelle Lamardo is an Associate with Reavis Page Jump LLP, practicing in the fields of entertainment and media, intellectual property and employment law. She has worked on numerous television series and is well versed in all aspects of television production, from development and rights acquisition to talent, production and broadcaster agreements, to production legal and pre-publication review. Ms. Lamardo is also accredited by the International Association of Privacy Professionals as a Certified Information Privacy Professional with a focus in US private-sector privacy law.
Jessica Devaney (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based producer and the founder and president of Multitude Films. Her latest films include Netflix Original PRAY AWAY in partnership with Ryan Murphy and Blumhouse, Oscar-shortlisted CALL CENTER BLUES (TOPIC), and APART, an episode of the Sesame Workshop series THROUGH OUR EYES (HBO Max). She also produced Sundance award-winning and IDA-nominated ALWAYS IN SEASON (Independent Lens 2020), Livingston Reporting award-winning THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED (POV 2019) dubbed “a real-world conspiracy thriller” by Variety, and Peabody-nominated ROLL RED ROLL (POV, Netflix 2019). Additional credits include Critic’s Choice-nominated SPEED SISTERS (Netflix), American Psychological Association award-winning LOVE THE SINNER (Amazon), and CALL HER GANDA (POV). Her films have screened at top festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, BlackStar, and Telluride. Jessica founded QueerDoc and the Queer Producers Network and was a Sundance Edit and Story Lab fellow, Women at Sundance fellow, and Sundance Creative Producing Lab advisor. She received DOC NYC and TOPIC’s inaugural 40 Under 40 Award and the 2019 Cinereach Producers Award.
Co-presented by:
3 pm – 4:10 pm
Working with Celebrities
Join well-known entertainment lawyer Victoria Cook and her colleagues Melissa Georges and Ben Moskowitz for a discussion of the pros and cons of working with celebrities in docs. Learn how to negotiate and structure relationships with high-profile participants, executive producers, financiers and more.
Chair, Content and Clearance Group, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
Melissa Georges
Chair, Content and Clearance Group, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
Melissa Georges is Chair of the Content and Clearance group at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz. She advises award-winning film, television and documentary producers, directors, writers, podcasters, comedians and animators on complex legal issues, such as defamation, fair use, copyrights and trademarks, rights of publicity and privacy, and parody and satire, in order to get their projects cleared and distributed. She also assists in helping her clients obtain Errors and Omissions insurance (E&O).
Associate, Entertainment Group, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
Ben Moskowitz
Associate, Entertainment Group, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
Ben Moskowitz is an associate in the Entertainment Group at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz. His clients are primarily production companies and producers in the unscripted and documentary space. Ben has recently served as production counsel on a number of celebrity-related projects including “Rita Moreno: Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It” for PBS; “Somebody Feed Phil” for Netflix; and “The Problem with Jon Stewart” for Apple TV+. Prior to joining FKKS, Ben served as in-house counsel at Vox Media, and before that, at Group Nine Media. Before deciding to pivot to law, Ben worked in physical production as a production assistant on a number of TV shows, including “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain and was an NBC Page. Ben is a graduate of the Fordham University School of Law and Tufts University.
Victoria S. Cook is a partner at Frankfurt Kurnit and a member of the Entertainment Group. She focuses on motion picture and television work, representing award-winning filmmakers, writers, directors, actors, television producers, film financiers, and television networks. She is immersed in both the independent and Hollywood worlds, and her clients often work in all aspects of the entertainment business — from major studio films to cutting-edge political documentaries. Ms. Cook was recently recognized by Variety in its 2020 Legal Impact Report and it’s 2020 New York Women’s Impact Report. She appeared in Variety’s 2019 Dealmakers Elite NY Issue and it’s 2019 Legal Impact Report as one of the country’s top 50 “game changing” entertainment lawyers. Crain’s New York Business named her a NYC “Leading Woman Lawyer,” and the New York Law Journal included her in its inaugural “Top Women in the Law” list. She has been named a “Super Lawyer” for the New York area by Super Lawyers magazine and a top lawyer in entertainment law by Best Lawyers. She also was recognized in the 2020 edition of The Legal 500 for her expertise in entertainment law matters, and in the 2013 edition of The Legal 500 for her expertise in copyright law matters. She received the “Women Who Dared” award by The National Council of Jewish Women in 2017.
Co-presented by:
To experience the DOC NYC PRO lineup, purchase an individual PRO Day Pass (via the purchase button above) to hone in on a specific subject, or benefit from discounted pricing when you purchase Multi-Day Pass Packs to an assortment of topic strands.
All guests & staff will be required to comply with our Health & Safety protocols while attending DOC NYC events. For the latest information, please review our policies here.
