Cameron Bargerstock’s LEF-funded film EXIT MUSIC was selected for Spotlight on Documentaries at IFP’s Independent Film Week, which took place September 20-25. Cameron shares her experience in the LEF Blog this week.

My film Exit Music was selected by IFP for Spotlight on Documentaries, a collection of 50 work in progress films that participate in the Project Forum during Independent Film Week. This was my big chance to escape my little grant-writing cave and make power moves in the big city, face to face with industry players. As a new filmmaker representing my first feature film, this opportunity was a solid immersion into the complex world of producing, financing, finishing, and distributing a film. The Project Forum provides a rare opportunity for independent filmmakers to sit down one on one with industry professionals and discuss a work-in-progress film and strategy for finishing it. It’s not set up like a formal pitch because the industry chooses which projects/filmmakers they want to meet with.

After getting accepted to the event, I provided IFP with succinct written materials about my film, a 20-minute preview, and a 5-minute teaser. Industry representatives can access these materials online and then decide who they want a meeting with. One week before the event, I was sent a final itinerary of my meetings. Over the course of 4 days I had 25 meetings with financers, broadcasters, sales agents, distributors, and programmers like ITVS, POV, Al Jazeera, Chicken and Egg, Cinereach, HBO, BRIT DOCS, Tugg, Gathr, Sundance, South by Southwest, Conde Naste, Preferred Content, and New York Times OpDocs, to name a few.

All the meetings took place in a huge room, speed-dating style. It was an exhilarating chance to practice pitching and get valuable feedback. Each conversation brought forth creative new ideas and important questions that helped hone in my pitch. I came into the event with the intention to make progress toward financing post-production. Overall enthusiasm for Exit Music was strong. But this is what I heard a lot. “When you have a rough cut please send it to me.” This is great news and I’m eager to share it with these inspiring, influential people, but after one year financing the film on my own, money to carry the project through a rough cut is crucial. This is the wild goose chase we independent filmmakers get to solve in unique ways on our own. Regardless, I was forming relationships with people that I can call upon in the future.

I admit I over-analyzed what clothing I would don on this very important threshold into adulthood as a filmmaker and printed way too many postcards I was often too shy to give out, because who actually saves them, but here are my takeaways:

Don’t over-prepare
Performing a canned pitch will cause people to lose focus. They are seeing countless projects and you have to stand out. As #1 expert in my story, I was confident in my ability to present it off the cuff. I approached it less as a formal pitch and more of an opportunity to have a meaningful conversation. I didn’t actually practice a pitch. I had talking points that I could improvise on depending on who I was meeting with and from what point of view they were seeing my film (i.e. distributor, sales agent, programmer, funder). Asking what sparked their interest in my film was often a good starting point. I think my conversational approach made more of an impression in the 30 minutes we had together. You’re not just selling your film. You’re selling yourself.

Passion is infectious
Everyone I spoke with remarked on my passion for the film. They wanted to know why I was the best person to make the film. My film is about one family’s encounter with terminal illness. Many people I met with commented on their own complicated experience with the death of a loved one. I wasn’t shy about my enthusiasm for the project and

Be clear and specific
Have a strong sense of your narrative arc and how the story will unfold on screen. Also, be clear about your timeline and budget. I actually printed a couple copies of my budget and it came in handy a time or two. I actually surprised some with how organized I was.

What are your outreach goals
Be a visionary. What is the best-case scenario. Really think about the impact of the film. Who is the audience? How will they be reached? Who could be partners to spread the message? How will you build a “movement” around the film? These are important questions to answer way before you’re done with the film.

Know what you’re asking for
I was there to find funding, an editor, and to establish relationships for future festival and distribution partners. Be clear on what you need to succeed.

Know who you’re talking to
I researched every person and company I was meeting with.

Everyone asked why I am making the film
Across the board, I was asked why I made this film and my personal connection to the story. It was an opportunity to speak a little about my journey as a filmmaker and how I was led into telling this story.

Ask for feedback
I had nothing to lose. Sometimes I asked at the end of the conversation for critical feedback or aspects of the project that gave them hesitation. This led to interesting conversations about how to set my film apart from others.

Ask for other connections
Many of my meetings led to other recommendations.  I came away with a list of organizations to research, movies to watch, and people to meet. And I made sure to follow through with everyone.

What to bring that’s actually useful
Business cards with your film’s title on it, nicely designed postcards, ipad with trailer ready to watch, and over the ear headphones.

Follow up
I reached back out to everyone that I met with. You never know how they can be useful contacts in the future or who they know.

I didn’t walk away with a fat check in hand to finish my film. But I made incredible connections with people that I hope will lead to collaborations in the near future. My favorite moments were bringing a major programmer to tears (in a positive heartfelt way), getting a second meeting with a potential financer, almost winning at bowling during an afterparty, and making friends with other filmmakers devoted to the craft of storytelling.

—
Cameron Bargerstock is the Director/Producer of EXIT MUSIC.
She can be reached at cbargerstock@gmail.com.
Learn more about EXIT MUSIC here.

EXIT MUSIC Synopsis:

Terminally ill at twenty-seven, offbeat artist Ethan Rice leads his family and doctor through the surreal and stirring decision to die on his own terms. Equal parts comedy and darkness, Exit Music is the last year, last breath, and a letter to the world as a curious young spirit awaits the inevitable and reflects changing perceptions of dying in America.

Photos courtesy Cameron Bargerstock.

Captions (top to bottom): (1) A still image of EXIT MUSIC. (2) The Project Forum meeting room at Lincoln Center. (3) Chatting with my Executive Producer between meetings. (4) New York City skyline. (5) My film postcard (artwork by Mia Nolting). (6) Me with old friends Brian Morrow and Jonathan Lynch, the producers of Once I Was: The Hal Ashby Story.

The post Spotlight on Documentaries 2015 appeared first on LEF Foundation.

Massachusetts-based filmmaker Margo Guernsey’s LEF-funded project COUNCILWOMAN was one of five feature documentaries to participate in the inaugural Camden/TFI Retreat presented by CNN Films. The retreat, which took place from June 21-26 in Camden, Maine, also included the participation of Pacho Velez and Sierra Pettengill’s LEF-funded film THE REAGAN YEARS and three other works-in-progress from emerging US-based filmmakers.

COUNCILWOMAN follows the first term of Rhode Island politician Carmen Castillo as she balances her new role in public office with her day job as a hotel housekeeper, inspiring questions about democracy and its conditions.  

In the LEF blog this week, Margo shares some of her reflections on the retreat.

It is another day at the computer in my home office, which doubles as my two year old daughter’s bedroom. Left-brain me is arguing with right-brain me about next steps for my film, COUNCILWOMAN. I have been working on this film for four years and it feels like I am running a marathon I did not sign up for. I was expecting more of a sprint. No new funding is coming in with little chances of getting anything any time soon, and there are no obvious ways to reach people who might help. We will need at least $200,000 to finish. It feels like I have stopped at mile 17 to vomit, and I’m not sure I’ll make it to the end.

Then in comes the email. “On behalf of the Camden International Film Festival and Tribeca Film Institute, we would like to invite Councilwoman to participate in our inaugural retreat, presented by CNN Films…” My eyesight goes blurry. I feel dizzy. I am not making that up. It was a little too good to be true.

Many independent filmmakers, particularly early career filmmakers like myself, work on projects that extend for years and years very isolated from anyone. It is the unfortunate reality of unfunded or barely funded projects, and it is not good for creative work. Creative work requires collaboration on many levels. We crave it and the projects need it, but it can be hard to find.

The retreat took place the last week of June, and it was exactly what the film, and I as its Director, needed. Imagine the creative chemistry of ten early career directors and producers, and roughly ten late career filmmakers, in a rural setting focusing only on five films in progress, for an entire week. Mentors share their experiences, challenges, and ideas for tackling difficult situations. Workshop after workshop, and meal after meal, we, the early career filmmakers are engaged in tough open-ended questions: What is the central struggle of the main character? What is the fundamental nature of the film? Are you as close to the truth as you can get? Watch a scene independently and ask: what does this scene accomplish? Needless to say, each of us came out with a more meaningful and deeper approach to the stories we are already telling.

It is heartening that many successful filmmakers and industry professionals are committed to supporting emerging filmmakers. That does not mean it is an easy path. The documentary landscape is saturated with content, making it very hard to break through. If you have your own passion project, don’t worry about when your email may or may not come. It is your job to focus on your work, where it is at the present moment. Passionately film your story, be honest in all that you do, find collaborators who are at a similar career stage, and share your work often. For now, I am back to that game plan, just a little bit closer to the finish line. Thanks to the people at CIFF, TFI and CNN Films for bringing this together.

—

For more details about the film, check out the COUNCILWOMAN website here. 

To learn more about the Retreat, head on over to its website here.

Photos by Spencer Worthley / Courtesy of the Camden International Film Festival

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“Who’s involved, what’s the conflict, and what’s the transformation?” Cut to the chase! That was the candid advice we were given by a major funder during a meeting for IFP’s Spotlight on Documentaries program at Independent Film Week. We spent five days pitching our LEF-funded documentary THREE DAYS TO SEE throughout New York City, in focused 30-minute industry meetings at beautiful Lincoln Center, at the HBO offices during brunch with their top executives, over loud music at a Chelsea dive bar party hosted by SXSW. We learned that the biggest challenge is communicating simply and powerfully about the story we aim to tell.

We quickly realized that everyone at Independent Film Week had a fascinating story. Building friendships with other filmmakers was one of the best perks of being in such great company. We’d simply reach out our hand and say: “Do you have a film here?” With so many films being made these days (over 400 were submitted to Independent Film Week), IFP selection gave us a new stamp of validation and confidence when we sat down with Sundance, Tribeca, HBO, PBS, and other great distributors, programmers, agents, and funders.

It was thrilling to engage with so many industry players for the first time about our little story of a young woman’s journey to adulthood. Often they would start off a bit removed, but then our excitement would catch on, especially if they watched our trailer. The best meetings transformed from a pitch into a genuine back-and-forth conversation about our characters, themes, and surprising twists. On the first day I spent too much time telling people what I thought they wanted to hear. By the second day I had shortened my pitch, leaving room to read their body language and allow for their own curiosity and insights.

Here are a few hints from our team for your next pitching experience:

• Nail down a solid one minute pitch
• Practice your pitch with other people, but also say it out loud to yourself (that’s normal in NYC!) so it flows and feels natural
• Prepare two or three additional points to elaborate as needed, or to work into the conversation that you feel are important to selling your story
• Don’t try to fit it all in during that initial pitch, wait to gauge their reaction and be prepared to respond, be provocative and incite questions
• LISTEN
• Know your true budget
• Know when you’ll be in picture lock
• Dress to be comfortable and confident, not to impress
• Research their bio, ask questions, and find a common subject to break the ice
• Oh, fight your shyness (easy for me to say), smile a lot, and have fun!

We also got the chance to hear leaders in the film world deliver invaluable keynotes and panels, and rub elbows with them all at the networking after-parties. Every single bit of IFP’s Project Forum is designed to make you a more fully-realized filmmaker. Documentary work can sometimes feel like a lonely, thankless endeavor. After our time at IFP, I know for certain that THREE DAYS TO SEE will reach eager audiences, and I feel a renewed personal mandate to effect change in the world with the power of visual storytelling.

Hope to see you there in future years!

The post LEF Grantees at IFP’s Spotlight on Documentaries! appeared first on LEF Foundation.

Lyda Kuth, the Executive Director of LEF New England, attended on Saturday and Sunday, and we were both excited to participate in this festival just a stone’s throw from Boston, which engages a stellar base of Salem festival-goers in addition to filmmakers from across the country in special screenings, premieres, and a variety of filmmaker discussion forums. The festival will run until Thursday March 13, so if you haven’t had a chance to attend yet, don’t miss the last few days! An added plus is that all of the festival venues are walking distance from the Salem commuter rail station.

A free filmmaker forum led by moderator Jennifer Merin, with visiting filmmakers (L-R) Tracy Droz Tragos, Michael Kleiman, Suzan Beraza, and Lukas Korver.

LEF-funded filmmakers have been out in full force at this year’s festival. Most notably, LEF grantee Cozette Carroll Russell will attend the East Coast premiere of her film BROOKFORD ALMANAC on Thursday, March 13 at 5:15PM. The film captures a year in the lives of two young, first-generation organic dairy farmers. Details about the event can be found here.

LEF filmmakers also made an appearance at a filmmaker forum called “Coming Soon… DOC-A-CHUSETTS”, a sneak peek at a selection of works by Massachusetts filmmakers, with brief filmmaker Q&A moderated by Loren King from the Boston Globe. Samples of a number of LEF-funded works were screened, including BLACK MEMORABILIA (Chico Colvard), FARM AND RED MOON (Audrey Kali and David Tamés), THE GUYS NEXT DOOR (Allie Humenuk), JOURNEY TO ARMENIA/SCARS OF SILENCE (Nubar and Abby Alexanian), WANDER WONDER WILDERNESS (Paul Turano), and WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS (Kevin Belli and Beth Murphy). The full list of new works can be found here.

Live music before the start of URANIUM DRIVE-IN

Finally, one unique aspect of the festival was Salem Sketches, a program of short films (made by local filmmakers) selected to show individually before each feature. Each short offers a glimpse of life in the town of Salem, from a buzzing local diner with devoted clientele, to a busy shoe repair shop that doubles as a play-land for the owner’s cat, to the inner workings of the nearest sewage treatment facility. This is the second year of the Salem Sketches program, after it was premiered by SFF co-founder Joe Cultrera and SFF organizer Perry Hallinan in 2013. I only saw three of this year’s sixteen sketches, which I’m hoping might be available to watch in full online later (please clue me in if they are). You can read more about Salem Sketches and see the trailer on the SFF blog, and see a few more at the festival while it’s still on.

For full festival details, visit salemfilmfest.com

-Gen

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_{The Lincoln Center (Photo Credit: Marie-Emmanuelle Hartness)}

IFP Independent Film Week – What a positive experience! Michel [Negroponte] and I were thrilled to attend 2013’s session with our production THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MICHELLE MAREN.

There were really three major steps leading to the market: 1) apply, 2) get selected, 3) prepare! And there was a lot of preparation! We had a new deadline every other week over the summer: filling out files, uploading cuts, setting up our schedule, and  the most difficult of all – creating a twenty-minute cut of THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MICHELLE MAREN.

Upon arrival at the Lincoln Center subway stop, the first persons I luckily ran into were Michel Negroponte (my collaborator) and LEF’s Lyda Kuth (and her heartwarming smile).  It was a very good sign; the upcoming week was promising already!

Meetings with Industry people went smoothly, Michel and I had a set schedule and documents to support our pitch. I had my computer, the trailer of the film available and—very important—comfortable headphones. All meetings were held in a tight room, tables very close to each other so; no –one could hear the sound of the trailer without headphones. We also had a one-sheet presentation of the film as well as postcards, including photo, film title, contact info and micro screening date.

The micro screening was a presentation of our twenty-minute cut in a room with a large flat screen. There were thirty seats and we were pleased to fill out twenty-five of them. We were at IFP to find funding and distribution possibilities, so I would not say that the micro screening had as an important impact as the industry and distributor meetings on the tenth floor!  But it was nice to have Lyda Kuth, filmmaker Lucia Small and friends discover a cut of our film. Michelle Maren herself came to the screening, it was the first time she was able to watch part of the film with an audience. She was thrilled.

The following two days were all about meeting with broadcasters, more producers, and foundations. We had interesting meetings with places like Al Jazeera America, HBO, POV, Women Makes Movies (women are the majority on our team!), Chicken and Egg, and many more.  After this full roster of meetings, I felt privileged. IFP was making my life much easier: it would be very complicated to meet all these influential people separately (if ever!) and thanks to IFP and Milton Tabbot, we were all here to meet and discuss possible collaborations.

The last day—Thursday—was what we Filmmakers, called “Speed-dating with programmers”. Again, we had a set schedule (IFP did a great job and the volunteers were extremely helpful, bravo and thank you to them!) but meeting time was reduced to ten minutes! In ten-minute meetings, programmers had to present their festivals and filmmakers pitch their films.  Volunteers were walking around the tables lifting their hand; five, four, three, two, one, switch tables! Michel and I teamed well together, it was good to have an accomplice to pitch the project with!

It was fantastic to be part of a selected portion of the most influential parties in today’s Documentary creation. The next step is to follow up with our contacts and see where our film travels next!

The post Marie-Emmanuelle Hartness on Independent Film Week 2013 appeared first on LEF Foundation.

^{Camden, Maine}

Before I began working for the LEF Foundation, I worked for two years with independent film festivals in China as a translator, moderator, program coordinator, and programmer. I learned to consider the presence of plainclothes police officers, mysterious power outages, impromptu venue-changes, and festival cancellations as fairly normal – all in a day’s work for independent festival organizers. 2012 was a particularly tough year for the independent festival circuit in China.

One of the programs that I was most excited about was a film and cultural festival which sought to bring a series of Chinese, American, and Japanese documentary films to a small town in China. The festival team spent many months of hard work preparing for the event and preparing Chinese subtitles for each of the foreign films. Sadly, the festival was abruptly cancelled only days before the event. With special guests already on the ground, the festival organizers did what they could to have the show go on in some small capacity, but the audience was very limited. Why was it cancelled? Perhaps because it was an alternative event, unsanctioned by the state. Truthfully, it remains a mystery even to the organizers, but the end result prevented folks from enjoying a great community event together. You can probably imagine how frustrating this might be for everyone involved, and how, in the long run, these restrictions and repeated cancellations can and do hamper the potential of any independent festival to reach their fullest potential as a critical point of contact for new filmmakers, new audiences, and industry.

Fast forward: Two weeks have passed since the LEF team made our way north to the Camden International Film Festival, which took place on one gorgeous fall weekend in Camden, Maine from September 26-29, and I’m still riding high from the experience. Only in its 9th year and already rated one of the top 25 film festivals in the world, Camden’s tagline is “Small Towns, Big Films”. While attracting national and international participants and supporters, the festival also mobilizes a strong corps of local volunteers and engages audiences of all kinds, from filmmakers and film industry professionals to local and visiting cinephiles, young and old. Camden is a great example of what a passionate festival team and a vibrant film-going community can build in just a few years, when allowed to get creative and grow. I appreciated my time in Camden so much more because of this. The Camden experience is what every film community deserves in a film festival.

^{JP Sniadecki pitching his film RAINBOW FARM at the Points North Pitch}

Attending as an industry delegate, but also as the new kid (I joined LEF in August), I was able to sit in on a number of discussions and events tailored to the industry side of the festival, while also seeing a good portion of the film program, a celebration of documentary at the very heart of the festival.

The festival’s opening film, which screened in the beautiful Camden Opera House, was CUTIE AND THE BOXER, Zachary Heinzerling’s playful study of the romantic and creative relationship between Ushio and Noriko Shinohara. The two artists have spent 40 years building a life together within New York City’s art world, and Heinzerling’s verite tribute reveals the emotional and artistic journey that Noriko has made from her feeling of being eclipsed and consumed by her husband’s career to a sense of spirited independence as she brings to life the narrative of her inner heroine-artist, defending her creative subjectivity.  During the post-screening discussion, Heinzerling recalled that he had spent so much time with Ushio and Noriko that he eventually came to be treated like a piece of the furniture in their home – not an uncommon experience for many documentary filmmakers, except that in Heinzerling’s case, Noriko would even affectionately refer to him as a household appliance, like the vacuum cleaner or rice cooker.

The festival’s opening night party under the lofty eaves of the Brewster Point Barn set a precedent for the other special evening events to come later on that weekend. I missed out on the tire swing and teepee set-up at the Friday night party, but the same industrial harbor side venue was transformed by the Camden team for the penultimate night of the festival, when those not on the dance floor could walk through tunnels of fishnet and dreamlike moving images. Most everyone I spoke with about the festival’s parties told me that Camden’s venues for special events never fail to surprise, and for many industry participants, these events form a crucial thread in the social fabric of the festival. However, while some partygoers devotedly stayed up into the wee hours every night, I wanted to get up early to see some film!

Camden’s Shorts First program was held every morning from Friday to Sunday at the Bayview Street Cinema, a theater located just steps away from Camden’s harbor. Camden’s founder and director Ben Fowlie started the program as a way to get people into the theater early on in the day to appreciate and discuss the value of short-form cinematic storytelling, which too often takes a backseat to feature-length films at many festivals. I was able to attend most of the first morning of shorts, a skillfully programmed selection which at times challenged its audience to make unexpected connections among stories and settings that initially seemed vastly different. After the first few films, I felt as if the entire theater had just gone over the first steep drop, and was gearing up for the next twist.

My favorite short of the morning was FLO (by Riley Hooper) about a long-term New York City resident and avant garde photographer who develops Multiple Sclerosis. As she loses control of her body, she continues to take photographs of the city around her by handing the camera over to her home health assistants, and directing them as they walk (or as Flo rolls) through the sights of the city.

^{Sara Archambault moderating From Story to Action, a Points North panel discussion on impact producing}

Sean Flynn, the director of the Points North Documentary Forum, has done a terrific job in crafting the program’s line-up of panel discussions, master classes, pitch sessions, and more. The first event of the forum that I attended was a panel discussion called From Story to Action, which LEF Program Director Sara Archambault moderated. The discussion focused on the strategies and challenges of impact producing with a fantastic panel of impact-oriented industry professionals and filmmakers, including LEF grantees Banker White (THE GENIUS OF MARIAN) and Rebecca Richman Cohen (WAR DON DON, CODE OF THE WEST), as well as Sheila Leddy (The Fledgling Fund), Christie Marchese (Picture Motion), and Molly Murphy (Working Films).

The Points North Pitch and the New York Times Op-Docs Pitch were perhaps the two festival events I found most exciting. If you’re a filmmaker who has never attended a pitch event before, I can’t imagine a better, faster, or more intensive way to get top-notch feedback on a work-in-progress (Read more about Sara’s experience pitching at Hot Docs for her advice). PROJECT NODAK (Lewis Wilcox and Jonah Sargent), the only film pitched at both the Points North Pitch and the New York Times Op-Docs Pitch, won the latter of the two competitions, and the filmmakers were awarded an opportunity to create a short for the Op-Docs website with a budget of $2,000. Drew Xanthpoulos’ THE SENSITIVES, about ordinary people swept out of the mainstream by mysterious and toxic reactions to everyday stimuli, won the Points North Pitch Award and Modulus Finishing Fund the day before.

_{THE GENIUS OF MARIAN winning the festival’s top award (Photo Credit: Camden International Film Festival)}

As for other festival awards, two of my favorite feature-length films at the festival also garnered prizes. First, The Harrell Award for Best Documentary Feature was given to Banker White and Anna Fitch for THE GENIUS OF MARIAN, which was funded by LEF in 2011. Second, Dave Carroll and Ryan Scafuro’s film BENDING STEEL, about modern day strongman Chris Schoeck, won the Emerging Cinematic Vision Award. Several of the other films I was fortunate to have seen that weekend included AJ Schnack’s CAUCUS, Bassam Tariq and Omar Mullick’s THESE BIRDS WALK, and Ben Nabors’ WILLIAM AND THE WINDMILL (which also screened at the DocYard earlier this year).

During the festival, there were many moments when I wished I could have been in two places at once, but alas, a festival program as rich and busy as Camden’s is bound to leave everyone wanting more – all the more reason to mark your calendars for next year. This small town festival is bound to keep on flourishing.

The post Gen’s Thoughts on Camden: A Festival Experience for Everyone appeared first on LEF Foundation.

The Hot Docs Forum is one of the most highly regarded broadcast markets in the world. At this event, a small number (this year: 19) of projects are selected to pitch to a group of broadcasters, commissioning editors, funders, and distributors from around the world in the hopes that a match (co-production? Pre-sales? A promise of further conversation?) can be made. It is held at the Hart House on the Victoria College campus. Imagine the Hogwarts School from Harry Potter and you’ll get a sense of the majesty (I find it hard to believe I didn’t find any secret entrances behind bookshelves…I looked).

I was invited, along with director Andrew James, to pitch our film STREET FIGHTING MAN

at the Forum. The staff at Hot Docs did their best to prepare us for weeks prior to the start. They gave us access to a directory of industry representatives participating in the forum and they encouraged us to reach out and begin conversations with the folks we would like to connect this. They helped us edit our pitch and offered pitch training prior to our “debut.” They did their very best to make us feel welcome and calm.

But despite these efforts, I’m unsure that anything could have prepared me for sitting at the head of this table.

(The Forum room at Hart Hall.)

It’s kind of like the Knights of the Round Table meets the Roman Colosseum. Okay…not that dramatic. But you can sense the stakes at the table – that great combination of excitement, tension, nervousness, and maybe a little fear. And luckily in this sport, the spectators are more likely to be cheering you on than looking for a bloodbath.

Andrew and I spent a LOT of time rewriting and rehearsing. We rehearsed in coffee shops. In the hotel room. Walking down the street. We only had 7 minutes to express what we needed to for what we thought would make the most winning pitch. The sample would eat up about 3:30 – and we were excited about the new trailer we had to show. The visuals would be powerful. So, in the 3:30 we had left, we hoped to communicate:

1.  The strength of our stories and characters. Who are they? What is the arc of the story?
2. Why does this story need to be told now? What is its relevance to this cultural moment
3. Why are we the team to do it?
4. (Given the international market) How is the story we are telling a universal, human story that could travel to many markets?
5. Who are our partners?
6. What is our timeframe for completion?
7. What level of support are we looking for?

Cramming all of that in to 3 minutes and 30 seconds is no small task. We got a LOT of conflicting advice from a host of people we trust and admire. We took in what we thought would work, scrapped the rest and went with our gut.

We were the second pitch on the first day of the Forum. I had never been there before and my knees were KNOCKING. I am an over-preparer by nature, so it was very difficult to sit calmly watching the first pitch when I just kept going over my own in my head. Instead, I should have relaxed and listened to the voices at the table. Soon they would be responding to me and I should get to know them.

The first pitch was phenomenal, an Israeli team pitching a film called CENSORED VOICES. Before going up to pitch, the director confided in me how nervous she was. “Me too,” I shared. She added, “I’m just nervous because English is not my native language. I hope I say things correctly.” Always good perspective – everyone has their own hurdles to jump when it comes to public speaking!

When they were done, Andrew and I pulled our chairs up to the table. Everything went as we rehearsed it. We spoke confidently and we told this story we know so well that it is written on our hearts. And then the footage began to roll. And it was the wrong footage.

We still have no idea what went wrong. We had a grant deadline right before coming to Hot Docs and I wonder if some DVDs got mixed up. But it didn’t matter. We just had to go with it.
The sample was a 10 minute sample and we had to signal to the booth to stop rolling at an appropriate time. The footage was still good, but didn’t quite work with our storytelling approach for the pitch. We quickly shared that this was not our planned sample, but that we hoped the table still got a sense of our work. We lost some time, so we had to wrap up quickly and (delete given the time), we dropped the last three points of our pitch (partners, timeline, and need) to remain focused on what matters most – the story, the characters, the artistry, the appeal. Had I the benefit of witnessing the other pitches, I would have learned that they ALL go long and I could have just bought another 30 seconds to finish up. A note for the next time!

(Sara and Boston-based filmmaker James Demo.)

We were blessed with a warm reception from around the table. In some cases, this was the first time we were getting direct feedback from people who we had been in some form of conversation with over the course of a year. It was incredibly validating to hear responses to the work when you feel, so often, that you are working in a cave alone! Following the pitch, we were able to make several meetings and create traction for the project in ways that we could never have done without Hot Docs.

Lessons learned?

1. Pitch often. Practice anywhere you can. Get to know the strengths of your story and start to enjoy telling it. The more you feel comfortable telling it, the more others will enjoy hearing it.
2.  If your project is a party, you are the hostess. Your job is to make people feel welcome, fed, included, comfortable. You can do that in your pitch.
3.  Pitches are stories. Craft them as you would your film.
4. Find ways to make direct contact with the potential broadcasters, distributors and collaborators who interest you most. If they engage with you, this could lead to more conversation down the road.
5. Your competitors are your friends. We connected with so many filmmakers during the Forum and we all cheered each other on. These are the folks you will likely see most on the festival circuit if you are lucky enough to travel with your film. Make some buddies, and future collaborators.
6. LABEL YOUR DVDS!

These are some tiny takeaways. I feel so lucky to have taken part in the Hot Docs Forum. Hot Docs is an incredibly well-run, well-curated, professional, fun event. Go if you can. I’m glad I did.

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One new element of the festival that caught our attention at LEF was the Neither/Nor screening series, launched this year to provide “a historical overview of films that explore and/or break free of the dubious dichotomy of fact and fiction.” The series makes a selection of works that are outside of the fact/fiction divide – films that can be called “Chimeras” after the mythological figure made up of different animal parts.

Neither/Nor is a partnership between True/False and the Ragtag Cinema, underwritten by the National Endowment for the Arts, and the aim is not only to screen the films, but to give an annual opportunity for a film critic to curate and write about the selected films in a monograph. With critic Eric Hynes 

leading the way in 2013, the series is trying to generate critical dialogue and context revolving around “alluring whatsits,” as True/False programmer Chris Boeckmann calls non-fiction, non-documentary Neither/Nor films in the program foreword.

Classifying what you’ve picked out as the unclassifiable is a tricky undertaking, sure – a lot of ducking and weaving around labels and definitions – but it keeps things interesting. This is a cool idea for an ongoing series and a smart way for True/False to contextualize its mission.

At LEF we have eyes forward on new work, but of course it’s important to talk about how cinema history informs and challenges filmmakers working now; as part of that ongoing discussion LEF sponsored the Facing Realities screening series back in 2008, which paired Boston filmmakers of different generations in dialogue with one another. Legacy screenings are part of The DocYard as well; on April 8 there will be a DocYard screening of Ricky On Leacock, a documentary about the life of Richard Leacock by Jane Wiener. As a pioneer of sync-sound 16mm technology, Leacock helped make possible low-budget and personal filmmaking, filmed out in the real world with hand-held cameras – conditions that make the experimentation seen in the Neither/Nor program possible.

Leacock is one of the directors featured in the 2013 program, which focused on “Chimeric Cinema, New York City 1967-1968.” The films are Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (William Greaves), 1 P.M. (D.A. Pennebaker, Richard Leacock, Jean-Luc Godard), The Fall (Peter Whitehead) and David Holzmans’ Diary (Jim McBride). They’re unstable films made in a moment of instability, when, as Hynes writes, “everything and everyone seemed to be riding, or even embracing, the edge of things, when films and politics and morality suddenly seemed up for grabs.”

I’m intrigued; it would be great to see the 2013 Neither/Nor films go on tour…

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Betting the Farm, Cecily Pingree and Jason Mann’s about the Moo Milk collective of dairy farmers in Maine, was the 2012 opening night film. This is a LEF-funded film that marries really good filmmaking with a New England story; it’s a project we’ve been watching grow over the course of a few years and we were thrilled to be present at the sold-out Maine premiere. The farmers who are the stars of the film did the Q&A afterwards with Jason and Cecily, and I think it’s safe to say that Moo Milk gained dozens of loyal new customers/fanatics after this screening. Downeast, David Redmon and Ashley Sabin’s film about a lobster processing factory in Maine, was back in the line-up after the filmmakers presented a work-in-progress last year; Downeast received a Special Jury Mention for the Harrel Award for Best Film

I dedicated most of my time to watching new movies; highlights for me included Canicula, a quiet, beautiful film about a small town in Veracruz, Mexico by Jose Alvarez, and Colombianos, a moving story a Columbian-Swedish family dealing with addiction by Swedish filmmaker Tora Martens. I like d seeing some nice Vimeo shorts screened before features – a new addition to the program this year now that Vimeo is a CIFF sponsor.

I also managed to take part in an instructional workshop about using Zeega, the online interactive platform that’s in development at Harvard’s Metalab (which I’ve written about here before). We learned how to use Zeega and broke up into groups to practice using the online software; I don’t think that my group’s workshop project broke through any transmedia boundaries, to be honest (we were chatty), but I’m excited to put my new-found skills to use in making more Zeega projects soon.

Sara met with filmmakers at the Points North Forum in face-to-face meetings, and Lyda was a panel member and judge during the Points North Pitch. The Best Pitch Award went to Mike Attie and Meghan O’Hara’s project In Country – they presented some pretty riveting footage from this in-progress film about Vietnam War re-enactors, and like the other pitching filmmakers, generated promising opportunities for their project.

There have been tomes written about it elsewhere, but the relaxed and fun atmosphere at Camden really makes this a great festival by any standard. Festival Director Ben Fowlie, Points North Director Sean Flynn and all of the staff and volunteers (Tech Director Geoff Parker is a marvel) pull off a real feat!

List of Camden IFF 2012 Awards

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Also – an exciting development at TFI – it looks like their commitment to new media is expanding. There will be a new competition for transmedia projects added to the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013. More news about that here. Exciting new methods will be on display! Definitely put Tribeca on your calendar next year if you are interested in this kind of work

The post In Case You Missed It Live – TFI Interactive appeared first on LEF Foundation.

We also got to see work-in-progress excerpts of LEF grantee Rebecca Richman Cohen’s Code of the West (officially premiering now at South By Southwest). The film is about the fallout of legalized medical marijuana in Montana and was filmed right in Missoula, so some of the film’s subjects were able to come see the preview and there were some strong reactions from people who have been hugely affected by the events in the movie.

I was there screening a film of my own and had the opportunity to take part in Big Sky in the Schools, which brings documentaries and filmmakers from the festival to Missoula-area high schools. The audiences of students at Hellgate High and Big Sky High were lively and curious – not to mention givers of lovely thank-you notes. Along with the sweeping views, this was one of my favorite parts of the festival!

View from the filmmaker lounge

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As for my hit list of films not to miss, make sure to see THE AMBASSADOR, DETROPIA, THE IMPOSTER and SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN. Some films that I missed (too many amazing films, not enough time!) that I will actively seek out: ONLY THE YOUNG; AI WEI WEI: NEVER SORRY; and QUEEN OF VERSAILLES. Among the highlights of my experience that weekend were the Secret Screenings, a series of sneak previews of documentaries premiering at festivals coming up soon. I binged on secret screenings during my stay and found every one of them rewarding. I wish I could tell you all about them right now, but…it’s a secret!

Hats off and glasses raised to David Wilson, Paul Sturtz, and the whole True/False team!

– Sara

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