Mentors - Programming 2: Documentary
Festivals and markets are as vital as ever in today's filmmaking scene. Learn what to do - and more importantly, what not to do - when it comes to festival submissions, festival attendance, and beyond for Documentary Films.
Mentor session signup is open to all Film, Gold and Platinum badge holders at a first-come, first-served basis. Registrants who signed up online must check-in 30 minutes before your mentor time slot to guarantee your spot. Limited on-site signup is also available for a small number of mentor sessions spots and will begin 30 minutes before the first time slot of each session.
To sign up for a mentor session click on the link for the mentor you are interested in meeting with:
Benjamin Fowlie -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/15
Carolyn Meili -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/16
Holly Herrick -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/19
Karim Ahmad -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/14
Kyle McKinnon -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/17
Martijn te Pas -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/18
Presenters
Ben Fowlie is a film programmer and the founder and director of the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF). Recognized as one of the top 25 film festivals internationally for documentary film and filmmakers, and the largest and most important in New England, CIFF takes place along the coast of Maine each Fall. He is the founder of the Points North Forum, a conference component that runs in conjunction with CIFF hosts dozens of industry including the BBC, HBO, A&E, PBS, POV, ITVS, ZDF, Arte, the Tribeca Institute, the Sundance Institute and Channel. Ben is a co-founder and programmer for the award winning DocYard Screening Series in Cambridge, MA and currently sits on the Industry Advisory Board and Nominating Committee for the Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking. He has been included in Thom Powers’ list “20 Under 40: Industry Leaders To Watch Out For, and is frequent panelist and juror at festivals, including most recently the Silverdocs Film Festival in DC, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, SXSW and Sheffield Doc Fest.
Carolyn Meili coordinates the Festival of Moving Media; an international documentary film festival based in Canada.
Mr. Ahmad oversees several funding initiatives at ITVS, including the Open Call, the Diversity Development Fund and the innovative web series FUTURESTATES, for which he reviews projects for funding and works with greenlit filmmakers to develop both non-fiction and fiction content from conception to completion. Mr. Ahmad previously served as Feature Development Director at San Francisco production company Momentum Cinema, where he wrote and produced the award-winning narrative feature film Harrison Montgomery, starring Martin Landau. Mr. Ahmad has served as a panelist for numerous film funders and festivals, worked extensively as an independent story consultant, and received his BA from Pomona College.
Kyle has served as programmer for the Sidewalk Film Festival since 2007. His feature film work includes music for You're Next, Popskull and The Mountain, The River, and The Road. He enjoys stand-up comedy and fireworks.
Martijn te Pas (martijn@idfa.nl, 6-6-1967, born in Nijmegen) is programmer & coordinates the program department of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA, www.idfa.nl). He is responsible for overseeing all research activities, processing and viewing film festival entries and advises on acquiring content for IDFA-TV. He also selects short films and compiles the new IDFA-PLAY Competition for Music Documentary and the IDFA Competition for Student Documentary.
Every year since 1988, more than 300 international documentaries are screened at IDFA for many film lovers and professionals. IDFA is unique for its international & committed film program, the variety of genres and the many European, International and World premieres featured each year. Aside from the festival, IDFA consists of three other components: the Jan Vrijman Fund, the FORUM and Docs for Sale. All of these were established in order to improve the international climate for creative documentaries. The Jan Vrijman Fund offers support to documentary projects and festivals in developing countries, the FORUM is Europe's biggest co-financing market for international documentary productions, and Docs for Sale is an international documentary market where buyers, sales agents and distributors can see a selection from the best creative documentaries of the past year.
Martijn te Pas has been working for IDFA since 2000 and he is also documentary advisor of the Dutch Mediafund which provide grants to encourage the development and production of cultural radio and television programs.
Tuesday, March 13
