Introduce Yourself: Sign In Here First

Hi y'all,finally checking into the D-word "BBS".
I make independent documentaries, "The Shvitz" about the
Russian baths and "My Friend Paul" about my childhood friend,
the bank robber. Recently I did a "work-for-hire", the show
Maternity Ward for the Learning Channel (now known as TLC).

Funding for my films comes from foundations and TV; "Paul" got
a good wallop from ITVS, who gave completion funding. Now
making a new film about the ideals and impact of the 1960's.

Cheers.
Jonathan Berman
jb@escape.com

Sounds like a candidate for D-word pro.

Hello everyone. I am a newbie doc producer in the process of editing
my very first doc, a very short topic on sailing windmills (a type of
small one-design racing boat). I am doing this in preparation for
doing a longer project on gay and lesbian parents. I am located in
Columbus, Ohio, where there is a great community called the Columbus
Film Consortium (http://www.thecfc.org).

Bintu: I have learned a ton from reading the following three books:

Michael Rabiger's _Directing the Documentary_

Allan Rosenthal's _Writing, Directing, and Producing
Documentary Films and Videos_

Paul Kriwaczek's _Documentary for the Small Screen_.

Nice to meecha, Newbie. Books are great but JUST DOING IT, like
you're doing with your short, is better. No substitute for
experience. Keep us posted on your progress.

Hi Everyone. I'm a producer/director in post production on three
one-hour docs right now. Two for Oxygen Network, and one
independent.

The independent is about a sex worker/photogrpher who breaks
into the art world with black and white photos of her male client's
genitalia. The film also examines her relationships with a
long-time client, her live-in boyfriend, and friends. I'm close to
having a rough-cut and am looking for completion funds.

So...male frontal nudity.... Where does this doc belong? HBO?
Showtime? Or is it just a festival film? Will ITVS even consider it
for public TV? Will POV broadcast male frontal nudity? I called
PBS in Virgina but they are not repsonding.

Any and all thoughts are appreciated.
this site is a great idea. wish I had found it before.

malka

Molly, I think you want to also post this in the private conference.

For those of you who are just visiting the public D-Word conference,
you might have noticed a bunch of new registrants to The D-Word
Community accidentally post their intros in the public conference. You
can generally tell by their level of experience. Nothing wrong with
that, just trying to explain if you're confused.

Greetings, all! I am a television producer and journalist writing a
story for Cable World magazine (a weekly trade) on documentaries on
cable. Would love to hear your experiences pitching cable nets, and
to get a feeling for which networks are great to work with, which
ones aren't, is it getting easier to find a home for your docs with
the proliferation of digital channels ... ? Any and all thoughts
welcome! cheers, Shirley Brady (sbrady@mediacentral.com)

Greetings back at ya, Shirley. This is to chock full of juicy
insider gossip and slander to make public ;-) I'll email you.

Hi, I am a recent university graduate in Russian and East European
Studies who would love to make a documentary film on current living
conditions in Russia and Russian culture. I recently returned from
living in St. Petersburg, Russia(and studying the language) for seven
and a half months so I have a lot of ideas. If you know anyone
involved currently in this type of project, planning one in the
future, or any other BBS's to point me to, I would greatly appreciate
the help. Thanks so much!
--Shelley S. McIntosh
ElenaSSM@yahoo.com

Shelley - there are books available that could help you make your own
documentary. The tools to do so are very inexpensive.

A proposal I submitted to a state public TV network/PBS affiliate for
a 1 hr. doc was just green-lighted. I had asked for a broadcast
committment and the capability to solicit funding under their 501(c)
(3) status, which I have been provided, and in addition, they have
offerred fund-seeking, production, and promotional support. This will
be my first doc. I have worked in TV Network production & operations
for 17 years and for about 3 years I have been running my own small
production company. I am looking to D-word for some overall mentoring
and budget-writing support (they have asked for greater detail on the
budget I submitted). I look forward to hearing from, as we say in
NJ, "yous". Thanks!

Hi Elliot, congratulations on that, and I'm sure this is your entry
key to our main community doors!

Hi there. I am glad to finally be joining this comunity. I am the
Creative Director of MediaRights.org, a community Web site,
helps media makers, educators, nonprofits, and activists use
documentaries to encourage action and inspire dialogue on
contemporary social issues. We have a database of over 2,000
social issue documentaries and a database of the 700,000
nonprofit organizations in the USA . Filmmakers can list their
film for free and we will link to their distributor, Web site and
email. We are about to launch an Outreach Toolkit (with AIVF)
which helps documentary filmmakers design, fund and
implement outreach campaigns or grassroots distribution. One
of my goals at MediaRights.org is to make sure that we are
serving the documentary community as best we can so I am
always interested in hearing what resources people feel is
laking online.

Just a little background - I was an independent documentary
filmmaker and I made a personal documentary "Before You Go:
A Daughter's Diary" and I worked as porducer and camera on
"90 MILES" - just click on my username to get more info.

Hi Nicole,

Welcome to the D-Word. Very impressive list of documentaries at
MediaRights.org, I'll add one or two soon.

This is actually the public conference, so make sure you join us in
LINK NOT IMPORTED and introduce yourself there.

Alberto,
I am just curious where is your last name from...if you come back to
d-word to answer the question.

Test posting in public conference. Please ignore.

how?

It was me, so it should be easy to ignore.

Hello all,

I've just now joined the community. Currently (and I hope for some
time to come given the state of the Israeli economy) I'm working with
Highlight Films, Tel Aviv (http://www.highlight.co.il) as an 'ideas
developer' (exactly!!!) and writer. Just finished writing/editing a
six-part doc on the nature of religious ecstasy among six sects in
the not-so-Holy Land for National Geographic (any thoughts on
National Geographic... or should that read prejudices)? As I'm a
comparative newcomer to documentaries (having spent the best part of
the last few years keeping body and soul together by writing
corporate videos for high-tech), I'd appreciate any help on how I (we
the company) can go about researching international issues. i.e. does
anyone know of any organisations who hire out researchers (e.g. we
need someone in Taiwan). Any links/contacts/addresses would be much
appreciated.

Regards, David Jones.

Welcome to the D-Word, David.

This is the public conference. I'm sure you want to join us at our
community conference at
http://cafe.utne.com/partners/bin/motet?enter+The_D-Word.Community
(just hope I got this link right)

Yes, see you there, David.

I realize this is where you introduce yourself, not ask questions.
I'm Adele and I live in central Virginia. I have a BFA in sculpture
from VCU. I went to Roger Ebert's frame-by-frame workshop on The
Birds. last year at the Virginia Film Festival. I've accepted an
invitation to produce and host a three part series on emergency
preparedness. I'm a beginner! I hope I can get some pointers. Thank
you for being here.

You're mighty welcome, Adele. Nice to have you. Drop in anytime.

Thank you! :O)

The lady has a nice nose.