Introduce Yourself: Sign In Here First

Hi everyone,

Yeesh, I'm really not good at writing things like this about myself. Just got back from Sundance and the jet lag is hitting me hard. Well, current work-wise I run a documentary screening programme in London, it's only of the only places that regularly show documentaries in London and we have just over 100 screenings a year, which works out at about 2 a week. I love it, just screened Mugabe and the White African today. It was fantastic with a really lively Q&A.

I worked in feature-doc commissioning for two years before this, and I miss it a lot. Graduated from a Masters degree in Documentary Filmmaking about 3 years ago and have continued working on a project I started there which is more a practice exercise than anything but we'll see what happens. I also write for The Documentary Blog, which I really enjoy.

Glad to have joined up, have been meaning to do it for ages and not sure why it took me so long.

Doesn't matter why, Charlotte, you're here and that's all that matters. Now that we have you in our clutches there's no escaping, kiss your free time goodbye. Blog? Screenings? You'll find they have little meaning anymore. It's all D-Word, all the time.

Or not, whatever. Either way, good to have you aboard at last.

In reply to Charlotte Cook's post on Sun 31 Jan 2010 :

Welcome Charlotte. Where did you do your MA in Doc (or was it MFA)?

Hi,

Doug – I got the sense I may lose some time to this. Losing time to talking about docs is never a bad thing.

John – I did my MA at Royal Holloway, University of London. It was excellent.

Hi,

My name is Piers Sanderson, I'm British but live on the east coast of Italy and flit between here and my base in London for meetings and the occasional piece of non doc work.
I graduated from the National Film & Television School in the UK with an MA in documentary direction in 2007. I've had 2 short films in festivals around the world from Sydney to Cambodia, made a TV doc for Channel 4 in the UK and have just finished my first feature doc which gets its US premier at San Fransisco Indie Fest this month then European premier in Thessaloniki in March.
Currently i am trying to get funding for my next feature which is ready to go and have been accepted on to the 2010 European Master School Campus to develop a film for next year, which i am very excited about.

Good to have you here, Piers. I was at the NFTS twenty years or so ago, how is the course these days?

The course was fantastic. 2 years of making any film you want, what an opportunity! If only it was that simple now. I think there is still quite a gap between the way film school shapes you and what you experience in the real world, but that's possibly no bad thing.

Hello everyone. Glad to be joining you. I'm a longtime public radio producer who is currently working as the Talent Manager for the public radio makers quest (MQ2) a project of the Association of Independents in Radio, Inc. MQ2 was a CPB-funded initiative to spark cross-platform producer-led innovation that would lead public radio to become public media. AIR is a membership organization for producers, editors, freelancers, audio artists, etc. As we prepare what we hope will be a new RFP, I'm reaching out to expand the circle of people who know about our work. We're offering a Webinar through the National Center on Media Engagement next week (mediaengage.org). Also, you can read my blog or watch an 8-minute video about last year's ground-breaking projects at http://www.mq2.org

Julie Drizin
Twitter @AIRMQ2
Blog: mq2.org

In reply to Piers Sanderson's post on Wed 3 Feb 2010 :

So what are you up to in Italy, Piers?

Welcome, Julie and Piers. Great to have you both here with us.

Doc wise not much John as there is not much in the way of funding in Italy (i am here for family reasons). I'm traveling between here and the UK where i'm working with a production company based in London and North Wales (I grew up in Wales). Film Agency Wales have just funded the trailer for my next feature and i am hoping to get the full funding in place soon. We have a 2nd meeting with ZDF Arte in Berlin next week and strong interest from A&E in the US.

Hi Everyone
My name is Niall McKay. I am from Ireland but live in the SF Bay Area where we have a production company called the Media Factory. We do am mix of docs for PBS, films for non-profits, and dramas. Currently we are working on a film about the Filipino Farmworker Movement called the Delano Manongs. I've just finished a personal film called the Bass Player for RTE Television in Ireland. Nice to meet ya'll
Niall

Nice to meet you, too, Niall. Welcome to The D-Word!

Hi All

My name is Belinda and I live in NY. Decided to join the documentary-making world a couple of weeks ago and heard this is a great source of information so here I am! :)

Talk to you soon!

In reply to Niall McKay's post on Sat 6 Feb 2010 :

hi niall... i remember reviewing your project as a member of the CAAM Open Call committee. even though you didn't end up getting funding in the past cycle, i have to say that i really liked what i saw from your work-in-progress sample. and i usually don't really get interested in historical docs. so, i hope you are still doing well with it!

Hi All,

My name is Lukasz and I live in Edinburgh. I am polish and I came here to study photography and film. Still exploring the field of film and finding that documentary is something I enjoy the most. At the moment working on a project about the boy with Duchenne Muscular Distrophy.
I joined D-World to explore more.

In reply to Christopher Wong's post on Sat 6 Feb 2010 :

Thanks Christopher. Nice to meet you. CAAM has been really good to us. Actually, I really liked "Whatever it takes".
cheers Niall

Welcome, Belinda and Lukasz.

In reply to Piers Sanderson's post on Thu 4 Feb 2010 :

Hi Piers,
my name is Alessandro,i am italian and i live in Shanghai since four years. i am a documentaries lover and i'd love to make one too.i am a shooter and im filming quite interesting stuff these days here.may i know your email address?? i'd like to ask you some suggestion about finding support from Italy. do you speak italian ?
thank you for now

Greetings, Alessandro. Feel free to sign up to become a full member here.

Hi, I'm Cory. For the past four years I've worked as a field producer and researcher for the filmmaker Michael Moore (I worked on SICKO and CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY). I'm now interested in making my own documentary and would like to learn more aspects of doc filmmaking from the ground up.

In reply to Alessandro's post my email address is on my profile please feel free to get in contact. Non parlo molto Italiano ma mia moglia è Italiana è può tradurre se necessario.

Hi,

I'm currently taking Thom Powers' class at NYU and learned of d-word from him. So far, and I'm sure it's not going to change, it's a great class!

I run The Edit Center in Manhattan where we teach editing (FCP). In short: we partner with filmmakers to have their films go through the class – where the students assemble a rough cut of the filmmakers' film. If interested, you can check out more at www.theeditcenter.com

Personally, I've just come on to produce a film about Paul Liebrandt – the youngest chef to receive 3 stars from the NY Times. It's my first full fledged producing gig so I'm looking forward to talking to other doc filmmakers here. I'm sure I'll have many questions in the coming weeks.

Nice to meet everyone!

Cory and Rachel, great to have you here with us. Be sure to register for full membership in order to have access to all the discussion topics. Enthusiasts only see about 5 of the 50 we have in all.

HELLO ALL ,
Iam Sophy from Mumbai, India setting up a not for profit company for Distributing international documentaries in India and co producing documentries that are picked up at Docedge which is a pitching forum in Kolkotta India..Iam working on a documentaries awarness movement in India to create shelf space in stores for documentaries in retail stores to increase viewership.,to finally get a theatrical release for a documentary and have it on a television channel .. looking forward to interacting with your'l

thank you

sophy