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Exclusive: Catapult Film Fund today announced its newest group of film teams to earn prestigious research grants, a fortunate cohort who will receive mentorship from some of the brightest names in documentary, including Oscar nominee Sara Dosa.

This is the third year of the Research Grant program, an expansion of Catapult’s mission “to provide essential early-stage support to documentary filmmakers.” This year’s grant recipients are Sofian Khan; R.J. Lozada and Chris Filippone; Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn; Lauren Wimbush; and Farihah Zaman.

“The selected film teams will receive a $10,000 grant and six months of mentorship as they develop a new film concept,” Catapult said in a statement. “During the program, each film team will be paired with a dedicated advisor to provide guidance and feedback on story development.”

This year’s advisors are Dosa, who contends for an Oscar this weekend for her feature documentary Fire of Love,...

Exclusive: The Sundance Institute has set the participants and projects for its Documentary Edit and Story Lab, which this year returns to Utah’s Sundance Resort after a two-year hiatus. The list consists of filmmaking partners Jude Chehab and Fahd Ahmed (Q), Jalena Keane-Lee and Diana Diroy (Standing Above the Clouds), Alessandra Sanguinetti and Soledad Salfate (The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer) and Edwin Martinez and Inés Vogelfang (The Monster and the Storm). The Institute also today named Diroy, Stephanie Andreou, Julie Gaynin, Alma Herrera-Pazmino and Luna X. Moya as the artists selected for the second edition of its Art of Editing Fellowship.

Designed to provide time and space to go deep into the language, form and meaning of indie nonfiction features, the Lab combines director and editor teams in the later stages of post-production with experienced documentary filmmakers, for the process of reimagining or reconceiving dramatic structures, exploring character and story development,...

Documentarians from Ecuador, Argentina, Kenya, Vietnam and France are among projects from 19 countries to receive support totalling $520,000 from Sundance Institute.

Documentarians from Ecuador, Argentina, Kenya, Vietnam and France are among projects from 19 countries to receive support totalling $520,000 from Sundance Institute.

Documentary Fund recipients encompass projects in development, production, and post-production stages and their work spans subject matter from a deeply personal family project in Ecuador, to a mission to save libraries in Kenya, to a musical involving female and trans prisoners in Buenos Aires.

Frederick Wiseman’s Boston City Hall project, City Hall, is among post-production grant recipients.

A little...

Body to offer $245,000 in support.

The International Documentary Association (Ida) announced on Thursday (28) 16 grants totalling $245,000 to films through its Enterprise Documentary Fund and Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund.

Eleven feature-length documentary projects have been selected as development grantees of the Enterprise Documentary Fund with awards totalling $150,000. The Fund aims to support projects that reframe contemporary and historical events.

A further five projects will receive $95,000 in support through the Pare Lorentz Doc Fund, which supports production and post production for films that illuminate issues in the Us. This year’s themes centre on land and water.

The 11 Enterprise Documentary Fund grantees are:...

Firelight Media has its 12 filmmakers for the 2018-20 Firelight Documentary Lab, an 18-month fellowship supporting filmmakers from racially and ethnically underrepresented communities. See their names and project below.

The filmmakers are culturally diverse, with impressive backgrounds ranging from public and commercial media to investigative journalism and digital production. The projects they bring to the fellowship tell stories of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s impact on Puerto Rico, domestic violence, federalization of the war on drugs, Indigenous identity, Kkk hostilities against Vietnamese refugees, and the mothers left in the wake of police brutality.

“We are honored to support the work of this new Doc Lab cohort because we believe they collectively embody the future of nonfiction — which is inclusive, centers those who have traditionally been on the margins, and pushes the boundaries of the documentary form,” said Loira Limbal, VP and Documentary Lab Director at Firelight.

Firelight Documentary Lab has...

Washington — AFI Docs has unveiled the lineup for this year’s festival, which kicks off with the world premiere of “Personal Statement.”

The fest — held from June 13 to June 17 in Washington and Silver Spring, Md. — will include five world premieres and feature 92 films representing 22 countries.

“Personal Statement,” directed by Juliane Dressner and Edwin Martinez, is about three high school seniors in Brooklyn who take it upon themselves to become college counselors in their schools in their determination to earn a higher education.

“United Skates,” about the fight to save roller skating rinks — a staple of African American culture — will close the festival. The project is directed by Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown.

The centerpiece screening will be Rory Kennedy’s “Above and Beyond: Nasa’s Journey to Tomorrow.” It tells the story about the workforce of Nasa in its exploration of the solar system and of Earth.

“While this...

The year-long fellowship is designed to nurture first-time documentary feature directors.

The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) has announced the 10 documentaries selected for the 2017 Ifp Filmmaker Labs.

Ifp Filmmaker Labs support first-time feature directors with projects in post-production as they complete, market and distribute their films.

The selected projects and their attending Lab Fellows for the 2017 Ifp Documentary Lab are:

The Area David Schalliol (director, producer, Dp), Brian Ashby (producer, editor), Peter Galassi (editor)

Baato Lucas Millard (director, writer, producer, Dp), Kate Stryker (director, writer, 2nd camera)

¡Las Sandinistas! Jenny Murray (director, writer), Sarah Winshall (producer)

Leave the Bus Through the Broken Window Andrew Hevia (director, writer, producer, Dp), Carlos Rivera (editor)

Personal Statement Juliane Dressner (director, producer, dp), Edwin Martinez (co-director, Dp, editor), Beth Levison (co-producer)

A Photographic Memory Rachel Elizabeth Seed (director, producer, Dp), Danielle Varga (producer)

Shadow of His Wings Lucas Habte (director, producer, Dp), Isidore Bethel (writer, producer, editor...

If you don’t learn how to write your own life story, someone else will write it for you.Can language change our lives? Three Bronx teens balanced on the edge of hardship use their words to try to answer this question in To Be Heard, a feature documentary directed and produced by Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, Deborah Shaffer, and Amy Sultan. Inspired by three teachers in a radical poetry workshop, teenagers Karina, Pearl and Anthony write their own life stories in which their goals aren’t just dreams.Fresh off a New York ...

So many movies out and so much to see! Docuweeks is now showing such illuminating docs as Marc Smolowitz's The Power of Two and Directors/Producers: Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, Deborah Shaffer, Amy Sultan, Exec Producers Jill and Jim Angelo and Sally Jo Fifer's To Be Heard. So many really good docs and all will be eligible for the Academy Award Oscar for Best Doc and Best Doc Short. A Marine Corps cover-up of one of the worst water contamination incidents in Us history, the glaring reality of the media's objectification of women, as well as portraits of assassinated journalist Anna…...

“To Be Heard” and “Hot Coffee” win big at Seattle International Film Festival’s awards ceremony today at Seattle’s Space Needle.

See below for the full list of winners and runners-up:

Siff 2011 Competition Awards

Siff 2011 Best New Director

Grand Jury Prize

Gandu, directed by “Q” Kaushik Mukherjee (India, 2010)

Jury Statement: “We chose to give the prize to a movie that bowled us over with its kinetic, brash humor and style-hoping dexterity, a portrait of tortured youth that refreshingly pokes fun at adolescent self-centeredness while simultaneously exploring the anger, despondency and malaise of a generation.”

Siff 2011 Best Documentary

Grand Jury Prize

Hot Coffee, directed by Susan Saladoff (USA, 2011)

Jury Statement: “Going beyond a well-known headline that was the butt of many jokes, Hot Coffee makes dry legal boilerplate spring to life in portraying human dramas with tragic consequences. It makes us all question our simple assumptions – it’s a film that needs to be seen.

“To Be Heard” and “Hot Coffee” win big at Seattle International Film Festival’s awards ceremony today at Seattle’s Space Needle.

See below for the full list of winners and runners-up:

Siff 2011 Competition Awards

Siff 2011 Best New Director

Grand Jury Prize

Gandu, directed by “Q” Kaushik Mukherjee (India, 2010)

Jury Statement: “We chose to give the prize to a movie that bowled us over with its kinetic, brash humor and style-hoping dexterity, a portrait of tortured youth that refreshingly pokes fun at adolescent self-centeredness while simultaneously exploring the anger, despondency and malaise of a generation.”

Siff 2011 Best Documentary

Grand Jury Prize

Hot Coffee, directed by Susan Saladoff (USA, 2011)

Jury Statement: “Going beyond a well-known headline that was the butt of many jokes, Hot Coffee makes dry legal boilerplate spring to life in portraying human dramas with tragic consequences. It makes us all question our simple assumptions – it’s a film that needs to be seen.

Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek

(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)

Directed by: Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, Deborah Shaffer and Amy Sultan

Featuring: Anthony Pittman, Karina Sanchez, Pearl Quick, Roland Legiardi-Laura and Amy Sultan

“To Be Heard” introduces us to three high-school-age New York City poets battling adolescence and their societal situations, each of whom finds solace and strength in the spoken word taught by a program called Power Writers.

The South Bronx trio of teens — Karina, Anthony and Pearl — take the directors and their cameras into their neighborhoods, and into their loves and fears, resulting in a sharing of four years of their lives with the audience. “To Be Heard” amounts not only to an introduction into an important educational and experiential program, but to an experience in viewing at-risk youth graduate in close-up as they tackle their hopes and dreams, their realities and socio-economic confines.

Sometimes bearing witness...

Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek

(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)

Directed by: Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, Deborah Shaffer and Amy Sultan

Featuring: Anthony Pittman, Karina Sanchez, Pearl Quick, Roland Legiardi-Laura and Amy Sultan

“To Be Heard” introduces us to three high-school-age New York City poets battling adolescence and their societal situations, each of whom finds solace and strength in the spoken word taught by a program called Power Writers.

The South Bronx trio of teens — Karina, Anthony and Pearl — take the directors and their cameras into their neighborhoods, and into their loves and fears, resulting in a sharing of four years of their lives with the audience. “To Be Heard” amounts not only to an introduction into an important educational and experiential program, but to an experience in viewing at-risk youth graduate in close-up as they tackle their hopes and dreams, their realities and socio-economic confines.

Sometimes bearing witness...

It’s an ugly day outside, so let’s look ahead to some future rainy day distractions, shall we? Today we’ve got the first posters for: To Be Heard, the beat poetry documentary that’s gaining momentum on the film festival circuit, the inevitable sequel Despicable Me 2, and the Sundance hit comedy Our Idiot Brother.

First up is To Be Heard, a passion project created by Amy Sultan, Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, and Deborah Shaffer. Shot over a four year period, this documentary follows the trials and travails of three teenagers trying to survive their soul-crushing surroundings through the power of spoken word.

[Image courtesy of The Playlist]

Synopsis:

To Be Heard is the story of three teens from the South Bronx whose struggle to change their lives begins when they start to write poetry. As writing and reciting become vehicles for their expressions of love, friendship, frustration, and hope, we watch these three...

One of the most pleasant surprises of the 2010 festival circuit was the beat-poetry verite documentary "To Be Heard," a movie we went into blind and reemerged with intense adoration, calling it "damned genuine" and praising its avoidance in being an overwrought and cliche “inspirational feel good story." Directed by a posse consisting of Amy Sultan, Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, and Deborah Shaffer, while also being produced by Dialogue Pictures, it follows three Bronx high-schoolers (Anthony, Pearl, and Karina) who struggle with their city life. In order to avoid falling into dangerous lifestyles and pessimistic outlooks, they channel their personal…...

Making its way on the festival circuit before it debuts on PBS this fall, To Be Heard is a spoken word documentary following the lives of three teenagers. Directed by Edwin Martinez, Amy Sultan and Deborah Schaffer, the film will screen at the Full Frame Documentary Festival in Durham, North Carolina this Saturday.

Synopsis:

To Be Heard is the story of three teens from the South Bronx whose struggle to change their lives begins when they start to write poetry. As writing and reciting become vehicles for their expressions of love, friendship, frustration, and hope, we watch these three youngsters emerge as accomplished self-aware artists, who use their creativity to alter their circumstances.

Below is the trailer. For more information on the film, check out their website Here.

To Be Heard – Trailer from Edwin Martinez on Vimeo.