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Ok question #1)Funding for documentary films. Do you guys know of
any way to obtain funds other then my own pocket.
#2)Also do you guys know of any good places to buy equipment from in
new york or online that has cheap prices.

I'll think of #3...

Thanks

thAnks for the encouragement...victor

B&H has good prices and a nice showroom.
Funding for docs falls into grants from foundations, commissioned
programs from broadcasters or cable, self-funded, filmmakers with
reputations who can get presales money from broadcasters or cable to
fund some or part of production.

I'm currently filming my second documentary. The first was
funded by Fox, this one is funded by my credit cards and the
kindness of friends. I produced commercials for 8 years, so
there are some people who owe me favors and are pitching in
on this! I'm hoping to find some insights on this site by others
who have been there. (Specifically where to get cheap
equipment)

Welcome to The D-Word, Tricia, and don't forget to join us in our
humble filmmaker hang-out {LINK NOT IMPORTED} as well.

More info at www.d-word.com/community

Hi! -- Finally succeeded in logging onto this list serve. looking
forward to reading about distribution here, esp. as I"m looking
forward to beginning that phase of documentary post-post production
in the near future. I'm nearing completion on a documentary I've
been obsessed with for eight years. I forget who I'm paraphrasing
but someone said he pitied people who were not obsessed by
something. Not sure I agree -- I would love to feel my time was my
own -- but it does take some of that quality to get one of these
things done.

My documentary? It's a personal doc, and it's a family documentary
and it's about my brother, who was born with a very severe
developmental disability, and who was institutinalized at a young
age.

To make this description short, I'll refer anyone who wants to know
more to my website: www.withoutapology.tv/

Looking forward to reading, and writing more later.

Susan

Greetings and welcome, Susan. Just so you know, The D-Word is NOT a
listserve, which is when the posts come to you as emails. You have to
log on here because it's web-based. And all the posts are archived
according to topics.

Hi all,

I'm Pamela Turner and while I don't work in documentary, (I'm an
animator)I teach in an undergraduate video and animation
area (at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA)and often
advise students regarding grants, distribution, and graduate schools.
I am very interested in the documentary film and find that when at
film festivals I inevitably veer towards them when having to choose
screenings. So I am sure this forum will be educational for me!

But no grades here, Pamela ;-) Welcome.

Hello, I'm a filmmaker with one short film completed so far. I do
most of my work in Cuba and live in Los Angeles. I come from a
background in digital art and technology. I was a digital arts
artist and consultant on "Babe", "Coca Cola Polar Bears". Now I
am a emerging filmmaker wondering how to finance this habit.

My short autobiographical film "Havana Witch Club" screened at
the Cineaccion Film Festival and the Berkeley Film and Video
Festival where it won Best of Show for experimental .. though I
entered it a documentary. One woman's real life can look pretty
experimental, I guess.

Looking forward to sharing information with others here on all
related topics.

hi everyone,
this is veena almad from india. i am a student of mass media and
wish to be a film maker. i also like know filmmakers like you all and
would like to take suggestions for my future.
I have assisted in ad film production and also going to asisst
in editing but i dont know how to work on real film please advice me
how to join a production house of film.

looking forward to talk to you.
veena almad
india

Hi. I am a new doc producer, working on my first project
"Fulani for All Fifty."

Fulani for all Fifty is a one-hour historical
documentary giving voice to a team of ordinary people that brought
the first black woman to the U.S. presidential ballot in all fifty
states for the 1988 election.

We are currently in production, and learning our way around
distribution alternatives.

Hi Jennifer, Veena, Lisa. Nice to have you joining us and hope
you'll learn a whole bunch about distribution this week (sheesh, it's
10:40, NY time, on the first day of our panel and no one's shown up
yet - do distributors just sleep late :-?)

Veena, we'd be happy to answer any questions you have in The
Mentoring Room {LINK NOT IMPORTED}, but you'll need to be a bit more specific. What
do you mean by "real" films, exactly? Do you include documentaries in
that category (some don't, you'd be surprised)? And are you looking
to relocate? If so, to where?

Hi. Im also a relatively new doc producer working in DV. I have
several co-productions currrently being shopped at various cable
networks. I am also working on a feature about a Needle Exchange in
Manhattan. I also have exhibition experience.

Hi.

I'm Brigid Kelly. I'm about to start post production on a film about
a 31 year old man with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. We are
setting up a G4 with Final Cut 3 and want to start digitizing this
week. I'm sure I'll be asking lots questions about post
strategies.

Welcome, Stephen and Brigid. Happy to try and answer your questions.

A warm welcome to all the new faces.

Jennifer, do you mind if I send you an e-mail asking you about
working/studying film in Cuba?

I think I have to sign in here to join the Distribution discussion,
but I"m not sure. I'm not very good at this internet stuff all the
time.

It would be great if all people who are planning to join the
discussion in our online panel, MAPPING THE DISTRIBUTION LANDSCAPE,
would quickly introduce themselves here.

This, of course, does not apply to the actual panelists since they
were introduced in the topic itself {LINK NOT IMPORTED}.

In order to avoid chaos, Doug lets us "normal folk" only read (and
not post) in that topic for the first two or three days, but he will
open up the discussion to all of us after the first couple of rounds
...

Hope this makes sense to you now, Nina.

Hello.

You can click on cinecitizen above to find out more about me.

Pleased to meet you all.

Eric Stacey here. Just returned from the IFP Market where I was
pitching a feature project, but also plan to continue making
documentaries... since 1997, I've co-produced one 6 hour series for
PBS, a half hour one off on the health effects of air pollution, which
aired
on about 15 PBS member stations, and a 1 hour doc on Waldorf education
methods used in a number of public schools across the U.S. I'm
looking forward to sharing and learning here, but signed up especially
for the Virtual Doc Conference with Albert Maysles and Susan Fromeke.

Welcome everyone!

Eric, are you aware of our private forum for professionals?
More info at www.d-word.com/community

Thanks Ken. I've just sent email to the D-Word Community.

You're welcome, Erin :-)

I'm sure Doug will handle your access request shortly.

Joining discussion late. But happy to be joining.
I'm an independent documentary producer based in Charlotte, NC. Always
looking to learn more from other producers and to find effective means of
distribution.