Any day that features ice cream is a good day in my book. It was great to join with WIFV Members and SilverDocs registrants to celebrate the first anniversary of The Scoop podcast at Ben & Jerry’s. If you couldn’t make it, please get your own bowl of ice cream and subscribe at
http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-scoop/id318645653. Great interviews, helpful suggestions, and all about women and media! Thanks to Human Factor, LLC for coordinating this monthly podcast.

Spent the bulk of my day at the Good Pitch sessions. Organized by Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, Good Pitch is generously supported by the Fledgling Fund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, The Tides Foundation, Impact Partners and anonymous donors, with campaign support for filmmakers provided by Working Films. Eight filmmakers pitched their films to panels of potential funders and outreach partners. Jess Search, Chief Executive of the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation moderated the projects. Some of the resources discussed that may be of special interest to WIFV Members: Reel Progress program at the Center for American Progress; The Search for Common Ground is establishing a donor network; LinkTV is working with the Gates Foundation on international development issue projects. www.ViewChange.org.

Had some fantastic meetings with filmmakers and enablers from a variety of funding and outreach organizations that will be more involved with WIFV in the coming year.

Some upcoming SilverDocs programs that don’t require advance registration, are free and should be of interest to you:

Friday, June 25th

•10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. ANNOUNCING THE PUBLIC MEDIA CORPS: BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
• A provocative discussion led by best-selling author, social critic and radio host Michael Eric Dyson, and featuring a live taping of his radio show. Who defines public media? What is the future of public broadcasting as a relevant form of engagement for communities of color? How can various technologies and broader trends in social media be used to increase public media’s community impact? In collaboration with the National Black Programming Consortium, WEAA-FM and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.

•2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. WHO KILLED BLACK HISTORY MONTH? Teaching, Learning, and Celebrating African American History in the Digital Age
•Join Filmmaker Shukree Hassan Tilghman for a sneak peek of his documentary feature MORE THAN A MONTH and a preview of the film’s mobile application More Than A Map(p), a collaborative history mapping project. http://www.morethanamonth.org >

Free parking is available at the parking garage at the Center on King Street from Georgia Ave.

For more information about the AFI-Silverdocs International Documentary Conference: http://silverdocs.com/event/idc/about/ and the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Festival: http://silverdocs.com/event/about-silverdocs/

Post by Melissa Houghton

Well the conference is off to a flying start! Fantastic conversations in and out of the sessions.

It was great seeing Women of Vision Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady as part of the opening night panel about “Freakonomics”! Even more fun to see other Women of Vision in the audience supporting the festival.

Today I concentrated on sessions about distribution. Tips will be shared as soon as I sort out all the comments from the sessions. Monetization remains elusive, but seems a little closer at hand with good stories, conscious marketing and audience development. Also more likely for true
self-productions. Not a shocker, but good to have some more concrete examples. Everyone wants more for less (“Ephemeralism” according to Buckminster Fuller)

Counting on WIFV members to share their comments about the films. When not in a session today, I was deep in conversation with filmmakers. Truly enjoyed getting caught up on projects, making introductions, and thinking about things with new insights.

Help us celebrate the one year anniversary of The Scoop podcast at Ben & Jerry’s on June 23 from 5:00 to 7:30 pm. The interiews and topics covered, thanks to Human Factor, are astounding. Listen, subscribe, get a single scoop ice cream cone on us! (Actually, you’ll get it on a cone.)

Breakfast on June 24 about how to develop audiences for doc tv is full. We’ll be taking notes and sharing what Peter Hamilton (documentarytelevision.com) and Stephen Harris (A&E) reveal.

Post by Melissa Houghton, Executive Director of WIFV - DC