ABOUT DOING YOUR DOC: DIVERSE VISIONS, REGIONAL VOICES

The National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting support NALIP's efforts with a grant to design, market, organize and produce 4 regional professional documentary development/production seminars targeted at the diverse voices of emerging Latino/a, African-American, Asian, Pacific Islander and Native American documentary makers. "Doing Your Doc: Diverse Visions, Regional Voices" has completed its fourth successful year aimed at expanding the documentary talent pool in communities underserved by documentary development.

The program has attracted many artists in Austin, Miami and Chicago, Albuquerque, Boston, Atlanta, Denver, Tucson, and San Francisco. The 2-1/2 day curriculum covers documentary project story structure, proposal writing, trailer mechanics and post-production/ delivery planning taught by mentors such as Fernanda Rossi and others. It includes general information, a case study screening, and specific project mentoring. It focuses on emerging regional makers who have personal documentaries reflective of their locales or experience, plus it supported stories that cover community-based and social change issues. It includes presentations about funding, broadcast or careers in the public television system, and introduced members of the minority consortia to new applicants. It brings professionals to regional communities underserved by the information available in New York and Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and supports project development to feed into other national programs like NALIP's Latino Producers Academy and Latino Media Market.

NALIP and the Full Frame Film Festival, in association with the National Endowment for the Arts, Columbia College Chicago, International Latino Cultural Center and IFP-Chicago, National Black Programmers Consortium, the Center for Asian American Media, Pacific Islanders in Communications, ITVS, WMM, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Film and Video Center at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, KNME, Full Frame Documentary Festival, the Office of African-American Affairs, the New Mexico Film Commission, the Institute of American Indian Arts, MIT Media Lab, DAEL Lab at GSU, Native American Telecommunications, and Latino Public Broadcasting presented additional 2009 workshops in Miami, Lincoln, Harlem, and San Antonio; in 2010 we target Minneapolis, Puerto Rico and perhaps Dominican Republic.

Funding pays instructors and artists to attend as mentors, to do case studies, and to inspire new filmmakers. Funding provides audio visual support and professional development lunches about public television funding opportunities and digital technologies. And funding supplements lowered registration and, when possible, hotel costs for regional participants.