MIAMI – (Nov. 20) – BRITDOC Foundation, a nonprofit that supports social impact documentaries, will introduce new professional training initiatives for journalists and filmmakers looking to use digital innovation to better engage audiences and attract funders. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is supporting these efforts with $250,000.
Related Link
“Initiative connects journalists and filmmakers to enrich storytelling” by Jess Search on Knight Blog
“By providing filmmakers and journalists with the resources they need to extend the reach of their storytelling, BRITDOC will help creators inform audiences and inspire people to act,” said John Bracken, Knight Foundation vice president for media innovation.
“Journalists play a crucial role in society and BRITDOC is committed to finding new, more effective ways for them to communicate with citizens at a local, national and international level,” said Jess Search from BRITDOC. “We’re excited by the possibilities that documentary filmmaking offers journalists to create new forms of storytelling, which can go beyond informing audiences and empower them to make and demand the changes they need.”
BRITDOC Foundation works to spread the impact of documentaries by helping filmmakers receive funding, forge new partnerships, create successful business models and develop their knowledge and skills. Building on this work Knight support will:
● Create a free training toolkit for journalists and filmmakers including guidelines on team building, developing a management strategy, establishing impact measurement tools and creating partnerships.
● Offer training for 140 filmmakers, journalists, non-governmental organizations and funders working in the space to help them develop audience engagement strategies.
● Develop case studies on finalists of the BRITDOC Impact Awards, which celebrates documentary films that have made the biggest social impact. The studies will assess whether these films inspired behavior changes among audiences and helped filmmakers build a supporter base.
● Test a new distribution model using a forthcoming documentary film and share lessons learned with the field.
In addition to Knight support of these initiatives BRITDOC today announced five new films as the winners of its Impact Awards.
About BRITDOC Foundation
BRITDOC is a nonprofit supported by Bertha Foundation, Channel 4, the Ford Foundation and others both in the United Kingdom and the United States. Since 2005, its mission has been to build a creatively ambitious and diverse future for documentary.
For nearly a decade, BRITDOC has been funding documentary filmmakers, supporting exceptional storytelling and independent journalism. Titles include CITIZENFOUR, Virunga, The Square and Dirty Wars, The End of the Line, The Yes Men Fix the World, The Look of Silence, Hell & Back Again, Pussy Riot, Who Is Dayani Cristal? They also support social justice filmmakers through their global Good Pitch events in collaboration with Sundance Institute and Ford Foundation. Britdoc.org
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. www.KnightFoundation.org
CONTACTS:
Elise McCave, BRITDOC, (44) 7980-986862, [email protected]
Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, Knight Foundation, 305-908, 2677, [email protected]