This session of Documentary Fundamentals covers all the basics of PLANNING YOUR DOCUMENTARY and covers all the basics of creating a production plan for your project. What are the goals for your story? Who is your proposed audience? How do you map out a feature length story arc? And how do you allocate resources to make the film you want to make? This session covers these issues and gives you the tools to match your creativity with logistical planning.

Following the workshop, 306 Hollywood will be screened at 8:30pm.

DOCUMENTARY FUNDAMENTALS: A professional development series designed to give the emerging or intermediate documentary filmmaker an inside look at the filmmaking process from pre-production planning to post-production and distribution. Over the past few years, UnionDocs has developed this ongoing program for documentarians that desire a better foundation for navigating the modern landscape of independent filmmaking. This six-part program takes place over the course of one weekend at UnionDocs. Buy a SERIES PASS ($125) or choose to attend individual sessions ($25/each).

Elan Bogarín’s feature 306 HOLLYWOOD, premiered on opening night of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival as the first documentary ever included in the festival’s NEXT section. It played over 60 festivals, won multiple awards, was released theatrically through the Sundance Creative Distribution Fellowship, was broadcast on POV (PBS) and is streaming on Amazon Prime. Elan was chosen for Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Film, DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40, and was awarded Emerging International Filmmaker at Hot Docs. Elan co-founded The Wassaic Project, and was nominated for the Gotham + Spirit Awards for producing BIG FAN which premiered at Sundance. Elan is the co-director of El Tigre Productions where she creates innovative non-fiction films and produces digital content for the world’s leading museums, platforms, and brands such as Google, MoMA, The Getty, The Whitney, and The New York Times. She has received support from organizations including Sundance, Artemis Rising Foundation, NYSCA, Latino Public Broadcasting, and IFP.

Documentary photographer and filmmaker, Joannie Lafrenière loves humans. Her work, influenced by an anthropological approach, is a progressive study of the human being. Holding degrees in journalism and photography, Joannie has taken part in several recognized publications. In recent years, she has directed for television, for the web (on different projects produced by the NFB) and has been acting as filmmaker mentor with Wapikoni Mobile which works with different aboriginal communities in the province of Quebec. Her latest documentary project, THE WOMAN WHO SAW THE BEAR, has been shown in major festivals across Canada and internationally. She is now working on her first feature-length documentary (SNOWBIRDS) that reaches out to golden age Quebecers living in Florida during the winter season.

When she grows up, Joannie hopes to finish her tour of every country in the world. This is necessary to provide her with a continuous supply of the awe and amazement she feels upon encountering the poetry of daily life (and might just turn her into a polyglot via osmosis).

Joannie lives, works and plays in Montreal, Quebec – but has been known to escape to faraway places.

Jonathan Bogarin was chosen as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2017. He is the co-director of El Tigre Productions, a bilingual strategy/production company that creates innovative non-fiction films and produces content for the world’s leading cultural institutions. Clients include the Whitney Museum, MoMA, The Getty, Colección Cisneros, Museo Reina Sofia, and PEN America. As a
strategist, he envisioned and managed the creation of coleccioncisneros.org, the digital hub of Latin American art.

He is also a visual artist who creates paintings and social practice artworks throughout the US and Venezuela and has taught at Columbia University, Bank Street College of Education, and Pratt Institute. Jonathan received an MFA from Columbia University a BFA from RISD, and has received grants from Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program/ JustFilms Ford Foundation, NYSCA, Latino Public Broadcasting, IFP, Hot Docs, and Experimental Television Center. In 2017 he won the audience award for best pitch at the Hot Docs Forum.