Today’s documentary landscape is rapidly evolving with new avenues and pitfalls around every corner. DOC FUNDAMENTALS, our annual six session professional development series, responds each year to the changes we see in the field and is geared towards preparing emerging and mid-career independent filmmakers with all the nuts-and-bolts knowledge they need to complete a feature documentary.

We’re overjoyed that this year’s Documentary Fundamentals course is led by Kelly Anderson and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg, the directing duo behind the observational documentary feature Emergent City, a timely and unflinching insight into local politics and the political process. “The best New York City-based documentary in a decade” according to Hell Gate, Emergent City is a masterclass in verite and participant management, with incredible access to the multiple layers of a local story with far reaching resonance. You’re invited to follow along and trace the trajectory of this recent documentary all the way from development and pre-production stages to production and post-production, through its festival run, distribution and continued exhibition life.

Emergent City will serve as a case-study across each session,  including DEVELOPMENT & FINANCING, VISUAL LANGUAGE, WORKING IN THE FIELD, POST PRODUCTION and FINDING AN AUDIENCE, and ultimately could serve as a possible model for your own documentary.

Each session features a range of exciting, experienced and award-winning professionals from the field, who contributed to bringing Emergent City to life, and who represent all aspects of producing a documentary feature. It is perfect as a primer or as a way to refocus and rethink your project in today’s changing documentary landscape! You can attend all sessions with a SERIES PASS or just tackle the hurdles where you need help with a single session.

The full series pass includes access to all of the 2025 Documentary Fundamentals sessions listed below and the public screening of Emergent City. You can also tailor your Doc Fundamentals attendance to your personal needs and select each course a la carte for $35/session.

About Emergent City

Over a decade, within the borders of a single Brooklyn community district, a microcosm of American democracy emerges. Residents of Sunset Park face a tangled web of rising rents, a legacy of environmental racism and the loss of the industrial jobs that once sustained their community. When a global developer purchases Industry City – a massive industrial complex on the waterfront – and begins to transform it into an “innovation district,” a battle erupts over the future of the neighborhood and of New York City itself.

Emergent City is an observational civic epic. It sheds light on power and process, illuminating systems and giving viewers a front row seat to the public and private spaces where the city is shaped. With extraordinary access, it tracks an ensemble of participants including the local council member, Industry City’s developers and community members with divergent stakes. The film explores the profound intersections of gentrification, climate crisis and real estate development, and asks how change might emerge from dialogue and collective action in a world where too many outcomes are constrained by money, politics and business as usual.

About Doc Fundamentals

UnionDocs has developed this ongoing program for documentarians, after receiving countless requests from folks who desire a better foundation for navigating the modern landscape of independent filmmaking and has received feedback that this course does the trick! Each year we select an array of guests that represent the best of the field with contemporary approaches to navigating with best practices.

“Overall a great balance between breadth & depth; I feel very encouraged & equipped with the basic knowledge of how turn my projects into more serious endeavors.”

“The focus of the sessions on brass tacks issues like funding, logistics, legal & business matters, organizing production flow, and how to find & work with collaborators was excellent; it’s the most helpful information that can be shared in such a relatively limited amount of time & it conveys a trust in session participants that they will find their own way through”

“I really enjoyed the concept of breaking a single documentary down over several focus points. Looking forward to future courses! Thank you!”

Schedule

Bios

Kelly Anderson is a Sunset Park based documentary filmmaker whose most recent film is Rabble Rousers: Frances Goldin and the Fight for Cooper Square (w. Ryan Joseph and Kathryn Barnier). Her 2012 film My Brooklyn, about the hidden forces driving gentrification, was broadcast on PBS’ America ReFramed. Kelly produced and directed Every Mother’s Son (PBS, 2004, w. Tami Gold), about mothers whose children were killed by police, which won the Tribeca Audience Award and aired on POV. She produced and directed Out At Work (HBO, 2000, w. Tami Gold), which premiered at Sundance. Kelly chairs the Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College (CUNY).

Jay Arthur Sterrenberg is a New York City based filmmaker, editor and co-founder of the Meerkat Media Collective whose work has screened at Sundance, Tribeca, IDFA, CPH:DOX and broadcast on PBS, HBO, Netflix & Hulu.

Jay’s two decade documentary editing career began with collaborations with DCTV’s Jon Alpert & Matt O’Neil on the HBO documentaries Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery (2008), Wartorn (2010) and Oscar nominated Redemption (2012). He also edited the Oscar shortlisted films Dark Money (dir. Kimberly Reed, 2018) and After Maria (dir. Nadia Hallgren, 2019) and a has had a long collaboration with filmmaking duo Shaul Schwarz & Christina Clusiau – Narco Cultura (Sundance 2013), Emmy-winning Trophy (CNN Films, 2017), Emmy-nominated FLY (Nat Geo, 2024) and the 2020 Netflix doc series Immigration Nation, which won a Peabody Award and Best New Documentary Series at the Independent Spirit Awards.

As a director, his films find cinematic ways to explore process & democracy. A believer in collective filmmaking, he co-directed many independent films with the Meerkat Media Collective including Stages (2010), Consensus: Direct Democracy at Occupy Wall Street (2011) and Brasslands (2013). His solo directorial debut was the observational short film Public Money (POV, 2018) which paved the way for the feature-length collaboration with Kelly Anderson: Emergent City (POV, 2025).

Brenda Àvila-Hanna is a filmmaker and educator born and raised in Mexico City and currently based in Central California. Her films mostly focus on transnational stories, spaces and identities. Brenda is a recent fellow for the Sundance Documentary Producing Lab, Points North, BAVC’s National MediaMaker, NALIP and DocsMX. Brenda was in the inaugural cohort of DOC NYC’s “Documentary Industry New Leaders” and was a 2021 Rockwood/Just Films Fellow. She is a producer of the ITVS supported documentary EMERGENT CITY  (Dir. Kelly Anderson & Jay

Sterrenberg), which premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival and aired nationally on PBS. Brenda is also a producer of the Sundance Institute supported HOW TO CLEAN A HOUSE IN TEN EASY STEPS (Dir. Carolina Gonzalez), currently in festivals. She is also a co-producer of American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez (Dir. David Alvarado), winner of the U.S. Documentary Audience Award and Festival Favorite Award at Sundance. Brenda received an M.A. in Social Documentation from UCSC, where she teaches various storytelling courses. She is a Board Member of the Watsonville Film Festival.

Sean Hanley is a documentary cinematographer versed in longitudinal vérité projects but with a knack for creative non-fiction and experimental techniques. His work has therefore screened across a spectrum of festivals, from Sundance to MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight. Recent credits include Judd Ehrlich’s Jane Eliott Against the World (2026, Sundance), Debra Granik’s series CONBODY vs. Everybody (2024, Sundance), and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg and Kelly Anderson’s Emergent City (2024, Tribeca). He has held a long and productive collaboration with experimental documentarian Lynne Sachs starting with Your Day is My Night (2013, MoMA Documentary Fortnight), Tip of My Tongue (2015, Closing Night of MoMA Documentary Fortnight), and Contractions (2024, NYTimes OpDocs). He is a member of the Documentary Cinematographer’s Alliance and the Meerkat Media Collective.

Betty Yu is an award-winning filmmaker, socially engaged multimedia artist, photographer and activist born and raised in NYC. Yu integrates documentary film, photography, installation, new media platforms, and community-infused approaches into her practice. Betty’s films and multimedia work has focused on labor, immigration, gentrification, abolition, racism, militarism, transgender equality among other issues. She is a co-founder of Chinatown Art Brigade, a cultural collective using art to advance anti-displacement fights. Ms. Yu’s documentary “Resilience” about her garment worker mother fighting sweatshop conditions screened at film festivals including the Margaret Mead Film Festival.

Her work has been exhibited and screened at the Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, NY Historical Society, Museum of the City of NY,  Artists Space/ISP Whitney Museum, The Highline, Tenement Museum,, 2019 BRIC Biennial, Apexart, Pace University Art Gallery, Transmitter Gallery, 601 Artspace, Five Myles, Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center, Bullet Space, Carriage Trade, Old Stone House and MAXXI in Rome. “The Garment Worker”, an interactive installation, was featured at Tribeca Film Institute’s Interactive Showcase. Her multimedia installation, “Resistance in Progress”, highlighting housing activism in Flushing was featured at the Queens Museum. Betty had her first solo exhibition, “(Dis)Placed in Sunset Park” at Open Source Gallery. Ms. Yu won the Aronson Social Justice Award for her film “Three Tours” about U.S. veterans returning home from war in Iraq, and their journey to overcome PTSD. Her photography and art college book, Family Amnesia: Chinese American Resilience was released in Summer 2025.

Her work has received coverage in outlets including New York Times, CNN, HBO VICE News Tonight, i-D Vice Media, Art Forum, ARTNews, Sinovision, Hyperallergic, E-Flux, F-Stop Magazine, The Eye of Photography Magazine, La Belle Revue Art Journal & Studio International.

Alex Mallis is a Cuban-American, Jewish filmmaker raised in New Hampshire now living in Brooklyn, NY. His short films have been distributed by PBS, Criterion, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. His debut feature The Travel Companion premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival and is being distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories. His short documentary Shut Up And Paint (2022) was awarded Grand Jury Prize at IFF Boston and Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, shortlisted for the 95th Academy Awards, and broadcast nationally on POV. Alex received an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College (CUNY) and is an active member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective and the Meerkat Media Collective.

Gisela Fullà-Silvestre is a Barcelona-born, New York–based composer, sound designer, re-recording mixer, and vocalist whose work spans award-winning film, television, and music. Her projects include Academy Award–nominated and major festival premieres (Sundance, Tribeca, Berlinale, SXSW), as well as the Emmy Award–winning ¡Atención! Murdered Next Door, with releases on PBS and Netflix. She also performs as NOIA, an experimental pop project acclaimed by Pitchfork and The New York Times, and is a 2022 NYFA Women’s Fund Fellow.

Zara Serabian-Arthur is a documentary editor and producer, and a co-founder of Meerkat Media, an award-winning production company cooperative based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been featured on Hulu, PBS, National Geographic, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, premiered at Sundance, and screened theatrically. Recent credits include Stolen Youth (Hulu, series editor), Art21: Between Worlds (PBS, editor), and Justice (Sundance, editor). As an editor, Zara is committed to telling complex stories with empathy and care, exploring power, resilience, and the possibility of transformation. Across both her filmmaking and her organizing within cooperative and solidarity economy movements, she works to shift dominant narratives toward mutualism, economic democracy, and more just futures.

Robert Salyer is Director of Outreach and Impact at American Documentary, Inc., leading national outreach campaigns and partnership development for award-winning films and impact initiatives. He spearheads the Our America: Documentaries in Dialogue project, a long-running effort that empowers PBS stations and local partners to foster meaningful civic dialogue around urgent social issues. To date, he has supported the impact campaigns of more than 70 POV films, encompassing a wide range of issues and engaging audiences across the country.

With more than 25 years of experience in documentary film and community media, Robert previously spent much of his career at Appalshop, Inc., where he directed and produced films focused on Appalachian culture. His credits include work with CNBC, HBO, Greenpeace, and Lost Nation Pictures, among others.  His films have screened widely in the U.S. and internationally, including at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight and Festival Film Dokumenter in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Robert has been deeply involved in media education and youth training. He taught documentary filmmaking at Kentucky State University, served as a longtime instructor with the Appalachian Media Institute, and facilitated a U.S. State Department–funded media exchange with Indonesian filmmakers. He has worked as a community organizer with the Virginia Organizing Project and mentored emerging filmmakers through NYU Tisch’s summer immersion program.

Sylvia Savadjian is a New York based film publicist. Work includes festival PR for Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look, DOC NYC, Full Frame, staff roles at Kino Lorber, Maysles Documentary Center and HBO in publicity, marketing, acquisitions and programming.

Stephen Maing is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker, cinematographer and editor based in New York City. His most recent film UNION captures the historic efforts by workers to unionize the first Amazon fulfillment center. Co-directed with Brett Story, it won a Special Jury Award for The Art of Change at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Maing’s feature documentary CRIME + PUNISHMENT which he directed, filmed and edited is an immersive cinéma vérité account of a group of minority whistleblower NYPD officers. It won a 2018 Sundance Special Jury Award, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. His previous films, HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE, directed, filmed and edited over five years, and THE SURRENDER, have screened internationally and were released on POV and Field of Vision, respectively. His film DIRTY GOLD, featured in Netflix’s Dirty Money series, intimately observers US involvement in the illicit mining and trading of gold and was filmed on location in Peru’s Amazon rain forest & Miami, Florida. Maing’s films seek to expand the aesthetic form and limits of longitudinal nonfiction filmmaking. They are highly observational visual investigations of societal phenomenon, complex power structures and the fascinating individuals who challenge them.