We’re excited that this year’s Documentary Fundamentals series centers on the kinetic and timely Emergent City by Kelly Anderson and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg—a film that exemplifies the social and ethical principles of observational documentary, and is remarkable for its insight into often opaque political spaces. In this session, Kelly and Jay are joined by field producer Betty Yu and cinematographer Alex Mallis, to discuss the ins and outs of managing access to the spaces and participants, the film documents, and the complexities of working in the field.

A crucial, but often overlooked piece in the documentary puzzle is the management of participants and spaces the filmmakers set out to document. Emergent City‘s chronicling of a complicated political process, involving multiple groups (made up of diverse individuals) with divergent interests and differences of opinions presents a marvel of access management and field production. Learn about how the team gained and maintained working relationships with each participant and stakeholder. How do you get permission to film in sensitive environments? What needs to be taken into account during the shoot, in order to keep getting allowed back? How does a documentary team communicate its intentions to different groups with different objectives? 

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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 ($175) or choose to attend individual sessions ($35/each).

Instructors

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).

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.