This session of DOCUMENTARY FUNDAMENTALS is about releasing your next documentary. How can you find and build audiences for your film?  How do you know if your film is best suited for theatrical, broadcast, or both?  How do digital platforms affect “traditional” models of distribution and release? How can you best utilize your film festival campaign? Another can’t-miss session!

Buy a Series Pass

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

Dara Messinger is the longtime Director of Programming at DCTV where she has overseen many of the honored organization’s public programs. Her work as curator continues and deepens as she now programs its new Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film. She is also a filmmaker, member of Meerkat Media Collective since 2008, and a 2022 DOC NYC Documentary New Leader.

Chloé Trayner is the Artistic Director of Ragtag Film Society working across True/False Film Fest and Ragtag Cinema in Columbia, Missouri. Chloé previously worked in film and events programming in London with a focus on nonfiction and talent development. She is the Founder of Assembly Documentary Development Lab and has worked with organizations such as Open City Documentary Festival, Bertha DocHouse, BFI Future Film Festival, The Guardian, Wellcome Trust and UnderWire Festival.