Dec 12, 2025 at 10:00 am – Dec 14, 2025 at 1:30 pm
Producing with Care:
Independent Production
for Non-fiction
With Colleen Cassingham, Sweta Vohra and Anya Rous
In a moment when the documentary industry is facing both new and protracted constrictions in funding and distribution, this workshop looks to Multitude Films, exemplars in the field, to help us navigate independent documentary producing. Without glossing over the hard realities, this workshop will offer participants insight into the role of a producer, a practical road map for how we might bring documentaries to life in the current landscape, and a sense of the opportunities we can build on.
Multitude Films is an independent production company dedicated to transformative culture change through nonfiction storytelling that blends artistry with political commitment. Life After (Special Jury Award Winner, Sundance 2025), Power (Sundance 2024) and It’s Only Life After All (Sundance 2023) are just a few of the recent productions helmed by Multitude Films. They’ve produced some of the most impactful documentaries in recent memory, and have experience working with major streamers as well as leading innovative self-distribution efforts. Across three days of interactive seminars, producer Colleen Cassingham (Life After, To Use a Mountain, Queer Futures) will lead us through the contemporary landscape of nonfiction producing, from budgeting, fundraising and development, to hands-on collaboration, distribution and impact, all through a philosophy of care and equity. Alongside her team, Colleen will tackle questions like: how do we operationalize our values in how we budget and schedule our productions? How does a producer cultivate healthy, collaborative relationships with directors and crew, and authentic relationships with funders? What does an impact campaign look like, and how can it be interwoven with distribution?
Colleen will kick off the workshop by walking through the foundations of producing, including building a team and a budget, and the ethos and questions that help set the stage for the film’s launch and rollout. Multitude’s Co-Founder and VP Anya Rous will discuss varied approaches to fundraising strategies, raising financing, and cultivating relationships with partners. The next day, Sweta Vohra, Head of Production at Multitude, will bring her background in journalism, risk analysis, and safety to discuss challenges and opportunities in production.
Participants will also get the chance to share works-in-progress in a focused feedback session, where Colleen can address your pressing production and creative questions. Join us for our last workshop of the year, entering 2026 with a new set of tools and perspectives for documentary producing. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from the best!
Details
Open to everyone, though the workshop setting is best suited for filmmakers, film producers, journalists, curators and media artists.
Give us an idea of who you are and why you are coming. When you register you will be asked for a short statement of interest that should briefly describe your experience and a film project (it would be great if you have a project in progress that you would present to the group during the work-in-progress critique sessions), plus a bio. There’s a spot for a link to a work sample (and CV, which would also be nice, but is not required).
$295 early bird registration ends on Dec 3, 2025.
$350 regular registration.
The deposit is non-refundable. Should you need to cancel, you’ll receive half of your registration fee back until December 3. After December 3, the fee is non-refundable.
In order to keep costs down, this workshop is a BYOL, i.e. bring your own laptop. Students must be fully proficient using and operating their computers.
To register for a workshop, students must pay in full via card, check, or cash . After the early bird registration deadline of December 3, course fees are not refundable or transferable and any withdrawals or deadlines will result in the full cost of the class being forfeit. There will be no exceptions. To withdraw from a course please email info-at-uniondocs.org.
In the event that a workshop does not receive sufficient enrollment, it may be canceled. Students will be notified at least 48 hours prior to the start of a cancelled workshop and will be refunded within 5 business days. If we reschedule a workshop to another date, students are also entitled to a full refund. UnionDocs reserves the right to change instructors without prior notification, and to change class location and meeting times by up to an hour with 48 hours prior notice.
Please note: Participants are accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Schedule
Friday, 12th of December
10:00am – 10:30am Welcome & intros
10:30am – 12:30pm Intro session with Colleen Cassingham
12:30am – 2:00pm Lunch
2:00pm – 4:00pm Session with Anya Rous
4:00pm – 4:30pm Wrap Up Discussion with Colleen additional exercises / discussion
Saturday, 13th of December
10:00am – 10:30am Warm up, inspiring references, case studies
10:30am – 12:30pm Session with Sweta Vohra
12:30am – 2:00pm Lunch
2:00pm – 4:00pm Session with Guest TBC
4:00pm – 4:30pm Wrap Up Discussion with Colleen, additional exercises / discussion
Sunday, 14th of December
10:00am – 10:30am Warm up, inspiring references, case study, eye training.
10:30am – 12:30pm Creative work-in-progress with Colleen
12:30pm – 1:30pm Wrap up
Each day follows this general structure, with some minor variations and substitutions:
Warm up, inspiring references, case study, eye training.
Presentation by guest speaker + individual work-in-progress critique
Share / Discussion / Exercise
Presentation by guest speaker + individual work-in-progress critique
Workshop Exercise + Critique
Colleen Cassingham (she/her) is a Producer at Multitude Films focused on politically committed artful nonfiction. She produced Reid Davenport’s second feature film LIFE AFTER, which won the US Documentary Special Jury Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and Casey Carter’s debut feature TO USE A MOUNTAIN, which won the Special Jury Award at Visions du Réel 2025. She also produced the IDA Awards-nominated shorts collection QUEER FUTURES (CPH:DOX 2023), which is streaming on Criterion Channel. Her past credits include Co-Producer on IT’S ONLY LIFE AFTER ALL (Sundance 2023), and Associate Producer on PRAY AWAY (Tribeca 2020), THROUGH OUR EYES: APART (Provincetown 2020), CALL CENTER BLUES (SXSW 2020), ALWAYS IN SEASON (Sundance 2019), THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED (Tribeca 2018), and LOVE THE SINNER (Tribeca 2017) which were distributed by Netflix, Topic, HBOMax, POV, and Independent Lens. Colleen’s directorial debut short FROM DAMASCUS TO CHICAGO was broadcast on POV in 2017 and was an Editor’s Pick at The Atlantic. She was a 2023-2024 Sundance Producing Fellow, a 2023-2024 Impact Partners Producing Fellow, a VC Sony 2021 Mentor at The Video Consortium, a 2019 Points North Fellow, and a 2017–2018 UnionDocs Collaborative Studio fellow.
Sweta Vohra (she/her) is the Head of Production and a producer at Multitude Films. Her latest films include the Oscar-shortlisted HOW WE GET FREE (HBO Documentary Films) and Netflix Original POWER (Sundance 2024). She also co-executive produced the shorts collection QUEER FUTURES (CPH:DOX 2023). Prior to joining Multitude, she was a producer/director on the first season of The New York Times series THE WEEKLY on FX and Hulu, and produced and directed over a dozen films for Al Jazeera English’s award-winning show FAULT LINES. She also produced the Netflix / BBC Studios feature documentary, THE ANTHRAX ATTACKS. Sweta is a 2021–2022 DOC NYC 40 Under 40 Filmmaker and has received the National Association of Black Journalists Excellence Award, the Radio Television Digital News Association Kaleidoscope Award, and three News and Documentary Emmy® nominations for her work.
Anya Rous (she/her) is an Emmy-winning Producer and the Co-Founder and Vice President of Multitude Films. Her latest films include IT’S ONLY LIFE AFTER ALL (Sundance 2023); Emmy-winning Peacock Original LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER, in partnership with Participant and The Atlantic (Tribeca 2022); Critic’s Choice nominee Netflix Original PRAY AWAY, in partnership with Ryan Murphy and Blumhouse (Telluride, Tribeca 2020); as well as APART, the Emmy-winning episode of the HBO Max series THROUGH OUR EYES, in partnership with Sesame Workshop.
She executive produced MILISUTHANDO (Sundance 2023), Multitude Films’ HOW WE GET FREE (HBO 2023), and QUEER FUTURES (CPH:Dox 2023); co-executive produced the Oscar-shortlisted CALL CENTER BLUES (SXSW 2020, TOPIC) and CALL HER GANDA (Tribeca 2018, POV); and co-produced Sundance Award-winning and IDA-nominated ALWAYS IN SEASON (Independent Lens 2020) and Livingston Award-winning THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED (Tribeca 2018, POV), which was dubbed “a real-world conspiracy thriller” by Variety.
Anya also advises on impact strategy for films produced by Multitude and leads a movement orientation within the company’s producing model where films are drivers of culture change. She brings a combined 10 years of experience in funding strategy and impact campaigns for stories that further movements for racial, economic, and gender justice. She formerly served as the Director of Strategic Relationships at Just Vision and as a grantmaker at The Nathan Cummings Foundation. Anya was a 2019–2020 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow, a 2019 Impact Partners Documentary Producing Fellow, a 2020–2021 DOC NYC 40 Under 40 filmmaker, and a 2021 Gotham/Cannes Producers Network Fellow.
