“Life is difficult to understand; it’s filled with repetitions, coincidences and meaningless injustices that can create anxiety and chaos. We try to impose order, categorize and eliminate to give life meaning. We tell stories so that we can understand ourselves and the lives we are living.”
— Excerpt From Order in Chaos, Niels Pagh Andersen

As editors, and filmmakers how do we define our style or the intended tone in a film? How can we find a rhythm that suits our goal for combining different types of material and footage? How can we work cooperatively and efficiently with a director, and what are the ways to approach editing yourself when you’re directing too? How should your process change between editing a feature, series or short?

Acclaimed editor of Homeroom, “The Vow (part 1)”, and Moments Like This Never Last, Rebecca Adorno will lead us through a range of approaches and frameworks for editing in documentary during this intense three-day workshop. We’re overjoyed to have a stellar lineup of established editors / filmmakers who will join to engage with the group to share their own techniques, toolkits and workflows.

On Friday, Nyneve Minnear (306 Hollywood, (T)error) will discuss the nuances of storytelling while working with and compiling different types of material: from archival, to verité, to recreation and reenactment. David Teague (Life Animated, Cutie and the Boxer) will join us Saturday to discuss the process of finding a story and the act of writing as an editor. Liz Hodes will also host a session discussing the role of story producing in a documentary series, clarifying around the differing involvement of story producers in series vs. feature or short documentaries. On Sunday, Theo Anthony (All Light, Everywhere, Rat Film) will share his experiences in holding the dual role of director/editor on his films, and help to understand the benefits and challenges of taking on your own edit. There will also be a session dedicated for interested participants to share a work-in-progress and receive feedback on a current project.

Come spend a weekend exploring the wide-ranging topics to think through in editing nonfiction and come away with inspiration, and connections that will help to guide your own work!

Seats are limited, so sign up today!

NOTE: This workshop will require in-person participation from all participants. Each participant must present proof of vaccination. Any and all questions, please reach out to [email protected].

Details

Schedule

10:30a

First Workshop Session

12:30p

Lunch

2:00p

Second Workshop Session

4:00p

Wrap Up

Bios

Rebecca Adorno-Dávila is an award winning video editor born and raised in Puerto Rico. A lot of her work focuses on vérité and archival heavy, character-driven stories. She was an editor on the nine part HBO documentary series The Vow and worked on three seasons of the Emmy-award winning series VICE on HBO. Among others, she edited feature length documentaries “Residente”, which was an official selection at SXSW’s Film Festival in 2017, “Moments Like This Never Last”, which was an official selection at DocNYC and CPH:DOX 2020 and “Homeroom”, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

Adorno received a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Puerto Rico (2008) and an MFA in computer Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York City (2010). She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Picture Editing in 2016 and is one of the the recipients of Sundance Film Festival’s 2021 Inaugural Jonathan Oppenheim Documentary Editing Award for her work on the verite driven documentary film Homeroom. She was also a 2022 nominee for Cinema Eye Honors’ Outstanding Achievement in Editing award and for IDA’s Best Editing Award. She currently works between New York, Puerto Rico or anywhere where there is a good story that needs to be told.

Nyneve Laura Minnear is an Editor, Writer, and Story Consultant based in Brooklyn. Her current project “Little Richard – I Am Everything” is premiering in Competition at Sundance 2023. Past credits include HBO’s “The Vow” series; “306 Hollywood”, the first documentary to premiere in the Sundance (2018) NEXT section for Innovative Filmmaking; “(T)ERROR”, an Emmy, Sundance 2015 Special Jury Award, and Full Frame Grand Jury Award winner; “Girl With Black Balloons”, a Grand Jury Prize winner at DOCNYC. Nyneve was a Producer/Editor for the Emmy award-winning news series, “Dan Rather Reports”, for three years, a Sundance and IFP Lab Fellow, a Mentor with the Gotham Lab and Karen Schmeer Editing Fellowship Diversity Program, and was an inaugural Steering Committee member for the Alliance of Documentary Editors.

Theo Anthony is a filmmaker based in upstate New York. His first feature documentary, “Rat Film”, premiered internationally at the Locarno Film Festival and domestically at the 2017 True/ False Film Festival. It has since received wide critical acclaim, receiving a nomination for a 2017 Gotham Award for Best Documentary Feature film as well as a Cinema Eye Honor nomination for Best Debut Feature. The film was theatrically released and was featured on PBS’ Independent Lens in early 2018. His follow up, “Subject to Review”, produced for ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, played at the 2019 New York Film Festival and was broadcast nationally later that year. His most recent feature, “All Light, Everywhere”, premiered in competition at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury award. The film received an international theatrical release, and is now streaming on Hulu. Currently, Theo is serving as the Fourth Ward Council Member for the city of Hudson, NY.

David Teague is an Emmy-winning documentary film editor and writer. His work as an editor includes the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning Life Animated, the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning Cutie and the Boxer, the Independent Spirit-nominated The Departure, the Emmy-nominated E-TEAM, and the Oscar-winning Freeheld. As a consulting editor, he worked on American Factory, Knock Down the House, Crip Camp, Cameraperson, Welcome to Chechnya, Mayor, and Athlete A. He wrote the fiction film Cassandro with director Roger Ross Williams, starring Gael García Bernal (Sundance 2023). David has served as an editing mentor with IFP/Gotham, Firelight, Catapult & True/False, Brown Girls Doc Mafia and the Sundance Institute.

Liz Hodes is an Emmy-winning documentary television and film producer. Over the past 15 years, Liz has produced content for major networks including, HBO, Showtime, Netflix, Hulu and FX. Liz began her career working in Production Management for television shows, including: This American Life and Frontline. Liz then transitioned into a creative role as a Producer working on television series and features films; including, The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears, Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson, The Vow, and The Circus.