Kathryn Everett
Head of Film, XTR
Funding Day (Nov. 11)
FUNDING DAY – THURSDAY, NOV. 11
Join us for conversations from noted funders tracking new trends and offering insights into funding your films. Includes a deep dive conversation unpacking success.
The day starts with Breakfast (9-10 AM) and ends with a Happy Hour (4:15-5:15 PM) co-presented by XTR.
10 am – 11:10 am
New Trends in Doc Funding
Explore new and evolving trends in the documentary funding landscape. Co-presented by XTR, this panel features major funders such as XTR’s Kathryn Everett, TIME Studios’ Alexandra Johnes, 30West’s Adriana Banta and Radical Media’s Jon Kamen. In a dialogue with Patricia Finneran from Storymatters Media, they will share their insights into what makes a project look promising to funders, as well as their thoughts on what the future might look like for doc funding. The panel will include a moderated Q&A session.
Kathryn Everett
Head of Film, XTR
Kathryn Everett is an award-winning filmmaker who works at the intersection of politics, philanthropy and film. Kathryn is Head of Film at the premium nonfiction studio XTR and a co-founder of nonfiction streaming platform DOCUMENTARY+. In her tenure at XTR, Kathryn has executive produced Oscar-nominated, Emmy and Peabody award-winning documentary feature and short films. Previously, she worked in field and finance for President Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and as a producer and creative director for the artist activist collective We Stand United, co-founded by Mark Ruffalo. Kathryn’s work and approach are deeply informed by the years she spent working in Haiti as Chief Operating Officer of non-profit organization Artists for Peace and Justice, building over 100,000 square feet of permanent classroom space and the nation’s only colleges for film and music alongside board members Ben Stiller, Susan Sarandon, and David Belle. Kathryn serves as a board member for Iqra Fund, a non-governmental organization that provides girls’ education by establishing high quality, self-sustaining school systems in the remote, mountainous regions of northern Pakistan.
Patricia Finneran
Founder, Story Matters
Patricia Finneran
Founder, Story Matters
Patricia is founder of Story Matters which connects media artists and movement leaders with funders, platforms and partners to advance social good and support a vibrant public media ecosystem. Story Matters clients include: Alliance, BYkids, CPH:Dox, FIFDH, Harmony Labs, Hot Docs, and Kering. Previously, she led Doc Society’s Good Pitch Local program which seeds pro-social partnerships for local media artists and organizers. At Sundance, she was Creative Producer for the Sundance|Skoll Stories of Change programs, and represented the documentary fund at forums around the world. As Director of SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival she led its growth to become the largest documentary festival in the US and created the International Documentary Conference. She is a graduate of Barnard College, AFI Conservatory Producing program, and the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive and Rockwood Ford Just Films ‘Art of Leadership’ programs.
Jon Kamen
Chairman & CEO, RadicalMedia
Jon Kamen
Chairman & CEO, RadicalMedia
Jon Kamen, Chairman and CEO of RadicalMedia, has created one of the world’s leading producers of premium content across all media platforms. With over 175 film and television credits to his name, Jon’s artistic vision has been the force behind many Oscar®, Emmy®, Grammy® Golden Globe and Peabody Award®-winning and nominated titles. Kamen’s recent producer credits include Summer of Soul, the filmed versions of Emmy-winning Hamilton and American Utopia, as well as PBS’s American Portrait, Netflix’s Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, and History Channel’s mini-series, GRANT. Kamen is a recipient of a Grammy, the 2018 IFP Gotham Awards, Mayor Bloomberg’s “Made in NY” Award and the Smithsonian’s National Design Award. He currently serves as a Vice Chair of the board of trustees for Rhode Island School of Design, The Museum of the Moving Image, and Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation.
Alexandra Johnes
Co-Head of Documentary, TIME Studios
Alexandra Johnes
Co-Head of Documentary, TIME Studios
A primetime Emmy-winning producer, Alexandra has worked most notably as a producer of feature documentaries for acclaimed directors Alex Gibney, Jehane Noujaim, Lauren Greenfield, Lucy Walker and the filmmaking team of Amy Ziering & Kirby Dick. Johnes’ documentaries have received several awards and nominations, including an Oscar nomination for Jehane Noujaim’s THE SQUARE and a Primetime Emmy for HBO’s MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD, as well as multiple Grand Jury and Audience Awards at the Sundance Film Festival, a DGA award, and several Peabody and Emmy awards. From 2007 – 2012, Alexandra ran Alex Gibney’s company, Jigsaw Productions, managing all aspects of development and production, paving the way for the company’s 2012 sale to Content Media Corp and 2020 sale to Imagine Entertainment. Other recent film credits include: AMAZING GRACE (2019, Neon), ON THE RECORD (2020, HBO Max) THE KINGMAKER ( 2019, Showtime),, as well as THE MARS GENERATION (2017, Netflix Originals), HOLY HELL (2016, CNN Films) and the indie box office hit fiction film, THE WITCH (2015, A24 & Universal).
Adriana Banta
Director, 30WEST
Adriana Banta
Director, 30WEST
Adriana Banta is a Director at 30WEST, an investment and advisory company with offices in Los Angeles and New York that provides capital and strategic guidance for high caliber creative projects and forward-thinking companies operating throughout popular culture. The company’s corporate investment portfolio includes pre-eminent independent film distributor NEON, as well as the acclaimed UK film and TV studio Altitude.
Among her several essential roles at 30WEST, Adriana helps to spearhead the company’s nonfiction work, which includes investing, packaging and sales across a range of TV and film projects. Recent standouts include the feature-length untitled WILDCAT documentary which recently sold to Amazon Studios in a record shattering deal, Sundance 2021 Grand Jury Prize winner Flee (Neon), acclaimed documentary features Some Kind of Heaven (Magnolia) and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (Netflix) as well as the extraordinary break-out series Tiger King (Netflix).
Upcoming unscripted projects include work from acclaimed filmmakers Nanette Burstein, Orlando von Einsiedel, Chris Smith, Diane Quon, Josh Altman, and Cynthia Lowen.
Beyond non-fiction, Adriana is an invaluable team member championing scripted feature and TV projects as well as identifying corporate investment opportunities such as SPECIAL, an independent streaming platform which 30WEST helped to launch earlier this year.
Co-presented by:
11:30 am – 12:40 pm
The Nuts and Bolts of Equity Investing
Equity investing is a key source of financing for many docs, but it’s difficult, uncharted territory for many filmmakers. Led by moderator Patricia Finneran (Story Matters Media), Paula Froehle of Chicago Media Project, Susan Margolin of St. Mark’s Productions, producer Su Kim (Bitterbrush), and producer Daniel Chalfen (Naked Edge Films) will expand on how equity investing can be an important component of your funding strategy and how to decide if this funding approach is the right fit for your project. The panelists will also share advice on how doc filmmakers can prepare to secure investments. The panel will include a moderated Q&A session.
Paula Froehle
Co-Founder and CEO, CMP
Paula Froehle
Co-Founder and CEO, CMP
Paula is a multi-faceted human being who at any given moment is some combination of producer, director, visual artist, designer, educator, and entrepreneur – and equally loves it all. CMP is the culmination of her interests and abilities, which includes corralling large groups of people and getting them to move in (almost) one direction, thanks to growing up the middle child of 9.
She loves connecting good-hearted humans with storytellers that tug at your heartstrings and trigger you toward action. And she’s proud of CMP’s 50+ member community, its $5.5mil+ funding support to over 60 award-winning documentaries. While it’s hard to pick favorites, some notables are: Crip Camp, Knock Down the House, One Child Nation, On the Record, Athlete A, The Apollo, 16 Shots, Spaceship Earth, the top grossing biopic of all time Won’t You be My Neighbor? (she has a soft spot in her heart for Mr. Rogers), and Academy-Award winning Icarus.
Su Kim
Producer (Bitterbrush
Su Kim
Producer (Bitterbrush
Producer Su Kim has won multiple awards at Sundance and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2019 for “Hale County: This Morning, This Evening.” She received an Emmy in the Outstanding News and Current Affairs Documentary category, as well as two Peabody Awards and was part of the producing team for the Academy Award winner documentary short Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl). Her films currently in release include, Free Chol Soo Lee (dir Julie Ha & Eugene Yi), Sansón and Me (dir Rodrigo Reyes), Hidden Letters (Violet Du Feng) and Bitterbrush (Emelie Mahdavian).
Susan Margolin
Producer
Susan Margolin
Producer
Susan Margolin is a pioneer of digital film distribution and a creator of independent films with 25+ years’ experience. Margolin co-founded independent film distributor New Video/Docurama Films in 1992, and ran the company until she sold it to Cinedigm in 2012. As Co-President there she distributed critically acclaimed, award winning films including Destin Daniel Crettin’s Short Term 12 and Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s Academy Award nominated The Invisible War. In 2016 Margolin launched St. Marks Productions. She produced Nancy Buirski’s A Crime on the Bayou (Starz) and The Rape of Recy Taylor (Starz), Alexandra Codina’s Paper Children (YouTube Originals), Trish Adlesic’s Tree of Life and Executive Produced Judith Helfand’s upcoming Love and Stuff, Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbühl’s Obsessed With Light and Cheryl Miller Houser and Cynthia Wade’s Generation Startup (Netflix). Margolin serves on the board of directors of Chicken & Egg Pictures, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, BAFTA NY (emerita), and the Documentary Producers Alliance, and on the advisory boards of Hamptons DocFest and NYWIFT. Margolin is a member of the PGA, BAFTA and AMPAS.
Patricia Finneran
Founder, Story Matters
Patricia Finneran
Founder, Story Matters
Patricia is founder of Story Matters which connects media artists and movement leaders with funders, platforms and partners to advance social good and support a vibrant public media ecosystem. Story Matters clients include: Alliance, BYkids, CPH:Dox, FIFDH, Harmony Labs, Hot Docs, and Kering. Previously, she led Doc Society’s Good Pitch Local program which seeds pro-social partnerships for local media artists and organizers. At Sundance, she was Creative Producer for the Sundance|Skoll Stories of Change programs, and represented the documentary fund at forums around the world. As Director of SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival she led its growth to become the largest documentary festival in the US and created the International Documentary Conference. She is a graduate of Barnard College, AFI Conservatory Producing program, and the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive and Rockwood Ford Just Films ‘Art of Leadership’ programs.
Daniel Chalfen
Co-Founder, Naked Edge Films
Daniel Chalfen
Co-Founder, Naked Edge Films
Daniel J. Chalfen is a Peabody and duPont winning and multiple-Emmy nominated film and television producer, and a co-founder of Naked Edge Films. His films have premiered at the world’s foremost film festivals, including Berlin, Sundance, SXSW, Toronto and Tribeca, have been released in the US by companies including Samuel Goldwyn Films, Participant Media, Kino Lorber, and Focus Features, and have aired/streamed worldwide including in the US on Amazon, DirecTV, Discovery ID, HBO, Netflix, Showtime, and PBS, among others. Chalfen’s recent credits include Pray Away (executive produced by Jason Blum & Ryan Murphy), the Sundance award winners Always in Season and The Infiltrators, Bathtubs Over Broadway (executive produced by Jason Blum & David Letterman), United Skates (executive produced by John Legend), Prescription Thugs (executive produced by Vince Vaughn), Southwest of Salem, and Silenced (executive produced by Susan Sarandon). Daniel is a Documentary Branch member of AMPAS and a voting member of BAFTA.
1:30 pm – 2:40 pm
Thinking Strategically: Pulling Back the Curtain on Film Funding Success
How can filmmakers put their best foot forward to make their project look appealing to an investor, studio, potential broadcaster or grant funder? Grantmaking expert Tracie Holder talks with Fork Films’ Kat Vecchio and filmmaker Byron Hurt (Hazing) about how you can use the different tools that are within your reach to make your project stand out from the crowd. The panel will include a moderated Q&A session.
Tracie Holder
Chief Strategist, Means of Production Consulting
Tracie Holder
Chief Strategist, Means of Production Consulting
Tracie Holder is a filmmaker, consultant, producer and U.S. film funding specialist. A 2016 Sundance Creative Producers Fellow, Holder leads workshops, tutors and serves on juries at international pitching and training sessions. She is widely regarded as a “go-to” person and all-round resource for artists seeking U.S. funding having raised more than $3 million in grant funding for her own projects. Clients include: Documentary Campus, IDFA, EDN, Ramallah Doc, Lisbon Docs, Firelight Media, DOC NYC, Chicken & Egg, Black Public Media, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Creative Capital, Unions Docs, and Gotham Film & Media (formerly IFP), among others. Holder was a longtime consultant to Women Make Movies and served as the Development & Funding Strategist for Abby Disney’s Fork Films. She is a former board member of NY Women in Film and grant panelist for national and local funders. She co-directed/produced Joe Papp in Five Acts, (Tribeca Film Festival, PBS/ American Masters). Producing credits include Grit, (Hot Docs/POV) and The Quiet Zone, and One Person, One Vote? in production. She is currently developing The People’s Will, for which she was recently awarded a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities production grant.
Kat Vecchio
CCO, Fork Films
Kat Vecchio
CCO, Fork Films
Kat is the CCO at Fork Films, where she works across departments to guide the development and release of new projects in all media, and alongside the COO oversees and supports project distribution and impact campaigns. Previously she served as Fork Films’ Director of Grantmaking.
Byron Hurt
Director
Byron Hurt
Director
Byron Hurt is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and adjunct professor at Columbia University. Hurt is the former host of the Emmy-nominated series, Reel Works With Byron Hurt.
Byron Hurt’s acclaimed documentary Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006, and broadcast on PBS’ Emmy-award winning series Independent Lens in 2007.
Byron’s film Soul Food Junkies aired on Independent Lens in 2013, and in 2017 the cable news station TVOne.
Byron’s film, Hazing, premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, and aired on Independent Lens in 2022. His upcoming documentary, Lee and Liza’s Family Tree, airs on PBS NOVA on November 22, 2023.
3 pm – 4:10 pm
Building budget and Community on Kickstarter
Rounding out the day, Kickstarter’s Elise McCave leads a session with Iyabo Boyd and Emmett Adler. Emmett’s Kickstarter-funded debut doc End of the Line is premiering at this year’s festival, while Iyabo is a filmmaker and organizer who’s successfully leveraged the platform to fund multiple film projects. Iyabo also spent a season working on staff at Kickstarter, so she really knows the inside scoop! Learn what it takes to use the platform to build the community, independence, and finances you need for your next project.
Elise McCave
Senior Director of Film, Kickstarter
Elise McCave
Senior Director of Film, Kickstarter
Elise is Kickstarter’s Senior Director of Film. She works with filmmakers worldwide, providing tailored support and mentorship on fundraising and audience-building for films in development and production. She works to ensure the creative voices on Kickstarter come from all corners of the industry, producing work that explores the form to the fullest.
Based in New York, she joined Kickstarter in 2016 from Doc Society (formerly BRITDOC), a nonprofit based in London and New York that works with documentary filmmakers.
Elise is the producer of forthcoming feature documentary, Cisco Kid.
Iyabo Boyd
Founder, Brown Girls Doc Mafia
Iyabo Boyd
Founder, Brown Girls Doc Mafia
Iyabo Boyd is the founder and director of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, whose mission is to bolster the creative and professional success of women and non-binary people of color working in the documentary industry, and to challenge the often marginalizing norms of the documentary field.
Iyabo is also an award winning filmmaker that strives to tell stories from under-explored perspectives and reflect the dynamic humanity of women and people of color. Her latest short ME TIME is a black feminist comedy about masturbation, which has played over 20 festivals nationwide, winning 9 awards. She was a fellow in Sundance’s 2019 Talent Forum and their 2018 Screenwriting Intensive, and was awarded a 2019 SFFILM Rainin Screenwriting Grant for her first first feature screenplay, KAYLA & EDDIE EN FRANÇAIS, about an estranged Black father and daughter reconnecting in Paris.
As a producer, Iyabo was a Sundance Creative Producers Fellow and an Impact Partners Creative Producers Fellow in 2016 for the feature documentary FOR AHKEEM about a teenage black girl coming of age in St. Louis just after Ferguson, which premiered at the Berlin International and Tribeca Film Festivals. As a film industry professional, Iyabo has held positions in artist development, program management, and funding at the Points North Institute, First Look Media’s Topic.com, Kickstarter, Doc Society’s Good Pitch, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Tribeca Film Institute, and IFP.
Originally from Denver, Iyabo graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts for Film & Television, and currently resides in the Bronx, NY.
Emmett Adler
Director (End of the Line)
Emmett Adler
Director (End of the Line)
EMMETT ADLER (emmettadler.com) is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who has taught art in Shenzhen, China, was once a chess champion in the state of Illinois, and can juggle pins while walking on stilts. Emmett long specialized as a freelance editor before making his directorial debut with the feature documentary END OF THE LINE, a character-driven political drama about the New York City subway crisis and a long overdue reckoning on infrastructure.
To experience the DOC NYC PRO lineup, purchase an individual PRO Day Pass (via the purchase button above) to hone in on a specific subject, or benefit from discounted pricing when you purchase Multi-Day Pass Packs to an assortment of topic strands.
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DOC NYC PRO is co-presented by:
