Festivals & Funding
Music Licensing for Documentaries: Avoid the Recut
A recorded song isn't one license, it's two — and the cheap 'festival use only' shortcut is what forces filmmakers to recut around music they can no longer afford.
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Submission strategy, grants, distribution and the legal side of getting a film seen.
Festivals & Funding
Documentary Release Form: What It Must Cover
A release is not a courtesy to your subjects — it is the evidence that you own the footage you are trying to sell. Here is what the paperwork must actually cover.
Festivals & Funding
How to Submit Your Film to Festivals Without Going Broke
Submitting to forty festivals at twice the fee will cost you more than your color grade. Here's how to be ruthless about where the money goes.
Festivals & Funding
Documentary Grants and Funding: Where to Actually Look
Most documentary grant advice is a list of names with no sense of which doors actually open. Here's the real landscape, stage by stage.
Festivals & Funding
Fiscal Sponsorship for Filmmakers, Explained
It's the most confusing two words in indie film funding. Strip away the jargon and fiscal sponsorship is just borrowing a nonprofit's tax status.
Festivals & Funding
Fair Use in Documentary: A Practical Guide
Fair use is the most misunderstood doctrine in documentary. It's not a loophole and it's not nothing — it's a judgment call you have to make defensibly.
Festivals & Funding
How Film Distribution Deals Actually Work
The premiere is the easy part. Then a distributor offers you a deal, and you discover that 'we'll handle everything' can mean very different things.
Festivals & Funding
Do You Need E&O Insurance for Your Documentary?
E&O insurance is the unglamorous thing standing between your finished film and a distribution deal. Here's what it is and when you actually need it.
Festivals & Funding
The Documentary Festival Circuit, Mapped (Sundance to IDFA)
Festivals aren't a random list — they're a calendar with a logic. Premiere in the right slot and one selection generates the next.