Firelight Media’s flagship Documentary Lab seeks out and develops emerging filmmakers of color who make artful and innovative nonfiction films. The 18-month Documentary Lab provides filmmakers with customized mentorship from prominent leaders in the documentary world, as well as funding, professional development workshops, and networking opportunities.
Donor Name: Firelight Media
State: All States
County: All Counties
U.S. Territories: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands
Type of Grant: Fellowship
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 06/13/2022
Size of the Grant: $25,000
Grant Duration: 18 months
Details:
More than just a workshop, the Documentary Lab is unrivaled in its representation of diverse filmmakers, creating an exclusive network of talented, unique storytellers that receive ongoing support from a project’s conception to its completion. Over the last decade, the Documentary Lab grew from a mentorship program to a robust artist development initiative that has supported over 100 emerging filmmakers, and granted over $600k toward productions and distribution.
The Firelight Media Documentary Lab is an 18-month fellowship program that supports filmmakers in the United States from racially and ethnically underrepresented communities directing their first or second feature-length documentary film. The Documentary Lab provides filmmakers with a $25,000 grant toward their projects as well as customized mentorship from prominent leaders in the documentary world, professional development retreats, and networking opportunities.
They look for applicants who make artful and innovative documentary films that focus on underrepresented communities and provide new narratives about the most pressing issues of their time. Firelight Media will consider all types of long-form documentary projects – historical, investigative, personal, vérité, and experimental.
Requirements
- Only the director of the film is eligible to apply and enter the program. They can accept co-directors if they meet all eligibility requirements. If you’re applying with your co-director, please indicate that in your application. They cannot accept more than 2 directors per project.
- Filmmaker must be from a racially and ethnically underrepresented community and be residing in the United States, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories.*
- The project must be a long-form/feature-length documentary; the Lab does not accept short documentaries, series, or fiction projects of any kind.
- Film must be a work-in-progress. They accept films from early production through production or post-production. They do not accept films in development, pre-production or completed films.
- Filmmaker must be an emerging documentary filmmaker (working on their first or second feature length documentary).
- Filmmaker cannot apply with a student film to the lab.
*Firelight Media accepts applications from filmmakers who identify as people of color based in the United States regardless of their citizenship status. At the moment, they do not accept filmmakers who are based internationally for this program.
For more information, visit Documentary Lab.
