Mediamaker

2024 MediaMaker Fellows Attend IDA Getting Real Conference

Published On: May 3, 2024 |

Last month, several BAVC Media staff members attended IDA’s Getting Real, a biennial conference designed for and by documentary practitioners and focused on the business and art of nonfiction storytelling.

At the conference, Brittney Réaume, BAVC Media’s Associate Director of Artist Development; Dawn D Valadez, Director of Youth & Artistic Development; and Jin Yoo-Kim, Co-Director of the MediaMaker Fellowship 2024 hosted this year’s MediaMaker cohort for their first convening of the year! They gave us some of the highlights and takeaways from their trip.

BAVC MediaMaker Fellows Attend IDA Getting Real Conference

The 2024 cohort brought so much thoughtfulness into our first meeting. We enjoyed getting to know each other and the projects that span so many different issues and range from the personal to the animated.

The fellows then immersed themselves in the IDA Getting Real conference for the next three days and came away with lots of learnings and potential contacts. Getting Real is always an opportunity to hear from the field about current issues, meet new and old friends, and learn from each other.

On Wednesday, Fellowship alum attending the conference joined us for a rooftop pool party to enjoy each other’s company and share successes and challenges. It was a great kick-off to the new cohort!

We can’t wait to be together again and dive deeper into story and the edit at our next convening in San Francisco in June!

Here are a few exciting launches from Getting Real that invigorated us:

  • DPA Contract Guidelines were launched – the first of its kind in the U.S. to suggest fair labor practices for U.S. based independent Producers. Included in the guidelines is a recommended rate table, terms to consider within a contract, and a glossary of key terms and phrases.
  • FWD-Doc and Film Festival Alliance launched the Film Festival Accessibility Score Card which will help to create a baseline for Film Festivals who want to do better in terms of accessibility. If you have recently attended a film event, they want to hear your experience as a filmmaker, speaker, panelist, or patron, and more. Your meaningful feedback can help create more accessible events.
  • Color Congress, an ecosystem-builder bringing together organizations led by people of color that serve nonfiction filmmakers, shared a report on the state of BIPOC folks in the industry, clearly helping to visualize disparities in funding. Sonya Childress and Sahar Driver expanded on their report-out the May 1 Quarterly IMAG Field Meeting the BAVC Media convened with the NEA. The recording of that session should be available soon.
  • Archival Producers Alliance shared about the new standards they are developing for generative AI to help documentary filmmakers ethically incorporate these new tools. They will be soliciting feedback on the draft guidelines and aiming to publish the first guidelines in the summer of 2024. Future plans include potentially creating a certification protocol for projects that use the guidelines.

The BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship is devoted to supporting documentary filmmakers using bold cinematic language and innovative impact strategies to grapple with critical issues of our time. Our cohort is a collaborative, community-driven space that places diversity, representation, and ethical relationships with storytelling at the forefront of our practice.