BAVC Media Opens Applications for 2017 National MediaMaker Fellowship

Published On: January 4, 2017 |

San Francisco, CA – Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC Media) is now accepting applications for its NationalMediaMaker Fellowship. The Fellowship offers ten months of in-kind support and mentorship for emerging, underrepresented voices in nonfiction media-making from across the country. Applications must be received by January 27, 2017 to be considered. Eight projects will be selected.

“The BAVC Media MediaMaker Fellowship has been a Bay Area treasure for years, but with the generous support from National Endowment for the Arts, BAVC Media opens its doors to filmmakers across the nation, enabling us to support the most diverse cohort of dreamers and changemakers we can possibly find,” says Nicole Opper, Emmy-nominated filmmaker of POV's Off and Running and the upcoming ITVS series The F Word. “What sets this Fellowship apart is that it looks beyond a singular project and considers the whole artist, with a focus on entrepreneurship and career sustainability. Leveraging customized mentorship, exposure to industry experts, and access to financing and creative feedback, the projects these filmmakers bring to the table evolve considerably over a 10-month period. As a former MediaMakerFellow, myself, I am beyond thrilled to be leading the 2017 cohort and grateful to Carrie Lozano [previous MediaMaker Fellowship Facilitator] and the BAVC Media team for this opportunity.”

Participants will convene for three immersive workshops in San Francisco to receive mentorship from industry experts in areas like producing, editing, fundraising, digital distribution and audience engagement. The Fellowship also provides an artist stipend, networking opportunities at major documentary festivals and peer-to-peer support. National MediaMaker Fellowship offers participants the following benefits:

A $1,000 artist stipend.
All-access pass and round trip flight to the 2017 Full Frame Film Festival in Durham, NC.
Four nights of accommodations during Full Frame Film Festival.
One all-access pass and round trip flight to a TBD industry event in the fall.
Four nights of accommodations during the fall event.
Three round trip flights to San Francisco, plus local transportation (for Fellows outside the Bay Area).
Ten nights of accommodations in San Francisco (for Fellows outside the Bay Area).

“So often times we as independent filmmakers are working alone, out of our homes, with minimal resources,” says, Erika Cohn, 2016 MediaMaker Fellow, director of In Football We Trust and the forthcoming Belly of the Beast. “The BAVC Media MediaMaker Fellowship provided community, encouragement and feedback throughout the year I was in production. Every first- and second-time documentary filmmaker should have access to this!”

Program highlights from 2016 include a conversation with Marilyn Ness about creative producing; an audience engagement masterclass with Active Voice’s Ellen Schneider; a workshop in digital distribution with ITVS’s Shaady Salehi; pitch training, legal advice, and creative feedback; as well as travel, lodging and all-access passes to the IDA Getting Real conference in Los Angeles and the Full Frame Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina.

Past projects developed with the support of the MediaMaker Fellowship include Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman’s Last Day of Freedom (2016 Oscar Nominee for Best Short), and Leah Wolchok’s Very Semi-Serious (Tribeca Film Festival, HBO Docs). For more information and to apply go to bavc.org/mediamaker.