Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation Announces Good Pitch 2011

Good NY 2011 slated for May 2011; call for entries now open

January 12th 2011 – The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, in partnership with the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, is delighted to announce that the touring funding and networking forum the Good Pitch will be returning in 2011 with expanded plans, including a third forum in New York City hosted by the Ford Foundation at their midtown headquarters.

“We are excited to be entering our 3rd year of international Good Pitch events with a dynamic new supporter and venue. In addition, we see Good Pitch scaleable globally and we intend to pilot that in 2011 and 2012,” said Jess Search, CEO of the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation. “With the Ford Foundation’s support, Good Pitch can continue to grow, open doors for world-changing films, engage major stakeholders across multiple sectors and fast-track creative game-changing partnerships.”

The Ford Foundation joins the Tides Foundation, the Fledgling Fund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Impact Partners, Crosscurrents Foundation and a number of anonymous donors as supporters of the Good Pitch. Working Films will continue to provide campaign development for the invited filmmakers.

“The foundation is committed to expanding the community of film and media makers who are creating compelling works, particularly around some of our most urgent social issues,” said Orlando Bagwell, director of the Ford Foundation’s social justice media initiative. “The Good Pitch is superb at bringing together key players from the nonprofit, government and business sectors to ensure that these powerful social justice stories reach audiences who can make change happen.”

The Good Pitch is an invitation-only event, starting with an intensive two-day campaign development workshop for the filmmakers, followed by a day-long live event which brings together invited foundations, NGOs, social entrepreneurs, broadcasters and other media to expand the resources aimed at maximizing the impact of social-issue documentary. Filmmaking teams pitch their project and its associated outreach campaign with the aim of creating a unique coalition around each film to accelerate its impact and influence.

The call for entries for the Good Pitch NY 2011 is now open and will close on Monday, February 21st. The call is aimed at filmmakers of any nationality working on feature-length or hour-long independent documentary film projects which tackle important global and national issues and enhance our understanding of the world.

For more information and to apply go to http://britdoc.org/goodpitch.

“Sundance Documentary Film Program has been the creative partner for the Good Pitch since the beginning because we believe it offers new possibilities for increasing the resource and stakeholder pool for independent social issue documentaries,” said Cara Mertes, Sundance Institute DFP Director. “In a time when documentary resources are eroding and the independent media landscape is undergoing massive realignment, a new initiative that prizes independent storytelling of great skill with the potential for new partners is sorely needed, and the contagious enthusiasm that filmmakers and funders alike have shown for this approach has led us to continue its evolution.”

Since the first North American event in Toronto in 2009, Good Pitch has received over 1200 applications to events in North America and the UK. Over 60 films have now pitched to more than 700 organizations, with a vast range of positive results, including over $2 million leveraged in new funding.

The Good Pitch NY 2011 is the year’s first Good Pitch event. Further events will be announced later in the year. For more information and to apply go to http://britdoc.org/goodpitch.

The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation

 The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation is a UK-based not-for-profit organization backed by Channel 4 TV. It empowers documentary filmmaking by enabling great films with global ambition, by brokering new partners and by working to build new business models for filmmakers to deploy. They deliver these goals thanks to their founding sponsor Channel 4, major sponsor PUMA.Creative and a number of innovative foundations and organizations in the UK, Europe and North America who support their work.

AWARD-WINNING FILMS. Since 2005, the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation has supported over 60 amazing films, including Afghan Star, Black Gold, End of the Line, We are Together and The Yes Men Fix the World. Many of them have won awards - at Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca and Edinburgh Film Festivals - and have been shown internationally on TV, in cinemas, on DVD and online.

Currently they have two production funds for filmmakers: the Channel 4 British production fund (production and completion grants for one-off documentary projects by UK or UK-based filmmakers) and the PUMA.Creative Catalyst Awards (a development fund open to filmmakers anywhere in the world).

BROKERING FOR CHANGE. They believe that film is the most powerful tool to effect change, reflecting how we live and challenging our ideas, assumptions and fears about the past, present and future of the world. This is why they focus on social-justice documentaries, giving financial backing to films that have triggered UK government policy reviews and altered the buying policy of brands. Through their international brokering event, the Good Pitch, they also connect filmmakers with partners in the nonprofit, foundation and corporate sector who share the same ambitions and values.

ONLINE TOOLS. They also run goodfilm.org, an online tool which matches all the best social-justice films to organizations who can use them, and goodscreenings.org, a non-theatrical distribution tool connecting social justice docs to key audiences. www.britdoc.org

Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP)

Sundance Institute DFP supports contemporary nonfiction filmmakers globally with year-round activities, including the Sundance Documentary Fund, Creative Labs focusing on the art of documentary and creative partnerships like Good Pitch, the Stories of Change initiative with the Skoll Foundation and others. The DFP has supported over 400 films since 1996, including The Oath, Nerakoon: Betrayal, Trouble the Water, Iraq in Fragments, Why We Fight and Long Night’s Journey Into Day. The DFP is a core program of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Sundance Institute. Founded by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences.
www.sundance.org

The Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has worked with courageous people on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation and advance human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
www.fordfoundation.org