Summit Schedule

Join us for a peek at the works in progress at our First Look Screening with the filmmakers!

Speakers: Keri Archer Brown, Director of Content & Initiatives - OVEE Host,
Judy Tsang, Director, National Events - OVEE Welcome and David Eisenberg, Sr., Director of Production - Webinar Host

Hear from ITVS’ President and CEO, Sally Jo Fifer, as we begin our Summit!

Accessibility: Closed Captioning via Rev Live

Get to know your fellow filmmakers.

Co-producing with ITVS means that your films will reach a wide audience via a nationwide system of public television stations and a related streaming video infrastructure. It also means that you are agreeing to uphold the public trust through responsible storytelling and budgetary best practices. But have no fear: our staff experts will walk you through everything you need to know about producing for public television including the history of the system, the audience it reaches, and how your partnership with ITVS will help you move forward.

Speakers: David Eisenberg, Sr. Director of Production, Katie Koskenmaki, Director of Station Relations & Communications and Michael Kinomoto, Supervising Producer

Accessibility: Closed Captioning via Rev Live

Get to know your Summer 2020 Cohort at a Friday Happy Hour! 

Accessibility: Closed Captioning via Rev Live

Like most sectors of the U.S. economy, the film and television industry has been hobbled by the shelter-in-place measures taken to protect citizens against the spread of COVID-19. Yet, unlike scripted content, documentary productions are often following stories that continue to unfold even during the pandemic. Filmmakers face hard choices in deciding whether it’s safe or ethical to shoot in the field, how to creatively adapt storytelling techniques given limited access to their subjects, and to what extent the coronavirus shifts the focus and scope of their stories. Hear from our panelists as they share their experiences and insights about what working during a global pandemic really looks like.

Moderator: Michael Kinomoto, Supervising Producer

Panelists: Bernardo Ruiz, Director of The Graduates/Los Graduados, Harvest Season and Latino Vote: Dispatches from the Battleground, Beth Levison, Producer of Women in Blue, Made in Boise, and Untitled Storm Lake Project, Phil Bertelsen, Director of Chisolm 72: Unbought and Unbossed, Who Killed Malcom X and Untitled Withers Project, Derek Howard, Cinematographer of The Hottest August, and Carrie Lozano, Director, IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund, Producer of the Weather Underground. 

Accessibility: Closed Captioning

How can filmmakers use their stories to engage communities and impact change as physical distancing continues to be the new norm? This workshop will feature an ITVS engagement primer, an interactive OVEE demo, and an opportunity to discuss innovation in impact campaigns.

Speakers: Beatriz Castillo, Sr. Director of Engagement Operations and Sherry Simpson, Sr. Director of Engagement & Impact

Accessibility: Closed Captioning via Rev Live

Join this filmmaker-only conversation led by life coach and counselor, Joëlle Dussek.

Facilitator: Joëlle Dussek, Life Coach and Counselor, and Former Talent and Production Manager

Accessibility: Closed Captioning via Rev Live

Join this filmmaker-only conversation led by life coach and counselor, Joëlle Dussek.

Facilitator: Joëlle Dussek, Life Coach and Counselor, and Former Talent and
Production Manager

Accessibility: Closed Captioning via Rev Live

The long overdue reckoning has come. What does it mean for public media and the independent filmmakers who fuel its most important stories?

Facilitator: Sonya Childress, Senior Fellow with Perspective Fund, and former Director of Partnerships and Engagement for Firelight Media

Accessibility: Closed Captioning via Rev Live

As short form docs gain increasing demand from consumers, nonprofits, brands, and even funders, this work still exists in a "wild west" without any set rules or standards. What is it like to navigate shorts production in a shifting distribution environment with unreliable funding streams? What new challenges are coming up in the midst of a global pandemic? What are the things that keep you going, despite all of that? And how might we collectively leverage the skills, knowledge, and relationships we're building in order to advance our careers and this field? Join colleagues for a brave space discussion on where you can vent, exchange ideas, and have some dedicated time to reflect on what you need in order to do your best work.

Facilitator: Shaady Salehi, Director of Trust-Based Philanthropy Project

Accessibility: Closed Captioning via Rev Live

An up-to-the-minute panel discussion featuring players from across the industry addressing how filmmakers can optimize their distribution strategies.

Moderator: Jordana Meade, Director of Distribution

Panelists: Abby Lynn Kang Davis, Founder at Character, Alece Oxendine, Director, Industry & Festival Outreach, Columbia University, Lois Vossen, Executive Producer, Independent Lens and Ursula Liang, Director & Producer, Down a Dark Stairwell

Accessibility: Closed Captioning

Get the big picture on the various broadcast destinations to which ITVS may submit your film, and learn what qualities align your story with the big series on the PBS primetime schedule.

Speaker: Jordana Meade, Director of Distribution

Accessibility: Closed Captioning via Rev Live

Join leads from ITVS and its publicity agency of record, Beck Media, for a chance to learn everything you need to know for successful collaboration with marketing and publicity experts.

Speakers: Jamedra Brown, Sr. Manager of Marketing & Publicity, Aldo Mora-Blanco, Sr. Content Manager and Tanya Leverault, Manager of Communications & Public Relations

Accessibility: Closed Captioning via Rev Live

As documentary filmmakers are creating a vision and path for their work, ITVS is pleased to invite one such artistic master. Hear from choreographer, Alonzo King, founder of the world renowned contemporary dance company, LINES Ballet, as he speaks about collaboration, community, and the creative process.

Accessibility: Closed Captioning