Making Your Media Matter 2008 Rapporteur’s Report

• Making Your Media Matter ‘08 Podcast and Discussion Forum
• Recut, Reframe, Recycle
• Mapping Public Media: Inside and Out
• Fair Use Frequently Asked Questions
• The View from the Top: P.O.V. Leaders on the Struggle to Create Truly Public Media
• More...

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Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use[PDF]

Documentary filmmakers have created, through their professional associations, a clear, easy to understand statement of fair and reasonable approaches to fair use. Download this useful handbook, written by veteran filmmakers to help other filmmakers understand some instances where using copyrighted material without clearance is considered fair use. Click here for the full report & here for a list of authors and endorsers of the Statement.

Digital Futures: A Need-to-Know Policy Guide for Independent Filmmakers[PDF]

Digital technology is transforming filmmaking. And policymakers are scrambling to catch up with the changes. What policies are good for independent filmmakers? What are the hot issues, and what are the positions that best support the creativity and diversity that independent filmmakers represent? Digital Futures: A Need-to-Know Policy Guide for Independent Filmmakers answers those questions with to-the-point answers.

Ephemeral for no good reason: the waste of documentary and independent films[PDF]

By Rick Prelinger

The wide availability of inexpensive and user-friendlier production tools has finally brought us closer to the long-deferred dream of mass moving image authorship. But while many (though not all) obstacles to production have crumbled, distribution problems are escalating.

Answers to Common IP Questions for the Independent Documentary Filmmaker

By Jessica Mickelsen

To help relieve some of the attendant burdens and potential expenses that could incur for failure to comply with intellectual property clearance, the filmmaker should thoroughly and scrupulously explore available clearance alternatives.

Intellectual Property Issues for the Social-Issue Documentary Filmmaker[PDF]

By Shari Kizirian

Cultural arts journalist Shari Kizirian provides an overview of intellectual rights issues—copyright, trademark, digital rights management—as they affect the creative work of filmmakers.

Keepers of the Public Domain in Electronic Media: Keep It Up!

Keynote address by Pat Aufderheide

Keynote address at the annual convention of Alliance for Community Media, the member organization of cable access stations nationwide on July 10, 1999, Cincinnati, Ohio.

• Human Rights Tools E-Library
  This website offers a library of resources on human rights issues, from monitoring and fact-finding tools, advocacy tools and other essential resources for human rights work, to the top online databases for resources on human rights law, refugee law and humanitarian law. The page offers career resources and the latest headlines on human rights issues.
• The Drum Beat
  A helpful overview of kinds of evaluations by Jane Bertrand, with a frank assessment of their limitations, of strategic communications campaigns. The public health focus is a model for others.
• Is Social Change Media a Delusion? California Newsreel at 30 and 2000
  A contrarian view on the question of the social impact of media by Lawrence Daressa, one of the leading distributors of documentaries on race, working class issues and Africa.
• Making Connections Media Outreach Initiative
  Supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, many of the film outreach projects that you find articles and case studies about above are part of national campaigns organized as part of the Making Connections project. On the left are a list of the national campaigns.
• Outreach Extensions
  Founded by Judith and Ken Ravitz, Outreach Extensions specializes in national outreach campaigns.
• Roundtable Media
  A production company that specializes in Public Engagement Media. Check out the Public Engagement Media Center for more tips and resources.
• Working Films
  Working Films is a national organization that links independent documentary filmmaking with community education, organizing and direct action to support social, economic and civil justice.
• National Video Resources
  National Video Resources designs and implements projects that enable individuals and organizations such as public libraries, colleges and universities, and other non-profits to acquire and use independent film and video.
• National Center for Outreach
  An organization that supports public broadcasting stations with outreach for programming, including funding for outreach initiatives.
• Active Voice
  Active Voice is a team of strategic communication specialists who put powerful film to work for personal and institutional change in communities, workplaces, and campuses across America. Through practical guides, hands-on workshops, inspiring events and key partnerships nationwide, Active Voice moves people from thought to action.
• Docurama
  A distribution company for documentaries on DVD. Many of your favorite titles are available here.