2026 Southern Documentary Convening

Join us for our inaugural SDF Student Doc Pitch, where emerging filmmakers take the stage to present their documentary ideas to a panel of industry professionals. Students from colleges and universities across the South will pitch their projects, receive valuable feedback from experts, and compete for prizes that will help bring their stories to life. This event celebrates the next generation of Southern documentary storytellers and offers a first look at their stories in development.

Two editors enter. One timeline survives.

On Friday, June 5 at The Fruit in Durham, LOOK DIFFERENT is hosting EDIT VERZUS — a live doc editing competition, and the closing event of the SDF Convening.

We need one filmmaker's project to make it happen. That could be you.

Two post-production powerhouses will go head to head, cutting a live fundraising sizzle from the same footage. Up to five hours of your material, two very different cuts, and 40 minutes on the clock. There will be hype crews and color commentary elevating this unseen and under appreciated process to the main event. In the end the audience decides who wins.

What you get out of it:

Two finished fundraising sizzle, cut by a pro editor, that you can use
A room full of producers, directors, and funders seeing your work