Are you a first-time documentary filmmaker and ready to submit your film to festivals? In this panel, you’ll learn how to identify the right festivals for your film, navigate the submission process, and make the most of your time once you’re there. Get practical tips and insights to help your film stand out and maximize its impact at festivals.

This panel explores the vital role that creative collectives play in helping documentary filmmakers thrive. By offering a platform for collaboration, resource-sharing, and emotional support, creative collectives empower filmmakers to overcome financial and logistical hurdles while fostering a sense of belonging in a competitive field. The panel will highlight how these collectives amplify diverse voices, nurture artistic growth, and enable filmmakers to create impactful stories that resonate with audiences.

The Distribution Playbook is a new open-source educational tool from Seed&Spark and Kinema designed to help filmmakers, video creators, funders, and co-collaborators take the lead in their distribution journeys. This panel will explore the current state of distribution across the entertainment industry, including how to decide the best path for a film, evaluate potential partners, enter negotiations, and understand the economics for every window from theatrical through VOD and beyond.

Discover the key reasons why documentary producers and filmmakers should partner with their local PBS stations. This panel will cover the full spectrum of collaboration, from content development and fundraising to distribution and engaging with audiences, showcasing how PBS can be a vital ally in bringing creative projects to life and connecting them with broader communities.

Success in podcasting isn’t guaranteed, but it can be designed – and that design can often be boiled down to the mitigation of risk. How do we understand what success means in podcasting? How do we know where to take risks and where to reduce risks? PRX VP of Content Stephanie Kuo will help you unpack these questions through a lens of product design. All new things must be:

Desirable to the consumer – designed with a clear point of view and purpose
Feasible to make – tested through process
Viable to continue – the cost to produce weighed against benefit (often not financial)

We’ll talk about strong concept development, audience growth, workflow, budgeting, monetization and everything in between. Whether you’re launching your first podcast or looking to scale your existing show, this session will give you more insight into the tools, strategies and mindsets to make your podcast thrive.

What is silently asked when a filmmaker points a camera at someone’s life? What does a participant give up—knowingly or not—when they agree to be seen?

This session focuses on the layered, often messy relationship between director and film participant. In a form that thrives on closeness, how do filmmakers navigate moments when a participant wants more—more time, more support, more of you—than you can give? What does care look like when you’re also managing deadlines, budgets, and the demands of the story?
We’ll ask: How long should this relationship last? What happens when it stretches beyond the shoot, into years of check-ins, financial asks, emotional connection? Where’s the line between being a good collaborator and being consumed?

This conversation is for anyone holding the complexity of real relationships in nonfiction work—those trying to protect both their participants and themselves.

Learn how to design and execute a strategic impact campaign that ensures your film reaches the right audiences, partners, and communities—maximizing its potential to inform, engage, and inspire action.

 Filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon explores the power of storytelling in shaping the future of Appalachia and the South. Through personal reflection and the evolution of her work—including Heroin(e), Recovery Boys, and King Coal—she examines the complexities of place, the role of documentary filmmakers as both observers and participants, and the need to move beyond despair toward imagination. This keynote challenges Southern storytellers to document not just what is, but what could be—to grieve, to celebrate, and most importantly, to dream.