THE UNCERTAINTY OF DOCUMENTARY PRODUCING | Webinar Replay

Friday, May 1, 2020 @ 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET

One of the most used words during the COVID-19 has been ‘uncertainty’ and documentary producers are no stranger to the feeling. Documentary producers never know when they are going to spontaneously deploy their team to capture a moment. They set out to tell one story, but constantly adapt as the story unfolds in unexpected ways. This is the exhilaration of documentary filmmaking. But the current uncertainly of our industry has unsettled even the most skilled producers. 

Please join producers Megan Gilbride (TOWER), Kellen Quinn (TIME), and Diane Quon (MINDING THE GAP) as Dear Producer continues its webinar series focused on the struggles independent producers are facing during the COVID-19 crisis including:

  • Selling and launching films in the absence of film festivals 
  • Ways in which the pandemic has impacted creative intent
  • How and when production will resume  
  • Maintaining inspiration during this devastating time 

Webinar is free to all. Send your questions in advance to hello@dearproducer.com.

SPEAKER BIOS

MEGAN GILBRIDE is a two-time-Emmy-winning and Independent Spirit Award nominated producer of narrative and documentary films. She produced the Emmy-award-winning and PBS-broadcast documentary TOWER, which shortlisted for the Best Documentary Academy Award and was nominated for a Peabody Award. She produced LOVERS OF HATE, a Sundance Dramatic Competition premiere, released by IFC and nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. She produced the PBS-broadcast documentary SUNSHINE and co-produced WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM which won an Independent Spirit Award, aired on POV and won a 2012 News and Documentary Emmy. A former Film Independent Fellow, Megan is currently producing the feature documentaries FATHOM and DEAR MR. BRODY which was slated to premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival.

KELLEN QUINN is an independent producer whose credits include Garrett Bradley’s TIME (Sundance 2020 winner of Best Director, US Documentary Competition), Luke Lorentzen’s MIDNIGHT FAMILY (shortlisted for Documentary Feature Oscar; Sundance 2019 winner of Special Jury Award for Cinematography, US Documentary Competition), Daniel Hymanson’s SO LATE SO SOON (True/False 2020) and Viktor Jakovleski’s Brimstone & Glory (True/False 2017; aired on POV). In 2017 and 2018, Kellen participated in the Sundance Documentary Creative Producing Lab and Fellowship. In 2016, he was among six producers selected for Impact Partners’ Documentary Producers Fellowship. In 2012, he developed Aeon Video for Aeon Magazine, a curated program of short documentaries that he continues to oversee. Before moving into producing, he was the deputy director of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival from 2009 to 2012, prior to which he worked in the Tribeca Film Festival’s programming department from 2007 to 2009.

DIANE QUON is an Academy Award-nominated producer who worked as a marketing executive for 17 years at NBC and at Paramount Pictures before moving back to her hometown of Chicago. Diane is producing multiple documentaries for Kartemquin Films including the Oscar nominated and Sundance award-winning film, MINDING THE GAP Minding directed by Bing Liu; THE DILEMMA OF DESIRE with Peabody Award-winning director Maria Finitzo (SXSW 2020);  FINDING YINGYING directed by first-time filmmaker, Jiayan “Jenny” Shi (SXSW 2020; Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Voice); and FOR THE LEFT HAND along with Chicago Tribune arts critic Howard Reich, and co-directed by Leslie Simmer and Gordon Quinn. Diane is also producing the documentary, UNTITLED SAM PROJECT, directed by Nadav Kurtz (Paraiso) and executive produced by Jeremiah Zagar and Jeremy Yaches (IN A DREAM, WE THE ANIMALS). In addition, she is developing a fiction film based on a New York Times best-selling book. Diane is a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow, an IFP Cannes Producer Fellow, a Film Independent Fellow,  and is a recipient of the 2020 Cinereach Producer Award.

This webinar is supported by:

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