This season’s Business of Filmmaking Workshop series will be a comprehensive deep dive into the business aspects of making your short film, feature film, documentary, or TV pilot/series, providing you with resources to create an effective infrastructure in order for your project to succeed.
With industry expert instructors, including local PGA Producer, Marcie Gibboney, and independent producers, Nicole Docta and Jenny Mackenzie, this educational series consists of presentations, discussion, and workshopping your project.
This workshop will focus on various paths for funding nonfiction projects. We will work through best practices for writing grants and crowdfunding, the DPA’s waterfall guidelines, equity investments, and how to create a budget. There will also be time for direct support on individual projects, whether that’s taking the first steps to outline your crowdfunding campaign, making a list of project-aligned grants, or creating a first draft of your budget.
Instructor Bios
Jenny Mackenzie
Dr. Jenny Mackenzie’s films have aired on top broadcast and VOD channels such as HBO, HULU, PBS, and Amazon, and have received praise in the New York Times, The LA Times and The Hollywood Reporter. Her films include KICK LIKE A GIRL, SUGAR BABIES, LEAD WITH LOVE, DYING IN VEIN, QUIET HEROES and THE RIGHT TO READ. Jenny has a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, a Ph.D. from the University of Utah and is an assistant professor in documentary film production at Utah Valley University.
Nicole Docta
Nicole Docta (she/her) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who has focused her career on producing socially provoking BIPOC stories and managing their impact campaigns. Nicole was part of the producing teams on Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated THE JUDGE (TIFF 2017) and Emmy Award-winning BELLY OF THE BEAST (HRWFF 2020) with Director Erika Cohn, and duPont Award-winner THROUGH THE NIGHT (Tribeca 2020) with Director Loira Limbal. Nicole worked as the Special Initiatives Producer at Firelight Media for three years co-curating the Beyond Resilience Series and helping to implement new artist programs to support BIPOC filmmakers. She volunteers on the DPA Equity & Inclusion Committee and for Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc) and is an active member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM). Nicole is also a USC CPD NextGen Creative Fellow, one of DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40, a PGA Create alum, Sundance Producer Fellow, and Impact Partners Producer Fellow.
