Emergence Magazine and IF/Then Shorts, an initiative of Field of Vision, have launched the inaugural SHIFTING LANDSCAPES – Emergence Magazine x IF/Then Shorts Lab.
Marking the organisation’s first partnership the lab ‘celebrates storytellers and stories that explore these widespread shifts in movement from both human and nonhuman perspectives, and on both human and nonhuman timescales,’ say organisers.
Selected short documentary films will receive $25,000 in grant support, individual project mentorship, and career advancing public activations to assist in the completion and distribution of high profile projects, as well as a secondary distribution window with Emergence Magazine.
Three projects will be selected to participate in a one-year lab focused on short-documentary production, cohort collaboration and mentorship, working toward the completion of their films by the end of the term. ‘Filmmakers will benefit from not only the resources of their esteemed mentors including prominent voices in documentary as well as topic-area experts, but also work to build strong creative relationships while providing feedback and support to their fellow filmmakers,’ say organisers.
Upon completing the rough cut of their projects, filmmakers will be invited to debut their works-in-progress to an invitation-only audience at a prominent international film festival and receive feedback. For the remainder of the program, filmmakers will finalize their cuts and receive high-level festival and distribution strategy consultations.
IF/Then Shorts Co-Director Caitlin Mae Burke said: “IF/Then Shorts and Emergence Magazine share a dedication to elegant, artistic documentaries exploring this pressing topic of our time through unique storytelling lenses. The chance for this filmmaking cohort to not only grow with our guidance and that of our esteemed industry mentors, but to primarily lead each other toward creative expansion while completing their works is a model we are so proud to pilot together. We are enlivened by this open call and the opportunity to collaborate with Emergence Magazine in our mutual pursuit of elevating creative non-fiction filmmakers the world over.”
Emergence Magazine’s Executive Editor Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee said: “The complex narratives that reveal our relationships to landscapes are shifting at a speed and scale never experienced before. Now more than ever we need diverse and place specific stories documenting how these shifting patterns of migration are impacting the human and more than human worlds; stories that can help remind us how connected we are with the living Earth. I’m so excited to be collaborating with IF/Then Shorts and see what stories and storytellers emerge from this program.”
This opportunity will be open to individuals ‘with genuine connection to and credibility within the communities they depict on-screen telling place-specific, community conscious stories of migration,’ say organisers. The application is open globally, with an emphasis on Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQIA+ folks, recent immigrants, undocumented persons, persons with a disability, and/or women.
Projects must be an original documentary with a duration of 10-30 minutes, eligible for completion within the year-long lab, follow best practices in documentary ethics, authentically represent the story featured in the film, presented in English or have English subtitles, and have no prior distribution attached.
The application portal is currently open and will close February 15 at 11:59 PM PST.
