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IDA Selects 20 Fellows for Its Inaugural Getting Real Fellowship Program
The IDA announces its 2022 Getting Real Fellows The International Documentary Association (IDA) announces the 20 fellows selected for its inaugural Getting Real Fellowship program. This new initiative is specifically geared towards highlighting emerging and mid-career documentary professionals. The program provides fellows with the opportunity to attend the biennial Getting Real conference, the world’s largest industry conference for documentary practitioners.
As part of the fellowship, IDA covers costs concerning airfare, lodging and registration. It also provides fellows a unique communal path through the conference. They will share meals together, attend a celebratory reception and participate in curated meetings with industry delegates. Even after the conference concludes, fellows continue to gather year-round, further developing connections the connections they made and strengthen their own ideas concerning advancements in equity and sustainably in the field.
“The inclusion of industry professionals in this Fellowship is crucial,” said Abby Sun, IDA’s Director of Artist Programs. “Often, industry workers at the early-career stage are siloed from interacting with working filmmakers. This division creates a space where calcified ideas multiply instead of interventions that bend our industry towards true artist-centered work. With the Getting Real Fellowship, we hope that supporting the relational connections formed between filmmakers and industry workers will seed future collaborations, support, and frameworks that result in forward-thinking documentary filmmaking.”
September 27 and 28, the first two days of the conference, are to be held virtually with the option for attendees to gather at Community Hubs in Los Angeles and other cities. September 29, the final day, is to be held in-person at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles and will be live-streamed for virtual attendees.
According to a press release, the conference will include “35 panels and presentations, 12 facilitated breakout sessions (many co-programmed with 11 filmmaker advocacy organizations, collectives, and nonprofits), 6 practical case studies and workshops, 3 keynote talks, and 2 evening screenings. In addition, most of these sessions will remain available to all conference attendees on the virtual platform for a two-week window. On September 29, the Closing Night Reception, presented by National Geographic Documentary Films, will cap three days of events.”
For more information about the Getting Real 2022 conference, visit their official website.
The 2022 Getting Real Fellows are listed below.
Emily Abi-Kheirs, filmmaker services manager, Women Makes Movies—Boston, MA
Farid Ahmad, filmmaker—Bangladesh
Taneisha Berg, poet/filmmaker/writer—The Netherlands
Laura Bermúdez, filmmaker/film curator/cultural activist—Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Koval Bhatia, filmmaker/producer—Goa, India
Malia Bruker, filmmaker/associate professor—Tallahassee, FL
Daniel Chien, filmmaker—Carpinteria, CA
Pei-hua Chung, programming coordinator—Taipei, Taiwan
Rodrigo Dorfman, filmmaker/writer/activist/multimedia producer—Durham, NC
Milton Guillén, filmmaker/programmer—Burlington, VE
Katelyn Liu, programming manager—Charlotte, NC
Julie McElmurry, filmmaker/educator—Charlotte, NC
Valentin Noujaïm, director—Paris, France
María Josefina Parra Acuña, distribution director—Mexico City, Mexico
Arthur Pratt, director—Freetown, Sierra Leone
Victor Ribeiro Guimarães, film critic/programmer/professor—Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Jiayan “Jenny” Shi, filmmaker—Chicago, IL
Winnie Wang, programmer/writer—Toronto, Canada
Xiaolu Wang, documentary filmmaker/curator/translator—Minneapolis, MN
Mostafa Youssef, director/producer—Cairo, Egypt
