DFA PRESENTS SHORT DOC COMPETITION
Call for 3 minute mini-documentary
In 2009 the Documentary Filmmakers’ Association, in collaboration with the Encounters Documentary Festival launched the MY TOWN short documentary competition. After and enthusiastic response from filmmakers and aspirant filmmakers we’ve decided to keep a good thing going and allow it to develop into an exciting annual event.
MY TOWN 2010
The town we come from/live in shapes who we are. We occupy its space, it occupies us. In this short 3 minute documentary competition, filmmakers, aspirant filmmakers, artists and students are invited to make a short 3 minute documentary titled “My Town”. You can interpret this brief any way you like – revisit your birthplace, explore your suburb or township and tell your story.
The 8 best films will be chosen by a selection panel appointed by the Documentary Filmmakers Association (DFA). These 8 films will screen at the Waterfront Nu Metro cinema as part of the Encounters documentary festival (as pre- main feature shorts). The 12th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival will be held in Cape Town from the 12th to the 29th of August 2010. One film will be selected as an overall winner by a panel of judges comprising of film as well as arts and broadcast practitioners. The winner will be announced at a function during the Encounters Documentary Festival in Cape Town.
Films will be produced at own expense. The films produced remain the property of the filmmakers. The DFA will endeavor to negotiate broadcast and festival screenings with the filmmakers’ permission. Selected Filmmakers will benefit from on-screen credits and general media exposure through the project. All filmmakers who enter a film will receive a year’s free membership to the Documentary Filmmakers Association (July 2010 – June 2011).
PRIZES
MY TOWN DOCUMENTARY AWARD
- R2500 cash prize awarded by the DFA
- 2 La’Cie Rugged USB & Firewire 320GB drives sponsored by the VISUAL IMPACT GROUP
MY TOWN DOCUMENTARY DEVELOPMENT AWARD
- Filmmaker will be awarded a place in the NATIONAL FILM AND VIDEO FUND SPARK program (details below)
Delivery and Deadline:
- Deliver 3 x copies of your film on DVD (DVD’s must be high quality and viewable on home dvd players)
- Films must be delivered by 14:00 on 23 July 2010
- Deliver to: 7 Glynnville TerraceGardens, Cape Town, 8001 For Attention: THERESA MEYER
All films delivered must be accompanied with a signed MY TOWN competition entry form, which can be downloaded from our website on: http://www.docfilmsa.com
NFVF SPARK PROGRAM
This is a short course that enables individuals with an interest and strong motivation to become documentary filmmakers to acquire the basic skills, knowledge and understanding to be able to progress their scripts/projects in a professional manner.
Course duration: Total of 8 days – 4 week-ends over a period of 4 months
The objective of this course:
- Identify the role of the documentary filmmaker in society.
- Participate in an exercise where – driven by your individual passion for an idea, issue or theme – you select and find the story within that idea and develop, research & write that story to documentary shooting-script stage, subject to the following:
There are many different ways of making a documentary. This series of Spark Documentary Workshops – is an exercise – that will expose the participant to a particular process that if grasped will enable him / her to take an idea and develop that idea into a successful documentary production/proposal to potential funders. The winner will be enrolled in this course, and his tuition, travel and accommodation to and from the workshops will be funded by the foundation.
To view MY TOWN 2010 Competition on the DFA Site as well as downloading the entry forms click here.
