The drive for media industries to nurture the next generation of storytellers has resulted in a growing number of filmmakers and video journalists, often from underrepresented communities, making their first big projects and attracting high-level financing, distribution, and publicity. This should be a filmmaker’s dream, but the ride can be a wild one. Filmmakers are often unprepared for multiple pressures, be they creative, financial, legal, journalistic, or personal, and they are not always ready to manage difficult outcomes that might result in financial ruin, mangled creative relationships with crew and contributors, and dashed hopes in the industry itself. How can filmmakers avoid learning every lesson the hard way, and prepare themselves well to avert potential disasters that threaten to derail their projects?
Panelists will discuss what they have learned from their past experiences, how they plan to do things differently for their next projects, and the knowledge and tools they hope will help prepare other creators, both emerging and more established.
Moderator: Zara Meerza (Documentary -)
Panelists: Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh (Writing with Fire), Gema Juárez Allen (The Castle, Theater of War), and Emily Mkrtichian (There Was, There Was Not)
Biographies (submitted by the speakers):
Zara Meerza is an Emmy award-winning British-Indian filmmaker and writer. A staff writer for season two of acclaimed HBO series INDUSTRY, she’s worked on projects across documentary and narrative for HBO, Vice, Sky, the BBC, First Look Media, Conde Nast and Warp Films. Zara has also served as Director of Film Acquisitions at Vice News, and has an extensive background in the music and journalism industries.
Rintu Thomas is an Academy Award nominated, Peabody Award winning Indian filmmaker, whose decade-long body of work sits at the intersection of storytelling as both an art and a conversation. Her recent double Sundance winning, IDA, PGA, Grierson-nominated feature documentary 'Writing With Fire' (2021), described by the Washington Post as 'The most inspiring journalism movie — maybe ever', was India's first feature documentary to be nominated for an Academy Award. Rintu is a co-founder of Black Ticket Films, an award-winning production company invested in the power of storytelling. Rintu’s award winning shorts include ‘Dilli’ (2010) and ‘Timbaktu’ (2012). She is a recipient of India’s National Award, along with being an IDA ‘Courage Under Fire’ Awardee, IDA Logan Elevate Grantee, Sundance Fellow, Skoll Stories of Change Fellow and South Asia Fellow with the Japan Foundation. Rintu lives between New Delhi and a quaint mountain-town in North India.
Sushmit Ghosh is an Academy Award nominated, Peabody Award winning filmmaker and co-founder of Black Ticket Films, a production company invested in the power of storytelling. An IDA Courage Under Fire Honoree, Sushmit's films are recognised for their rigour of immersive, emotionally powerful storytelling. His feature documentary, WRITING WITH FIRE (2021) is India's first feature documentary to be nominated for an Oscar. WRITING WITH FIRE has played at over 200 festivals, won 40 awards and earned Grierson, IDA, PGA, Cinema Eye Honors nominations. Sushmit is also a mentor for labs and fellowships that focus on artists from underrepresented communities, supporting new narratives and storytellers. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In his spare time, you’ll find him motorcycling and hiking through the Himalayas.
Gema Juárez Allen (Argentina, 1974) is a film producer based in Buenos Aires, Argentina where she runs her own company GEMA FILMS. Gema focuses on arthouse films and documentaries. She has produced over 30 feature length films—most of them international coproductions—that have been programmed and awarded at the most important film festivals of the world. Gema has been tutoring in several training initiatives such as IDFA Project Space, Eave Puentes, Campus Latino, and most recently she became a group leader at Eurodoc. She’s part of the EAVE and Eurodoc professional networks and a Sundance Documentary Fellow since 2006. She is a member of the AMPAS Documentary Branch.
Emily Mkrtichian is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary collaborator whose artistic practice reflects their upbringing in a displaced, diasporic family, and centers the decolonized narratives of women from the SWANA region and the healing power of relational, ethical, collaborative storytelling. Her films include the sci-fi short Transmission, which premiered at BFI FLARE Film Festival, the short documentary Motherland, which premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival and won Best Short Documentary at the Copenhagen International Film Festival, and the upcoming feature documentary There Was, There Was Not, which has been supported by the Sundance Institute, IDA, Chicken & Egg Pictures and HotDocs.
The drive for media industries to nurture the next generation of storytellers has resulted in a growing number of filmmakers and video journalists, often from underrepresented communities, making their first big projects and attracting high-level financing, distribution, and publicity. This should be a filmmaker’s dream, but the ride can be a wild one. Filmmakers are often unprepared for multiple pressures, be they creative, financial, legal, journalistic, or personal, and they are not always ready to manage difficult outcomes that might result in financial ruin, mangled creative relationships with crew and contributors, and dashed hopes in the industry itself. How can filmmakers avoid learning every lesson the hard way, and prepare themselves well to avert potential disasters that threaten to derail their projects?
Panelists will discuss what they have learned from their past experiences, how they plan to do things differently for their next projects, and the knowledge and tools they hope will help prepare other creators, both emerging and more established.
Moderator: Zara Meerza (Documentary -)
Panelists: Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh (Writing with Fire), Gema Juárez Allen (The Castle, Theater of War), and Emily Mkrtichian (There Was, There Was Not)
Biographies (submitted by the speakers):
Zara Meerza is an Emmy award-winning British-Indian filmmaker and writer. A staff writer for season two of acclaimed HBO series INDUSTRY, she’s worked on projects across documentary and narrative for HBO, Vice, Sky, the BBC, First Look Media, Conde Nast and Warp Films. Zara has also served as Director of Film Acquisitions at Vice News, and has an extensive background in the music and journalism industries.
Rintu Thomas is an Academy Award nominated, Peabody Award winning Indian filmmaker, whose decade-long body of work sits at the intersection of storytelling as both an art and a conversation. Her recent double Sundance winning, IDA, PGA, Grierson-nominated feature documentary 'Writing With Fire' (2021), described by the Washington Post as 'The most inspiring journalism movie — maybe ever', was India's first feature documentary to be nominated for an Academy Award. Rintu is a co-founder of Black Ticket Films, an award-winning production company invested in the power of storytelling. Rintu’s award winning shorts include ‘Dilli’ (2010) and ‘Timbaktu’ (2012). She is a recipient of India’s National Award, along with being an IDA ‘Courage Under Fire’ Awardee, IDA Logan Elevate Grantee, Sundance Fellow, Skoll Stories of Change Fellow and South Asia Fellow with the Japan Foundation. Rintu lives between New Delhi and a quaint mountain-town in North India.
Sushmit Ghosh is an Academy Award nominated, Peabody Award winning filmmaker and co-founder of Black Ticket Films, a production company invested in the power of storytelling. An IDA Courage Under Fire Honoree, Sushmit's films are recognised for their rigour of immersive, emotionally powerful storytelling. His feature documentary, WRITING WITH FIRE (2021) is India's first feature documentary to be nominated for an Oscar. WRITING WITH FIRE has played at over 200 festivals, won 40 awards and earned Grierson, IDA, PGA, Cinema Eye Honors nominations. Sushmit is also a mentor for labs and fellowships that focus on artists from underrepresented communities, supporting new narratives and storytellers. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In his spare time, you’ll find him motorcycling and hiking through the Himalayas.
Gema Juárez Allen (Argentina, 1974) is a film producer based in Buenos Aires, Argentina where she runs her own company GEMA FILMS. Gema focuses on arthouse films and documentaries. She has produced over 30 feature length films—most of them international coproductions—that have been programmed and awarded at the most important film festivals of the world. Gema has been tutoring in several training initiatives such as IDFA Project Space, Eave Puentes, Campus Latino, and most recently she became a group leader at Eurodoc. She’s part of the EAVE and Eurodoc professional networks and a Sundance Documentary Fellow since 2006. She is a member of the AMPAS Documentary Branch.
Emily Mkrtichian is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary collaborator whose artistic practice reflects their upbringing in a displaced, diasporic family, and centers the decolonized narratives of women from the SWANA region and the healing power of relational, ethical, collaborative storytelling. Her films include the sci-fi short Transmission, which premiered at BFI FLARE Film Festival, the short documentary Motherland, which premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival and won Best Short Documentary at the Copenhagen International Film Festival, and the upcoming feature documentary There Was, There Was Not, which has been supported by the Sundance Institute, IDA, Chicken & Egg Pictures and HotDocs.