New Perspectives
Fellowship

In our times of great social transformation, climate catastrophe, racial reckoning, and radical reawakening, we need artists who can navigate and embrace uncertainty with bravery and imagination. Charles Eisenstein calls this "the space between stories."

Doc Society's New Perspectives Fellowship is a two year artist development opportunity supporting daring new works by US-based directors, including Puerto Rico and U.S. territories, who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and/or as members of historically underrepresented communities including race, religion, geographic region, physical ability, or citizenship status who dedicated to the art and craft of creative nonfiction. This vital program combines key project funding, mentorship, and in-depth impact strategy to provide holistic support to the maker at every level. We want your most ambitious films, wildest dreams, and biggest questions.

We know that making a film requires that first leap of faith. For you to take a chance on your story, and for someone to take a chance on you. This fellowship encourages that spirit coupled with the knowledge that not everyone has been given an equal chance to tell the stories they want, and that this creative freedom is a form of justice in and of itself.

We know that multiple perspectives are key to capturing the truth of a moment and America today. We love supporting documentary films that inspire, provoke, and illuminate through innovative use of story and form. We also recognize it's incredibly difficult to get started and funding opportunities for artists who create against the grain has never been more competitive. Doc Society is excited to provide an alternative and launch the New Perspectives Fellowship supporting the development and production of non-fiction projects by filmmakers.

Applications are now closed

This fund is closed and not currently scheduled to reopen. Please subscribe to our newsletter for fund updates. You can find more resources and opportunities here.

We are particularly looking for filmmakers who offer a rare insight of the often underrepresented and overlooked; who see more than what's being shown in the common zeitgeist. We're looking for those stories that break barriers and explore nuance over polarity.

Across every corner of the United States, we want to hear from you and support your vision.

Funding and Mentorship

Over the course of this two year fellowship, our aim is to support and sustain distinctive creative voices at critical junctures in their careers through targeted grantmaking, bespoke artist support, and training. In partnership with the Perspective Fund, the New Perspectives Fellowship supports filmmakers with a strong directorial vision, fierce creativity, and an unwavering belief in the transformative, ecstatic, and restorative power of art. From developing a creative approach, casting characters, and designing an effective impact campaign -- we will be mentoring filmmakers on both the production of this project and their careers at large. We are looking for documentary filmmakers eager to share their perspective of the world around them. This fellowship empowers artists to be brave and curious in pursuing the stories they seek to tell.

We are dedicated to supporting diversity across gender, sexuality, race, regions, mixed-abilities and class. There are a wealth of innovative, bold, and driven storytellers who are waiting for this industry to open its gates. We need your talent and your perspectives to imagine what’s next.

Who

US-based directors, including Puerto Rico and U.S. territories, who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and/or as members of historically underrepresented communities including race, religion, geographic region, physical ability, or citizenship status.

What we can support

Creative nonfiction

Films around issues of social justice and equity

Development

Production

We don't fund

Short Films

Series

Biographies

Profiles

News

Current Affairs

To remember:

Applications open March 29, 2021 at 8:00 AM PST and close May 10, 2021 at 5 PM PST. Apply now

Grantees will be notified by July 2021.

All Grants are offered with a mentorship component from Doc Society's Film and Impact teams

This fund is open to projects in early development to production.

Films currently in production with support from Doc Society are not eligible.

Grants are non recoupable $30,000-$45,000 over the course of two years with all rights retained by the filmmaker