In Advisor Studio sessions, Sundance Collab Advisors share field experiences and insights into their specific areas of craft, including writing, directing and producing for TV and film. 


No matter where you’re at in your career as a filmmaker, financing a documentary film is challenging. Whether you are working on a short or feature length doc, you’ll need to know how to pitch your project for production funding to move it forward.


In this 60-minute Advisor Studio for independent documentary filmmakers of all levels, award-winning director and producer Kavery Kaul will teach you about the different types of documentary financing, how to prepare for a meeting when you get one, and how to best position your film to receive funding. 


Topics include:

  • Preparing your logline, synopsis, treatment, artist statement, and bio
  • Drafting different budget levels 
  • Understanding the different types of pitches
  • Knowing who you’re meeting with 
  • Pitching dos and don’ts
  • Selling yourself and your story
  • Following up 
Kavery Kaul
Filmmaker
Kavery Kaul is an award-winning director and producer whose documentaries reframe who "we" are. Through an intimate lens, she crafts stories which boundlessly straddle different worlds. The founder of riverfilms, her works have been featured at DOC NYC, Telluride, London, Sydney and other major festivals; at the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the Kennedy Center (DC), National Museum of Women in the Arts (DC), Jameel Arts Centre (Dubai), and American Center (Kolkata and Delhi, India). more...
Erica Elson
Moderator | Digital Course & Event Producer
Erica Elson is a Producer, Writer and Educator based in the mountains outside Los Angeles. Her short film, WING NIGHT, premiered at Method Fest in Los Angeles. She is the co-author of the book THE AWKWARD HUMAN SURVIVAL GUIDE and co-hosted a podcast by the same name on the 5by5 network for five years. Elson's articles have been published by HuffPost, Lifehacker, and Reader's Digest. Prior to working in education, she worked in television development and writers’ rooms such as VH1’s HINDSIGHT, where she had the chance to write for the spinoff web series PLANET SEBASTIAN. more...

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