IDA Seminar Series - Doc U: An Evening With Cara Mertes

An Evening With Sundance Institute's, Cara Mertes

Part of the 2009 Doc U Seminar series.

Don't miss this rare opportunity to dialogue with one of the documentary community's most influential and knowledgeable decision makers. Hear the inside perspective on all things Sundance, including documentary funding strategies. Ask questions and schmooze with colleagues!

CARA MERTES is Director, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, overseeing the activities of the Documentary Film Program and Fund, including granting between $1 and $2 million per year to independent documentarians globally, directing three Creative Documentary Labs at Sundance Resort, supporting documentary programming and panels at the Sundance Film Festival and the Sundance Creative Producers Summit, curating work-in-progress screenings with partnering museums and festivals and other initiatives of the DFP. Since joining Sundance, she has inaugurated several creative partnerships, including STORIES OF CHANGE: Social Entrepreneurship in Focus Through Documentary, a $3 million, 3 year partnership between the DFP and the Skoll Foundation which has funded 10 films on social entrepreneurs meeting today's global challenges. The Good Pitch is a partnership between the DFP and the UK Channel Four Foundation. The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture has partnered with the DFP to support Arab documentary filmmakers working in the Middle East. Most recently, the Gates Foundation has partnered with the DFP to develop a series of short films on Foundation issues. The DFP also launched DocSource at www.sundance.org/docsource, a website connecting independent documentary filmmakers and human rights stakeholders worldwide. She is also a key programmatic strategist for Sundance Institute.

Mertes was previously Executive Director of American Documentary, Inc. and Executive Producer of P.O.V., PBS' acclaimed independent documentary showcase from 1999-2006, where she was recognized with eight Emmy Awards, three George Foster Peabody awards, two duPont-Columbia Awards and three Academy Award nominations, most recently as Executive Producer for NERAKOON: BETRAYAL. Mertes is Executive Producer of over a dozen independent documentaries, including STREET FIGHT; MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY; BOYS OF BARAKA; and TWO TOWNS OF JASPER. She is a graduate of Vassar College, BA, and Hunter College, MA. A long-time New Yorker, she currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.

EDDIE SCHMIDT (moderator) is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, writer/producer and commentator, as well as the Board President of the International Documentary Association (IDA). Feature credits include producing & co-writing the acclaimed documentary THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED, producing and shooting HBO's powerful TWIST OF FAITH (for which he was nominated for an Academy Award), and producing the groundbreaking teenage mosaic CHAIN CAMERA. All three films were released theatrically and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. For television, Schmidt has directed and produced both documentary and comedy programs for HBO, Lionsgate, IFC, A&E, Adult Swim, and E! He has appeared on NPR's THIS AMERICAN LIFE and can be seen in the Starz documentaries SEX AND THE CINEMA and IN THE GUTTER.

*** Space is VERY limited, so be sure to reserve a seat soon!

IDA members: $20 advance purchase; $25 at the door
Non-members: $25 advance purchase; $30 at the door

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(Purchase Admissions above.)

What:

Doc U: An Evening with Sundance Institute's Cara Mertes

When:

Monday, December 14, 2009
Doors open 6:00 p.m.
Seminar 7:00-9:30 p.m. (with brief intermission)

Where:

Kodak Screening Room
The Eastman Kodak Company
6700 Santa Monica Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90038

Parking and light refreshments courtesy of The Eastman Kodak Company
(Entrance is 2 blocks east of Highland Ave. on Las Palmas)

Doc U is the International Documentary Association's branded, yearly seminar series produced to enlighten and enliven our documentary community.

We are grateful for the generous support of our sponsor: