BGDM SUSTAINABLE ARTIST + BLACK DIRECTORS FELLOWSHIPS

2022 - 2023

Serving over 5,000 members across the globe, Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM)’s mission is to bolster the creative and professional success of women and non-binary people of color working in the documentary film industry. Through advocacy, community building, grantmaking, creative enrichment, and professional development, Brown Girls Doc Mafia seeks to invest in creatives of color, and disrupt inequalities in the film industry at large.

In March 2021, we announced the inaugural recipients of the BGDM Black Directors Grant and the BGDM Sustainable Artist Grant, awarding 11 BGDM Members with a total of $105,000 in funding and six months of mentorship and connections. You can read more about our inaugural grantees here. It’s our pleasure to reopen these two initiatives for 2022-2023—re-envisioned as Fellowships—each of which includes grantmaking, mentorship, and curated industry connections. We’ll also emphasize the community building aspect of this program to ensure our Fellows thrive within a sense of belonging, purpose, safety, and strength. We believe that these relationships are the seeds that will sow deeper change in the documentary industry over the next twenty years, enabling this “great age of documentary” to be diverse, equitable, just, and inclusive.

PROGRAM SUMMARY

The Sustainable Artist and Black Directors Fellowships are run in conjunction with one another, functioning as one cohort. Stretching from August 2022 to July 2023, the Fellowships consist of six major components:

1. Funding for individual artists (Sustainable Artist Fellows) OR funding for creative projects (Black Directors Fellows)

2. Curated Advisor meetings (two rounds of 2-3 creative and/or industry Advisors assigned to each Fellow)

3. Two Creative & Professional Development Retreats (virtual or in person)

4. Attendance at one documentary film festival (virtual or in person)

5. Community Building (via peer-to-peer mentorship, by giving back to BGDM through a Masterclass, and by hosting/moderating the internal community page for one week)

6. Hands on personal, creative, and professional development support by BGDM’s program staff

A NOTE ON COMMITMENT

These are in-depth, ambitious Fellowship programs, so we ask applicants to come prepared to make a commitment to themselves, to each other, and to the process we’ve developed in order to ensure an impactful Fellowship year. Selected Fellows are expected to be in regular communication with BGDM staff, contribute to the curation and implementation of their Advisor meetings, attend 3-5 Fellowship meetings and the events listed above, and to follow through on their commitment to the BGDM community. We thank applicants in advance for their understanding and enthusiasm for this unique opportunity.

HOW TO APPLY

Please scroll down for a FAQ and further details about application requirements, the review process, and timeline. Both the BGDM Sustainable Artist Fellowship and the BGDM Black Directors Fellowship share ONE application form. The DEADLINE to apply is Sunday, April 24th, 2022 at 11:59pm ET.

FAQ / NOTES ON THE PROCESS

INFO SESSION

Access the video and audio recording, as well as chat history and transcript of the Info Session we held on March 29, 2022 in this folder

Note that the internally shared BGDM Community Resource Folder has great samples of grant applications and visual/pitch decks.

WHO CAN APPLY

• Current members of Brown Girls Doc Mafia who have been active for at least six months at the application due date (April 24, 2022).

  • Ways you could have joined: through the BGDM private Facebook group, the private BGDM member email list, the BGDM Member Directory.

    • To find out when you joined the BGDM private Facebook group, go to this page and search for your name, you’ll see the date you joined

• Applicants MUST have an active profile on BGDM’s Member Directory to be considered. Check if you have a profile by simply going to the BGDM Member Directory, scrolling down, and searching for your name.

  • To submit your profile, click here

• Applicants must self-identify as a person of color; and as a woman, gender nonconforming/non-binary, or trans individual; and as a nonfiction/documentary film industry creative

• Both fellowships are open to non-U.S. based applicants

• US-based undocumented members are eligible to apply. Recipients will be asked for their Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) for the financial disbursements.

• BGDM core staff and Advisory Board members are not eligible to apply. Members working as short term contractors on BGDM projects that are not directly engaged with Fellowships are eligible.

APPLICATION NOTES

• We request applicants donate a sliding scale submission fee of $25-50 to help offset the cost of paying our reviewers a competitive rate to spend in-depth time looking over your applications.

• All written materials must be submitted in English. Any video materials not spoken in English must include English subtitles.

• There is ONE application for both Fellowships.

  • Members who apply for the Black Directors Fellowship will automatically also be considered for the Sustainable Artist Fellowship. You do not need to submit two applications to be considered for both.

  • Co-Directors who both meet the eligibility requirements may apply to the Black Directors Fellowship together. Funding will be designated for the project that they share.

• We suggest prepping your application ahead of time in a separate document to ensure proper proofreading, and so you don’t lose your work. The application platform Jotform also allows you to save your application in progress. Click "Save" at the bottom of the page, then in the pop-up window you can create an account OR select "skip create an account" and enter your email. Jotform will email you a link to return to your saved form.

• Aim to submit your application at least one day in advance of the deadline so there aren’t any last minute tech issues.

  • Please be sure to read everything thoroughly before reaching out with unanswered questions.

TIMELINE & REVIEW PROCESS

We're striving to be transparent about the timeline and review process (details below), but if we get more applications than we've planned for, our review timeline and/or approach may need to be revised. Note that both fellowships will run at the same time and share the same review committee.

Application Review Timeline:

• March 15, 2022 - Application opens for BGDM Sustainable Artist Fellowship and the BGDM Black Director Fellowship

• March 29, 2022 at 10am PT / 1pm ET on Zoom - Application Info Session. Register at this link. (Info session will be recorded and we will paste a link here to view the recording once the session has passed.)

• April 24, 2022, 11:59pm ET - Application closes

• April - June, 2022 - Review Process

• Mid-July, 2022 - Applicants are notified, Grantees are confirmed and announced

• August 2022 - July 2023 - Fellowship Program Year

Review Process

• Review teams will include:

  • BGDM members for a first review round

  • A combination of members of BGDM leadership (staff and/or advisory board), industry stakeholders of color, and veteran filmmakers of color will comprise our second round jury

• Criteria for selecting reviewers includes:

  • Industry professional with experience doing this kind of work, likely as funders, fest programmers/curators, in acquisitions/distribution, artist development, etc

  • Established filmmakers who understand what it takes to pursue a film career and can identify that potential in others

  • Those who can devote time/bandwidth to this process

  • Those with a critical understanding of BGDM’s values

• Throughout each round, reviewers will be conscious of diversity in the pool (geography, age, experience level, profession, current support, race/ethnicity, gender, mainstream vs non-traditional aesthetics)

• Reviewers will write brief but constructive bullet pointed notes for each project. This feedback will be shared upon request by any applicant anonymously.

DELIVERABLES, KEY DATES & FUNDING SCHEDULE

Selected Fellows must adhere to the following deliverables requests and participate in all of the sessions with key dates detailed below to the best of their ability. Please ensure your interest and availability to follow through on these commitments before applying:

2022

• July 2022

  • Confirm the Fellowship invitation, sign a grant contract with Brown Girls Doc Mafia, provide an invoice

    • Note: Selected applicants will have ten days to accept their Fellowship invitation. BGDM will make all best efforts to reach the applicant in that period, but if we don’t hear from them, another applicant will be selected.

  • Provide materials for the selection announcement (updated bio, headshot, film stills, key links, trailers, etc.)

  • Complete a mentorship intake survey

• August 2022

  • Attend the Fellowship orientation, peer to peer community building session, and Advisor brainstorm meeting (all virtual)

  • Each Fellow to choose a week between Sept. 2022 - June 2023 to guest moderate the BGDM membership page for one week

• September 15th - 23rd, 2022

  • Attend a Creative & Professional Development Retreat at an Industry Event (3-5 days total, TBD virtual or in-person). Please note these particular retreat dates are FIRM

• October 2022

  • Take Round One Advisor Meetings (virtual)

2023

• March 2023

  • Take Round Two Advisor Meetings (virtual)

  • Attend a Creative/professional Development Retreat (1-2 days total, TBD virtual or in-person)

• April 28th - May 4th, 2023

  • Attend a documentary film festival (3-5 days total, TBD virtual or in-person). Please note these particular dates are FIRM

• June 2023

  • Each Fellow to lead a Masterclass for the BGDM community (virtual)

  • Fellows to have participated in at least two written or phone call check-ins at some point the Fellowship year

• July 2023

  • Complete an exit survey

  • Submit a 3 minute video reflecting on your experience in the Fellowship and your sense of its impact on your professional and creative endeavors

Funding Schedule

• September 2022

  • 80% of the funds will be disbursed upon the Fellow’s completion of the intake survey, and participation in the Fellowship orientation, peer to peer community building session, and Advisor brainstorm meeting. We reserve the right to withhold this payment if the Fellow does not complete these first three meetings (or attend a makeup meeting) within 60 days of the start of the Fellowship.

    • For U.S. based grantees: Please note that whether the grant is project based or non-project based, all US-based grantees will be 1099’ed. It’s their responsibility to deduct their expenses either as a LLC/or corp, or as an individual (filing schedule c).

    • For non-U.S. based applicants: Funds would be disbursed via a wire transfer, though different countries have various sensitivities with receiving wired funds, so we suggest that the grantees discuss with their banks to prepare a set of proper procedures for us.

• July 2023

  • In order to receive the final 20% of funds - the Fellow must have: completed at least four BGDM curated advisor meetings, attended at least one retreat session, and made their contribution to the BGDM community by leading a Masterclass or by guest moderating the BGDM page for a week. The final funds will be disbursed after the Fellow completes the exit survey and submits their 3 minute reflection video. We reserve the right to withhold this payment if the Fellow does not complete these final deliverables within 60 days of the initial request.

COMBINED APPLICATION PROCESS

Both the BGDM Sustainable Artist Fellowship and the BGDM Black Directors Fellowship share ONE application form. The DEADLINE to apply is Sunday, April 24th, 2022 at 11:59pm ET.

THE APPLICATION IS NOW CLOSED