An Immersive Documentary filmmaking Experience

Learn from the producers and craftspeople behind Oscar and Emmy Award-winning films. This workshop will teach you how to choose compelling stories and characters, capture emotional interviews, and film intimate real-life scenes. Hands-on exercises with simple cameras keep the focus on technique rather than technology. If you have a documentary idea but don’t know where to start, or if you’re an experienced filmmaker or video journalist who wants to take your craft to the next level, this class is for you.

Teachers for March 2020 include Andrew Blackwell (New York Times Op-Docs), Adam Bolt (Inside Job), and Katy Scoggin (Citizenfour).

MARCH 2020 Teachers

ANDREW BLACKWELL
Supervising Editor of OP-DOCS, the New York Times' Oscar-nominated series of short documentaries by independent filmmakers. Previously he was an Emmy-winning film and television editor, covering topics as diverse as deforestation, synthetic biology, Colombian gangs, Bolivian lithium mining, and Iranian money laundering. He is also the author of the book “Visit Sunny Chernobyl,” about the year he spent exploring the world's most polluted places.

ADAM BOLT
Adam Bolt is a Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker. His credits include: editor and co-writer, INSIDE JOB, 2011 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary; editor, writer, and senior producer of Showtime’s Emmy-award-winning documentary series “YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY”; and editor and co-producer of THE RECRUITER (HBO), which won a Columbia duPont award for excellence in broadcast journalism in 2010. Most recently, he directed and produced the documentary HUMAN NATURE, which premiered at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival and will be showing on BBC Storyville later this year.

KATY SCOGGIN
Katy Scoggin is a documentary filmmaker entering post-production on Flood, a decade-long project about evolution, creationism, and reaching across familial divides. Previously, she co-produced and filmed on the Laura Poitras documentaries CITIZENFOUR (2015 Academy Award, Best Documentary) and RISK (2016 Cannes Directors Fortnight); produced NYTimes Op-Docs “The Program” and “Death of a Prisoner;” and associate-produced Emmy-nominated THE OATH (2010 Sundance Film Festival). In 2016, she filmed on the US campaign trail for two AJ Schnack series, IDA Award-nominated “NomiNation” and First Look Media’s “Primaries.” Prior to filmmaking, Katy made sculptures from butter and iron. She lives in Brooklyn.

SAMMY DANE
Sammy is a documentary film contributor specializing in post. He most recently served as Associate Editor on a forthcoming feature doc following the creation and impact of Pharrell’s “Something in the Water” festival in Virginia Beach. He was previously Junior Editor on Season 2 of NO PASSPORT REQUIRED (PBS), Co-Producer and AE on the feature documentary 16 BARS, and AE on HIP-HOP: THE SONGS THAT SHOOK AMERICA (AMC).

Past Teachers and Guest Speakers

BETSY KAGEN
Betsy is a documentary and narrative film editor. Her most recent credits include Who We Are Now, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival (starring Julianne Nicholson, Emma Roberts, Jimmy Smits, and Zachary Quinto); The King (directed by Eugene Jarecki), which premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival; My Art (starring Laurie Simmons, Robert Clohessy, John Rothman, Blair Brown, Parker Posey, and Lena Dunham), which premiered at the 2016 Venice Film Festival; and All This Panic, a documentary which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca film festival. Betsy is currently editing a forthcoming documentary comedy special for Netflix.

ALAN OXMAN
Alan Oxman is a documentary film producer and editor. He produced Children Underground (Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary), Page One: Inside the New York Times (HBO Films), and The Punk Singer (Magnolia Films) and was post-production supervisor on Inside Job (Academy Award for Best Documentary 2011). His editing credits include Unzipped (Winner Audience Award for Best Documentary Sundance Film Festival), supervising editor for Control Room (Winner Best Documentary Full Frame film festival) and consulting editor for No End in Sight (Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary).

SALLY ROWE
A New Zealand-born independent filmmaker based in New York. Her Emmy-nominated documentary A Matter of Taste: Serving up Paul Liebrandt won a James Beard Award. The film screened at numerous festivals, including SXSW, Tribeca, and Full Frame, and aired on HBO, BBC’s Storyville and Arte France. Her most recent documentary Old Dog screened at many festivals and is currently available on Amazon Prime. Before directing her own work, Sally served as a script supervisor on numerous independent features, commercials and Comedy Central's Emmy nominated "Chapelle's Show."

What You Will Learn