by Erica Ginsberg

Change is hard.  We constantly experience it, resist it, and eventually adapt to it.  (If you don’t believe me, how many “New Facebooks” have you complained about in your status update, but never actually quit Facebook as a result?)

There is a new change those of us in the DC documentary community are facing, which has become the subject of many a status update, listserv posting, or water cooler conversation.  And that all relates to a certain all-documentary film festival in our own backyards.  The festival formerly known as Silverdocs.  Or more accurately formerly known as the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival.

That festival is being reborn this year as AFI DOCS.  Or more accurately AFI DOCS Presented by Audi.

ine emerging documentary filmmakers are currently participating in Docs In Progress’ inaugural Fellowship Program. As part of this eight month program, we have asked our Fellows to tell us a little bit more about themselves and their projects through our blog.  

First up is Cheryle Franceschi, a local producer who specializes in environmental education projects through her company Por Eco Productions.  She is at work on a documentary about Maryland’s first state forester.

Meeting and working with Docs In Progress flipped a switch,

so to speak, and they gave me the confidence and solid

direction I needed to become a documentary filmmaker.

It may be hard to believe, but those are the words of Sam Hampton.

This beloved Docs In Progress educator, mentor, and colleague once faced the same question many of our alumni do: Can I do this?  Can I really make a documentary film?  Am I a filmmaker?

Guest contributor Josh Glick, a Film Studies and American Studies Scholar from Yale University, recently had a chance to reflect on the seminal work of the late great George Stoney.

Docs In Progress Executive Director Erica Ginsberg continues her journey through the midwest to learn more about film organizations and communities with a stop in Chicago.