We continue our guest blog series in which we ask Docs In Progress staff and alumni to let us in on how they spent their summers.  Next up, Docs In Progress Director of Planning and Special Projects Sam Hampton.

A Summer of Community Outreach

The next installment of our guest blog series in which we ask Docs In Progress staff and alumni to reflect on how they they spent their summers in documentary land€¦ 

Next up, Carolyn Projansky whose film The Fast Lane was featured at a Docs In Progress  work in progress screening in 2005.   She is now at work on a feature documentary, Breaking the Rules about white South Africans who fought against the system in the Apartheid era.  As she continues production, Projansky has started to build her audience and has discovered a new tool to help.

It's a rite of fall for schoolchildren to share with each other how they spent their summer breaks.  We thought we'd ask the same of colleagues in the documentary community by asking some Docs In Progress alumni and staff to reflect on how they spent their summers.  Over the next month, we'll be sharing some of these summer stories. 

First up, Aviva Kempner whose film YOO HOO, MRS. GOLDBERG was shown at a Docs In Progress work-in-progress screening in 2005.  Kempner completed the film earlier this year and, from the sounds of it, this summer has involved lots of travel, but been far from a vacation.

SILVERDOCS begins Monday night and Silver Spring is about to become the world capital of all things documentary.  While I probably won't have much time to blog during the festival itself, I will definitely give my annual wrap-up on the festival and conference.

It is hard to believe that it has been nearly five years since Docs In Progress screened its first two documentary works in progress.  Swing dancing and China's Cultural Revolution were the topics we started with and we have continued to work with a diversity of films and filmmakers through screenings, consultations, classes, and other professional development activities to help them be the best they can be.  While we have not focused formally on helping our alumni stay connected with each other, a few of them have decided to take things into their own hands.  And we couldn't be happier.  Saltanat Berdikeeva, who has participated in a few of our classes and is organizing the first Docs In Progress Alumni Happy Hour, wanted to convey to her fellow alumni why she feels an alumni network is so important.  So we have given her the floor of our blog to reach out.