"We are so much more than our voices. We are our choices." This was just one takeaway from several of the top voiceover artists in the Washington DC region when they came together to speak at a Documentary Roundtable in May 2016 about how documentary filmmakers can work with talent. The joint WIFV/Docs In Progress Roundtable was held in partnership with WIFV's Talent Roundtable.

Koorosh Farchadi (2016 Fellow) went on a whirlwind journey to get behind the science and politics of climate change to hear from everyday farmers who are facing the impact of climate change with resilience.

He recounts the story of a 40-day cross-country production trip while filming his documentary HARVESTS OF HOPE.

AMERICA REFRAMED is one of the best places to see high quality, provocative documentaries on public television. Unfortunately you probably haven't even heard of the series -- much less seen it -- if you live in the Washington DC area. Docs In Progress Executive Director Erica Ginsberg asks why.

Kelley Slagle (2016 Fellow) is co-producing and editing Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons and Dragons -- a look at the artists behind one of the world's most renowned role-playing games.  As an an experienced editor, she offers a perspective on some online tools she has found helpful when collaborating with a co-producer who is based in another city but still wants to be able to access the full NLE project.

Is THE WOLFPACK part of an ethnographic documentary tradition that seeks to display the “strange” for spectator enjoyment? Or does it consistently work against this tradition of depicting its main subjects as human caricatures? Joshua Glick reflects on the film as part of his series of reviews of classic and contemporary documentaries.

Docs In Progress held our first ever Documentary Inspiration Awards on September 29, 2015. The awards took place at the GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington DC and honored Academy Award-nominated collaborators Marshall Curry and Matthew Hamachek. Read the full transcript of the welcoming remarks given by Docs In Progress Board Chair Kiley Kraskoukas and by Board Member Sarah Katz

Our 2015 Filmmaker-in-Residence Jeff Krulik has a career which has taken him from the heyday of public access television to indie cult status as a documentarian honored by MoMA and the Flaherty Film Seminar. During his residency, Krulik has been focusing on media management for his extensive collection of footage and ephemera, in preparation for creating a film archives of his work. It hasn't been easy for this self-described hoarder.  

"As someone sharing the stories of a community to which I do not belong, I feel a heavy responsibility to portray them with accuracy and dignity." Hanna Stawicki (2015 Fellow) has been thinking a lot about the ethical responsibilities filmmakers have towards those they film, as she works on her documentary transmedia project about a Dalit community in Nepal.

June is upon us and so too is the DMV's biggest week of documentary. AFI DOCS returns to the area June 17-21, 2015. This year the festival is showcasing more than 80 films over the course of five days at eight different venues in Silver Spring and Washington DC. These are some of the films and events we are most excited about.

2015 Fellow Emma Mankey-Hidem recently attended several film festivals as part of planning for the life of her own film BLUE RIDGE BARNUM. "The biggest benefit, especially for anyone who will eventually be submitting their own film to festivals, is just to get a sense of what different festivals are looking for."