Perhaps this topic is particularly on my mind because I have recently returned from a trip through Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi where I had a chance to see some of the places which formed some of the most powerful images of the civil rights movement - Little Rock Central High School, the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, and the Lyceum at Ole Miss. Until the moment I saw those places firsthand, I could only imagine them through written descriptions of what happened there and from the still and moving images of what happened at each of them more than half a century ago. Iconic images which tell a story so much more deeply than the written texts or even on-camera interviews which accompany them. They help connect me to a world before I was born, a world it is sometimes hard to believe existed if not for these images as everlasting evidence.

OK, so we talked in Tip # 10 about not submitting at the final deadline.  Part of not waiting to submit late is about planning. Filmmakers are expected to spend a lot of time in planning their documentaries - from researching and planning what you want to film to how you are going to raise funds for it to your shooting schedule and shot list to logs and transcripts to your editing script or EDL to your added materials like music and archival. Often less time is planned for how the film is actually going to get out there. The plan often consists of "Get into Sundance. Get it into theaters. Sell it to a broadcaster. Move on to Next Film."  But even the minority of filmmakers who are lucky, talented, and savvy enough to actually follow through on this plan don't do so without a lot of research and planning.

Docs In Progress Executive Director Erica Ginsberg here.    In the coming weeks, I'll countdown from 10 to 1 of what I consider the most important tips on film festivals.   I will preface my tips by saying that, as an organization focused on documentaries, I am writing with documentary films in mind...and specifically knowing that many of our readers are emerging documentary filmmakers who may be working on their first films and are not necessarily coming out of film school.  That said, I think there are some things which may be relevant to fiction filmmakers and hopefully even more seasoned documentary filmmakers might find a tidbit here and there.  You may or may not agree with all I have to say but that's why I decided to share these on our blog.  Your comments are welcome.  So, without futher ado, let's get started:

Fresh from his Silverdocs reporting, Docs In Progress resident critic, Matthew Radcliff is back with a new reflection on a documentary you can seeon the big or small screen.  This time it's Countdown to Zero, which just opened in Washington (as well as New York and Los Angeles) this past week at Landmark's E Street Theatre.

Docs In Progress is pleased to offer more reflections on films at Silverdocs from guest reviewer Matthew Radcliff.

Docs In Progress was lucky this year to have not one but two people on the ground at Silverdocs. Matthew Radcliff who has been contributing film reviews throughout the year to our blog filed his own report on the festival.

While this is in many ways a continuation of Docs In Progress Executive Director Erica Ginsberg's Silverdocs coverage, she felt it important to give Frederick Wiseman his own blog entry.

Docs In Progress Executive Director Erica Ginsberg has split the duties of Silverdocs reporting this year with Matthew Radcliff from Paignton Pictures.  While both have already chimed in a bit about the conference, what did they get from the festival itself?  First up, Erica...

Erica here for the next installment in Docs In Progress coverage of the Silverdocs Film Festival.  Matthew already provided his perspective on the Documentary Conference and I have few thoughts to add since my work schedule made it difficult for me to attend much of the Conference. The one piece of the Conference I did attend was The Good Pitch which was its second year at Silverdocs. Having seen Docs In Progress alums Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer's project Out in the Silence flourish partially as a result of participating in last year's Good Pitch, I wanted to see how a new batch of documentary works in progress are likely to make a difference.

Silverdocs may be a sweet memory but it is still very much on the mind of those of us in the documentary community. Our amazing film reviewer Matthew Radcliff from Paignton Pictures is splitting the Docs In Progress Silverdocs coverage with Erica Ginsberg this year.  Here comes the first report from Matt spotlighting some of the conference sessions he attended.