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."

by Erica Ginsberg

AFI DOCS is back for its second year under its new moniker (I give it one more year before we stop saying "The festival formerly known as Silverdocs.") While the namechange isn't the only thing which changed, this year's festival (taking place from June 18-22) looks like it is bringing back some of what we loved about the Washington DC area's one and only documentary film festival. Call it AFI DOCS 2.0.

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.

by Erica Ginsberg, Docs In Progress Executive Director

Can you believe this is the 10th anniversary of Silverdocs?   We may think of this as our neighborhood film festival, since the main venues are only a few blocks away from Docs In Progress.  But, in reality, Silverdocs is one of the top all-documentary film festivals in the world.  And that's what we love about it - the global and the local come together.

I

“I spent all my money making my film and have no money left for festivals. Will you please waive my submission fee?”

This is the start of many an e-mail film festival programmers seem to receive while their festival’s submission period is open. While it is likely a true statement in most cases, the question is why? Why are filmmakers not budgeting for outreach as a part of their planning? It is a bit like budgeting to get you through a pregnancy and not saving any money to help feed, clothe, or save for a child’s education.

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:

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.