We invited the community to take the text and use it to encourage a ground swell of conversations amongst filmmakers across every region. In a time when public interest media is in jeopardy - from market forces, from big tech, from political pressures - we need to organise. To reclaim our identity. To name and describe the practice of independent filmmaking and why it matters. Only then and only together will we be able to make the case for the resources and the platforms that this field needs and deserves. To imagine and design new infrastructure that will allow citizens everywhere to access this critical genre of storytelling.

In volume one, we have pulled together responses relating to just one theme; what does independent documentary mean to you and why does it matter? The manuscript contains extracts from longer interviews conducted in eight languages and one of the only research projects of its kind that centres the voices of global majority makers.

We will be publishing more volumes over the next year which explore questions of sustainability and funding models, the future of public and corporate distribution, assessment of media industry festivals and markets, how to build better communities and networks, and other subjects. Our aim is to provide a richer and a more diverse set of perspectives on the state of the field and hear where filmmakers are aligned, what they want to see changed and what we might build together.

So far conversations have taken place at CPHDoxs in Copenhagen, at Cannes Film Festival in France, at IDA’s Getting Real in the US, at Sheffield DocFest in the UK. To download the manuscript and host your own event, go to: https://independence-project.org/