Core Capabilities - Doc Society

Editorial Experts

Working directly with filmmakers is at the heart of our activities. Since 2005 we have

Funded and executive prodcued 520 brave, determined and talented independent film teams from 75 countries to make their best work.

Regranted $20 million+ to those teams on behalf of private foundations, corporates and public funders to filmmakers.

We are experts at spotting great films, at seeing the potential in first time filmmakers and emergent talent.

We are often the first mover - the first to back a film and give confidence to other funders and distributors to come on board.

We embrace all the complexities that a film can throw up. With one of the best legal counsels in the world for those who need security advice or face active opposition in the courts.

Here is our full film directory where you can search by film title or by film fund or by topic.

We have developed an expertise in the use of film to make social, political and cultural impact. We have done this by consolidating and sharing learnings from hundreds of innovative and determined teams, many who took part in our flagship impact programme Good Pitch.

Good Pitch

These events over 15 years led the field in uniting filmmakers with change makers (NGOs, policy makers, brands, influencers and media orgs) from across civil society to develop impact strategies using storytelling and forge mutually beneficial partnerships.

Maybe you have joined us at one of our 58 events in 17 countries including India, Kenya, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia. They forged hundreds of unique partnerships and raised $34,000,000 for films and their impact campaigns.

Impact Producers

Have you heard of this term? Doc Society coined it back in 2012. It describes a person whose role on a production is to strategise, fundraise, deliver and evaluate the impact work of the film. We love them.

We’ve trained hundreds of Impact Producers through 70+ Impact Labs and those we have trained now train others in every continent.

Impact Field Guide

Over 100,000 practitioners have used our free online guide to help them design and execute film impact campaigns. The Impact Field Guide is available in 8 languages including Arabic, Chinese and Bahasa Indonesian.

Work will start soon on the third edition while we continue to commission and publish case studies so that the learnings made on one film can be shared with all films.

Documentary filmmakers don’t just need help on their individual projects, they need champions to manifest the ecosystem that they can thrive inside.

Beyond individual projects, our work is dedicated to the needs of the field: both short term responsiveness and helping build long term equity, opportunity and effectiveness.

We are known for bringing people together. We believe in radical collaboration to get things done and are committed to lifting up the whole community to solve structural challenges together. Examples of the work include:

We co-created the first comprehensive set of safety guides for independent documentary filmmakers part of efforts to change the culture around risk-taking with both filmmakers and funders. This reflects our reputation for being able to handle the highest risk work.

Global Impact Producers Alliance

We helped grow a community network of 400+ Impact Producers from more than 30 countries. GIPA is a decentralised self-governing entity using Doc Society for fiscal sponsorship.

D.I.S.C.O.
(Decentralised Independent Story Culture Organisers)

This is the steering committee of our sister and brother organisations who organise independent documentary filmmakers in India, East Africa, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil & the Arab Region.

Together we are making ambitious plans for the next 10 years to protect independent voices from government repression and commercial erosion.

To find out more about all our programmes and pilots in field building over the years, take a look at the Doc Society project ecosystem