On 6 and 7 October, the nine teams selected for the first edition of Docs Beyond: Audience, Impact & AI will meet for the programme’s opening online block. It will focus on impact producing and audience development, with two lectures streamed live to the public.
Alongside the public lectures, the selected teams will begin working directly on strategies for their documentary projects with tutors Khadidja Benouataf and Paul Rieth. The Impact Producing group will explore the change their films hope to create and identify potential partners, while the Audience Design & Outreach group will define their audiences and map the communities connected to each film’s subject.
Impact Production: How to make your film spark real change
On Tuesday, 6 October at 11:15 CEST, Khadidja Benouataf will introduce the main steps involved in building an impact strategy. The masterclass will explore how filmmakers can identify suitable partners and funders, connect distribution with a film’s social goals and encourage audiences to take an active role.
Khadidja is an award-winning impact strategist and field builder with a background in journalism. President of Impact Social Club and advisory member of the Global Impact Producers Alliance (GIPA), she develops impact campaigns and mentors filmmakers globally, contributing her expertise to major film festivals and training programs.
Audience Design: Understand Your Story, Know Your Audience
On Wednesday, 7 October at 11:15 CEST, Paul Rieth will examine audience development as a process that begins well before a film is released. He will focus on how a project’s purpose, motivation and positioning can help filmmakers identify their audiences and find meaningful ways to reach them.
Paul Rieth is an audience strategist, marketing consultant and co-founder of GET YOUR CROWD. He has led more than one hundred workshops at international festivals and training programmes. He is the author of DOK & CROWD and leads the Audience Design & Outreach module at Docs Beyond.
Both masterclasses will be streamed live on the Institute of Documentary Film’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. The recordings will remain available for 24 hours.
The programme will continue with a residential workshop in Prague from 25 to 29 November, followed by the final online block from 9 to 11 December. During the later sessions, all nine teams will also work with filmmaker and researcher Dominic Lees on the opportunities and ethical questions that generative AI brings to documentary filmmaking.
Docs Beyond: Audience, Impact & AI is organised by the Institute of Documentary Film in cooperation with the Audiovisual Producers’ Association. The programme is supported by the Czech Audiovisual Fund and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.