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Get On The Doc Bus
Join the adventure this summer as documentary filmmaker and OPEN CINEMA founder & director Mandy Leith makes a pilgrimage across Canada to explore our country’s documentary legacy – past, present and future.
DOCUMENTARY IS IN TROUBLE
Canada has played a leading role in the birth and development of the documentary art form. Today, it’s at a treacherous crossroads. It’s time to meet with documentary lovers and supporters to explore the new territory together, to take the pulse of the industry and put the players on the map.
A CROSS CANADA COMMUNITY SCREENING NETWORK
Traveling from Mile 0 BC to Mile 0 Newfoundland, Mandy will engage community, explore our vast country’s documentary legacy and share OPEN CINEMA’s innovative hybrid event model. The goal? To seed a Cross Canada Community Cinema Network that will connect existing documentary screening programs and community partners from coast to coast to coast.
While many great documentary screening initiatives already exist, there is no shared learning network, no best practices, no online hub to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. We want to help fix that.
The Website Hub: a map-based database
We’re developing a website that will serve as a database of community screening partners. We’re using a WordPress theme that uses Google Maps API to create a map-based directory. You’ll be able to register your organization, choosing from a dozen categories that specify your affiliation with community screenings. Whether you’re an arts org, screening venue, film producer, distributor, non-profit org, food provider, we want to hear from you! Your organization will then appear as a pin on the map, with links, photos and posts associated to it. This will serve to form the beginnings of a grassroots network.
We Want Your Ideas!
We want your input on everything from the name, to how it can serve the documentary community! For now we’re calling it a Cross Canada Community Screening Network. Tell us your thoughts!
If we all work together, we can make this happen and support our struggling documentary industry.
WHAT WE NEED
We want to build community, so that’s why we need you! You can contribute in a variety of ways.
- We want to CONNECT with film lovers, filmmakers and community screening organizers like YOU as we travel across the country. We’ll discuss what’s working, what issues you’re facing and talk about possible solutions using live and virtual technologies. Please contact us to arrange a meeting when the Doc Bus is in your area June – September 2013. We’ll do our best to meet you, based on scheduling and geography.
- We want to create a map-based DATABASE of community screening organizers and stakeholders across the country. This will be a first step towards developing a broad grassroots network as we move forward. To that end we’re developing a website using Google Maps API which will become an online database. The website will launch in early May, when you’ll be able to submit your information to www.getonthedocbus.com. Meanwhile, visit our temporary websitehttp://www.getonthedocbus.wordpress.com
- We need FUNDING to help us make this mapping project happen! We’ll make a pilgrimage across the birthplace of the documentary, so we need money for gas, food, basic living expenses, campsites, a roadie/cinematographer honorarium, website development, social media support, insurance. You can contribute $10, $100 or $1000 or more. Details of our budget breakdown below.
THE DOC BUS BUDGET
Here’s a detailed breakdown of our budget for the project.
The biggest expense is food and living expenses for Mandy and the digital roadies/cinematographers who will join her at different points along the way.
$12,000 covers $100/day for food and basic expenses for two of us for 4 months on the road. And I figure we’ll spend about $3000 on gas. A project like this needs to be filmed as much as possible, so we want to pay someone (or a few someone’s) an honorarium to get on the bus as a digital roadie.
WHAT’S THE WORST CASE SCENARIO?
If we don’t make the full amount during this campaign, Mandy is going anyway, but it might mean she’ll travel alone, or shorten the journey as needed. Your contribution, however small, will help make sure Mandy can go all the way to St John’s Newfoundland, where there are some dedicated documentary fans and committed groups we’d like to meet.
WE HAVE PERKS FOR YOU IN RETURN!
In return for your contribution, we have a bus load of great perks to offer you, including online and offline promotion, custom photos of your favourite spot in Canada and beautiful Get on the Doc Bus 2014 calendars. For bigger donors, we’ll give your logo nationwide exposure by adding it to the bus!
So now that we’ve covered the basics, here’s a bit of background about the rationale for the project…
DOCUMENTARIES MATTER!
Documentary is one of the few genres of investigative journalism we have left. They keep us informed, tell our stories and serve as calls to action. Let’s find ways to keep the documentary industry alive and well. Developing a grassroots network of community documentary screening programs is one step in the right direction.
WHAT’S UP WITH THE DOCUMENTARY INDUSTRY?
Documentaries are hot, people are hungry for in-depth stories about real people dealing with real issues, locally and globally. Judging by the growing popularity of documentaries at festivals, in cinemas and at award ceremonies, the average filmgoer believes the genre is on the rise.
But behind the screen, the changing economic and digital landscape is throwing the documentary industry into crisis. Broadcast documentary strands are dwindling, production companies are closing their doors or retooling and the traditional models of production and distribution are breaking down. This leaves the industry with a lot of unanswered questions about how best to fund, produce and distribute documentaries, utilizing their potential to inform, entertain, and engage in an always-on digital universe.
GET ON THE DOC BUS!
We hope you will join our cinematic pilgrimage as we explore and document the grassroots organizations that are doing their best to weather the storm. Mandy’s goal is to share her passion and experience running ‘one of Victoria’s most successful cultural enterprises.’ (Micheal D. Reid, Times Colonist).
GET YOUR TICKET TO RIDE!
We can’t do this without you, so if you love documentary, please contribute to this exciting movement building opportunity.
If you can contribute financially, every $10 helps. Thank you!
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!
A like or a share is also a great way to support documentary. Please, tell your friends, family, co-workers and film lovers. Documentary needs you!
GET ON THE DOC BUS!
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