Submitted by Scottish Documnetary Institute Are you a Scottish-based emerging filmmaker with at least two short films screened publicly (tv broadcast or festival)?  You can now apply to Bridging the Gap PLUS. Bridging the Gap PLUS offers the opportunity to work closely with Scottish Documentary Institute / SDI Productions, through bespoke and individual consultancies, and get a 30 min comm…

"All I can do is really beg you not to go this route" Michael Moore Michael Moore, whose film Sicko highlighted the inefficiencies and unfairness in private healthcare, has warned that the changes are ‘absolutely the last thing you would want to do'. In a passionate six minute tribute, he sounds warning bells over allowing private companies to dominate healthcare, as they are legally bound to g…

Submissions are now open for The Edinburgh Pitch 2011! The Edinburgh Pitch is the only international documentary pitching forum in Scotland, now entering its 5th year and running alongside the Edinburgh International Film Festival (15-26 June). It’s aimed at independent filmmakers and companies developing and raising finance for creative feature documentaries (52′-90′) and considering internatio…

from Scottish Documentary Institute Everything you wanted to know about producing & directing feature documentaries and were afraid to ask. DOC WEEK will run alongside the 64th Edinburgh International Film Festival (16-27 June 2010) and host the annual Edinburgh Pitch, Documentary Case Studies, Doc in Progress consultancies, meetings and briefings with documentary experts, Sales Agents, Distrib…

Vanishing of the Bees released in October, backed with Co-Op commitments for change The rise of socially focused documentaries since the success of Gore and Moore has been partly supported by UK doc distributor DogWoof - who released the Age of Stupid, Black Gold, Burma VJ and now Vanishing of the Bees. Partnering on these last two films with the UK's ethically focussed Co-Op group - the world's…

From Sheffield DocFest: This year has seen Sheffield Doc/Fest receive its highest number of film submissions to date. As a result Doc/Fest has extended the deadline for submitting a film to this year's festival to 6pm, Wednesday 1 July 2009. This gives filmmakers an extra 15 [10 - sorry, Ed!] days to submit a film, which can be completed through Doc/Fest's website www.sheffdocfest.com/view/subm…

From PR Rachel Devenport: Joining the Docs, the pioneering on-demand documentary channel, has today released UK documentary Us Now for free for a limited period via its new website www.joiningthedocs.tv. Us Now is a UK documentary film about the power of mass collaboration, government and the Internet. It is a description of a world on the cusp of the greatest social change since the invention…

Cannes Winner gives masterclass at ECA Sergey Dvortsevoy Comes to Edinburgh: Fri 20 Feb 2009 Scottish Documentary Institute is thrilled to host multi-award winning Kazakh filmmaker Sergey Dvortsevoy in Edinburgh to talk about his work! This really is a one-off masterclass that is not to be missed.

"The day after the war we need a new beginning. Let's start planting seeds of humanity and trust now" Hope Man, Jan 2nd 2009 The Israeli city of Sderot lies a few miles from Gaza and towards the end of 2008 the French TV Station Arté produced 80 short films/vlogs in both Sderot and the Gaza strip where Palestinians and Israelis talk about their hopes, dreams and fears. The last episode of Gaza S…

From Rebecca Day at the Scottish Documentary Institute, news of an incredible-looking series of documentary masterclasses: After well attended masterclasses and workshops with Jim Sutherland, Gaston Kabore and Fernanda Rossi and Andrey Paounov we're anxiously awaiting the visits by acclaimed documentary director Nicholas Philibert, Oliver Hodge (Garbagge Warrior), and Three…

With more sites popping up for raising documentary finance, such as Reel Changes and Reelisor, (not to mention IndieGoGo, IndieShares, Kinooga and the UK's IndieMaverick and MovieMogulFund), a free workshop on making trailers for fundraising from the Scottish Documentary Institute looks just the ticket (thanks Sonja): Not to be missed! A unique opportunity to absorb…